New Quilting Design and New Machine Prices

Published: Wed, 08/18/21

Leah here this week!

I have a fun new quilting design for you called Sun Burst. This design is a series of steps, but once you memorize the sun side, the rest is easy as you’ll see in the video:

Free Motion Quilt Sun Burst on a Home Machine, Design #516

Learn more about quilting Sun Burst:

Difficulty Level – Beginner. This quilting design does have a lot of steps, but the quilting itself is simple – start with the half circles on one side of your quilting space, then travel inside to echo and fill with Cat Hairball Filler. If you wanted your circles to look more consistent than mine in the photo above, consider using a ruler like the 2-inch Circle Ruler. This will quilt the initial, outer circle shape, then you can free hand quilt (no rulers or marks) to form the inner echo.

Design Family – Edge to Center. This design is formed by stitching the suns on one side of your quilting space, then the wiggly flames along the opposite side. This makes free motion quilting designs in this family easiest in long, narrow spaces like sashing and borders.

Where to Quilt It? – I think this would look awesome as a quilt border design or through wide sashing in the middle of a summer table runner. You could even mix up your colors of thread to make one side yellow and the opposite side orange or red. Just remember changing thread colors will add more time to your project, but sometimes a little extra time is worth it for the boost of bright colors.

Machine Prices Increasing September 1st

Unfortunately, we have some bad news about machine prices coming up very soon in September. We've just received notice from Janome America about the massive increase in the cost of container shipping across the Pacific.

Janome machines are made in Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Last year a container of sewing machines would cost around $2500 to ship across the ocean. This year the shipping price has jumped to $23,000 per container!

Quite apart from the increased cost, we've also been struggling to get machines and accessories in stock regularly. Here is a list of exactly what we have on hand and can ship you today:

Janome Horizon 8200 - 2 In Stock - Current Price $1999.00

This machine has a whopping 11-inch harp space and comes with a massive variety of presser feet and decorative stitches. The 8200 is a great choice for frame quilting (you'll have around 7 inches of vertical quilting space on a Hoop Frame), piecing, or applique. Click Here to learn more.

Janome 1600P - 2 In Stock - Current Price $1199.00

This machine is a high speed, straight-stitch only machine with a 9-inch harp space. I've been using this machine on my Hoop Frame Pro for the past few months and found I had around 5 1/4-inches of vertical quilting space, which isn't much, but the higher speed and solid straight stitch really makes up for it! I personally love piecing on this machine because the 5 mm wide feed dogs make piecing an accurate 1/4-inch seam a breeze. Click Here to learn more.

Janome Memory Craft 9850 - 1 In Stock - Current Price $1899.00

This is a small, sturdy entry level embroidery machine, capable of stitching up to 1000 stitches per minute (embroidering up to 800 stitches per minute). This machine is a great choice for quilters wanting to dabble with embroidery designs and I was delighted with the sizes of hoops that come with this machine - 6.7" x 7.9" and 5.5" x 5.5." The bigger the hoops, the more fun you can have with your designs! Click Here to learn more.

Janome HD1000 - 1 In Stock - Current Price $329.99

This entry-level sewing machine would be a great choice for a workshop / travel machine or a basic machine to start your child or grandchild sewing. The 5 mm wide feed dogs are a great fit for quilters wanting to piece accurately. The HD1000 is compatible with all of our low shank feet, so you can pick up my favorite piecing foot and see a great improvement in the accuracy of your seams and triangle points. Click Here to learn more.

Right at the moment, I'm honestly not sure when I will get more of these machines in stock. The last time I ordered 8200 and 1600 machines, they took 6 months to arrive!

Trust me, this is as frustrating for dealers like us as it is for you. Josh and I just wanted you all to be aware of the upcoming price increases with Janome and what we have on hand and can ship to you right now.

And one last update with some good news - yes, I'm still pregnant! Josh snapped this pic of me last week. I wanted to be able to park in this spot at the grocery store for 4 years and as silly as it sounds (and probably looked), I wanted a picture to remember it.

After giving me a very challenging month of July in which every day I thought she was coming, our daughter seems to have decided to chill out and be a typical Day - very punctual.

We are nearing the end and every day we're closer to her due date. I'm pretty uncomfortable, but happy and excited and so so grateful our baby will be here soon.

I hope you have a marvelous quilting week and will be looking for our next newsletter, which may very well have pics of our little girl not in my belly!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day