Lisa

You are right its about 9 inches,don't know what I was thinking it Looks bigger then that. Has plenty of room for quilting king size quilts, I Like Janomes.
I Love my Janome 1600_a long arm, and Janome 9500 embroidery.
Both are great machines. Kathy

Katzzz wrote: I thought the 1600 had a 9" throat, like the 6500/6600? I'd love a 16" Janome!

Lisa

well, the day is not over and I've already learned something.

Add that on to everything I learned yesterday in my class with Mary Jo on machine quilting and it's been a great week! And it's only Tuesday!

Lynn

PS: Thanks. Education I love!

My Janome 1600 is a long arm sewing machine was made mainly for just quilting,some may piece thier quilts on this machine but I use mine only for quilting, it has a 16 inch neck for getting your quilts under the neck with out fighting the bulk.
I use my janome 9500 embroidery machine for all my piecing. I like both of my janomes.
I don't use a frame,My janome sets on a large desk stable for quilting.
Long arm machines are ones that have the larger neck plates.

What is a Janome long-arm? I didn't know they made one. I have the 6600 which has a long-er arm .....

I do free motion quilting on a janome long arm. I just finished a nine patch quilt top and I quilted the complete quilt in the ditch in both directions,then I decided I wanted more quilting design, all the pins were removed because it was all quilted in the ditch so this is always nice when you are quilting, I added loop de loops to each little block. Now doing it free hand each loop is not perfect,nothing was drawed out it is all free hand,this is the first time I temped a complete quilt with out a drawed out pattern, Its really is repetition and practice which takes time, I did a simple pattern and knowing each loop is not perfect but boy does the quilting look pretty good! LOL! "If you were to look at it with a fine tooth comb you would see the imperfections." I'll put up a photo later to show you this in my blog easy quilting of "loop de loops". With out a drawed out pattern I think you need to start out on easy designs.
The binding I always do by complete machine. If you were to put one in a show you have to hand sew them because they look for perfection. I frown on this because there is no such thing as perfect, and besides I will never enter a show,I don't want to stress so much and take any of my enjoyment away. I'm my worst critic so close enough makes me very happy. I should have done this or I should have done that,even with this quilt! LOL, each quilt I make its the same tune, Though I'm happy.
Loop de Loops,Kathy

I so much appreciate all of your comments. I'm going to a quilting class in the morning here in Houston. I'll be thinking, thinking, working, and practicing.

What Teri, Dana and others are talking about is muscle memory. Moving your hand over the paper for practice is great. When you sit down(or stand) at your machine, your muscles will remember how they moved.
I can do free motion on the LA but not on my domestic. I think I'm going to learn so that I can quilt on both machines without having to take anything off in order to do my own stuff.
eileenkny

When I started free motion on my bernina I made some practice sandwiches with muslin and batting, about 20-25". and I quilted the heck out of them. I would practice different backgrounds, and write messages, and draw designs and stitch on them. It took alot of practice for me before I felt comfortable actually doing a quilt. (I do not have a BSR). Now when I want to try a new design I draw it out on paper or a dry erase board and practice til I feel comfortable. It's like if I can draw it, I can sew it-- trains the brain or something.

I guess the free-motion quilting stuff is all on the paid part of Sharon Schamber's website. I had some extra $ after selling one of my sewing machines, and used part of the money to join for a year. I think it's well worth the $, but YMMV.

Pat in Rockport, TX

I started to play with free motion quilting 1 year ago after I got a new sewing machine.....my old 22 year old Husqvarna didnt like free motion at all
I did some practice with pencil on paper and found it very usefull, mostly because you will sew yourself into a corner no matter what pattern you are quilting. So by doing the pattern on paper I could make a plan on how to tacle that problem, or any problem, before I went on to do the free motion on my quilts.
BUT, I really do think that anyone can do the free motion if they dare to...you just have to make yourself do it. The first thing I quilted by machine was a single bedspread...I didnt like it at all so I unsew it all before starting all over again :shock:
AND, remember when you are quilting free motion you will not be able to make it look like mine does..or anyone elses eighter, its like handwriting, you will make it with your own signature.
So just go head and play, I promise you its real fun!!!!

Judy, I have a Bernina 150 which is eleven years old, so I don't have a BSR. I have told myself for the past several years that I cannot machine quilt, and I have lots of reasons for it in my mind , and since I won't be getting a new machine for a while, I didn't want to wait any longer and just keep adding excuses to my list.

At retreat, Ricky did demonstrations and talked about it with such ease....of course one of the attributes of a great teacher is that they make you feel like you can certainly do it too. I thought about it a lot after I got home, and so last week I decided to work on it every day for a month and see if I improved. So this first week, I only drew designs on paper (25 pages a day), and then last night I put my first quilting on fabric. It felt very different, especially in being able to move my hands like my mind was wanting to. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but there really was a huge difference after only one week. For the first time, I feel like I can learn to do this. I know there's a lot of different ways to go about it, and I think each person has to find what's comfortable and then do it over and over and over....

And like Teri said, keep those shoulders down....I have a sticky on the front of my machine that says "Breathe" and "Keep Shoulders Down".

Dana in Olive Branch, MS

Lynn,

Actually the advice I have seen more than one longarm quilter give (and domestic quilters that are good at free motion) is that by practicing with pen/pencil and paper that it does train ur hand eye coordination and that skill transfers to the actual quilting process. I think that beyond that what I struggle with is getting the smooth speed down (don't have a BSR here or the ability to have one on my machine). I have to remember to relax, breath and not try to run like a jack rabbit!

Carla

Pat, is that video on Sharon's website in the members area, or on Youtube? I can't find it in the free area, but I may just not be seeing it.