This past week was one I’ll never forget. I was invited to attend the first Janome Education Summit in Park Ridge, New Jersey to meet some amazing people and learn some awesome new things about what Janome has coming up! The Janome Education Summit consisted of Janome Educators, Artisans, and Makers–generally a group of the most amazing people, packed with three days of classes and collaboration.
It had been about 7 years since I had flown anywhere, and I was REALLY nervous about getting on a plane and leaving my 1.5 year old, but once I made it to NJ, I was SO excited to be there! I’ve been working with the amazing people at Janome America for almost three years now, and had never really gotten the chance to visit with them for longer than 5 minutes. We had a nice meet and greet to kick off the first night there, and the opening remarks were made by Janome’s new National Spokesperson-Kimberly Einmo.
Kimberly taught a great class showing us the HP foot and needle plate for the MC 9400 and we made a really cool block using her Flying Geese ruler (it virtually eliminates ALL waste) and a design roll of her new Solid-ish line of fabrics. If you’ve never taken a class with Kimberly, I highly recommend it. She is so inspiring and has such a genuinely fun personality!
I’ve been using the Quarter inch foot for precision sewing on my MC9400 and had never thought to try the HP foot and needle plate. Total game changer!!! If I thought my seams were accurate before, this foot is even more precise.
Amy Johnson of Amy’s Quilting Adventures demonstrated a set of rulers for ruler work on the domestic sewing machine. Amy provided all of the attendees with a printed piece of fabric to practice our ruler work on. I had never tried to use rulers (except maybe a straight edge) on a domestic sewing machine, but these rulers from Janome are so versatile and fun to work with. Here’s a picture I took of Amy’s sample quilt she quilted–and it’s AMAZING!!!
And this is my very first try at ruler work on the MC9400–it’s definitely one of those things you have to practice a few times. And some tools that would be good to have on hand–grab a Supreme Slider for the bed of the machine and some quilting gloves to keep your rulers from sliding.
The second night at the Janome Education Summit, we had a pajama party and worked on some of our group quilt blocks that each attendee designed and brought with them to the summit. We were also treated to Liz Thompson (Janome Canada) showing off the awesome quilt binder attachment to save time and fabric when binding quilts!
Liz has the best sense of humor and is such a fun person to chat with! I can’t wait to start using the quilt binder–you only have to sew the binding down once–no stitch and flip to do the other side!
On the second day of Janome Education Summit, Sheryl and Rachel from Shannon Fabrics brought us some delightful Shannon Cuddle and Embrace blanket kits. They shared some super soft fabrics with us and walked us through a blanket pattern that seemed like it would take all day–but we finished them in under 2 hours with the quilt as you go method!
My daughter already claimed the blanket I made–I selected a kit in bright turquoise and teal with grey accents in double gauze and cuddle, and Gemma promptly ripped it away from me as soon as I got home 🙂
Eileen Roche from DIME (Designs in Machine Embroidery) shared with us her amazing software to customize our own fabrics called My Fabric Designs–and it’s so much fun to play with. I already have plans to create some custom fabrics for some bag linings to include my logo and colors–and there are so many fabric substrates!
We were also treated to a lesson in the Acusketch app from Janome by Tamara Kate (a Michael Miller Fabrics Designer). Tamara is so talented and her fabrics and quilts are absolutely gorgeous! I was blown away by what the app is capable of, but you can make drawings within the app and transfer them to the MC15000 to be embroidered on your fabric. Essentially, you could have your child draw something special and have it forever preserved as an embroidery design (that’s what came to my mind when I was playing with it–but of course it could be utilized in countless other ways!)
The Janome America team surprised all of the attendees with a dinner cruise on the Hudson River, touring New York City. The weather was wonderful and the sunset was just breathtaking.
To wrap up our final day at the Janome Education Summit, our last class was led by Heather Peterson of Girl Charlee to make a quick and elegant pencil skirt with Janome sergers and coverstitch machines. Heather shared all of the knit substrates offered on the site (holy cow, there are a LOT!), and provided each attendee with a pencil skirt kit. I thought there was no way we could go from start to finish in under two hours and have a completed skirt, but we did! We also got a sneak peek and got to use the new Janome serger that will be out shortly–I was squealing with delight!
I selected a super cute blue floral knit from the kits Heather brought for us, and it turned out so cute! Trish from Trish Stitched posed for a quick picture with me with our finished skirts 🙂
Every moment of the Janome Education Summit was jam packed with great information that I can’t wait to share with you in future posts. I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention the swag bag–I literally had to fill an entire suitcase with nothing but goodies from all the sponsors and contributors (A huge thank you to all the sponsors!!!). I think the plane flying me home was struggling with that extra load! There were so many talented Educators, Artisans, and Makers in attendance, and each person has so many inspiring things to show with their Janome sewing machines! Thank you so much to Janome America for hosting such a wonderful and inspiring event.
