Free motion stippling + free motion outlines around heart appliques

• I used the JANOME CONVERTIBLE FREE MOTION FOOT  to do free motion stippling on some of the blocks. It could have been any free motion design….interlocking hearts might have been fun but I resorted to my tried & tested flop-proof stippling.
• 4 of the bigger blocks were stippled IN THE HOOP using our simply fabulous JANOME ACUFIL QUILTING SYSTEM. I simply keyed in the size of the block in the Acufil Tool in Horizon Link/Suite and the software calculated the size of the area to quilted. I chose stippling but it could have been any number of other quilting styles. I decided to let the harts be the stars of the show & keep the quilting in the background for most of the blocks…..hence white on white quilting for the most part.

Acufil quilting (in the hoop) – here’s a tip: I used white thread & embroidered right over the top of the applique hearts. Afterwards I coloured in the stitching on the appliques with a red permanent marking pen!!

• I decided to do something I have not done very often before! I scanned some of the blocks and took this scanned image into JANOME DIGITIZER MBX software. I used the image to roughly digitize the heart shape – no big deal…..just so that it was there in its correct size so that I could then use the simply awesome Ambiance Quilting feature to add quilting around the heart shape extending out to fill the entire block. I then deleted the heart so that only the quilting would stitch out when I hooped up that block. I saved the design, named it carefully so I knew which block was which, AND printed a template to assist me in getting the placement in the hoop accurate. I used the JANOME ASQ 22 hoop with big magnetic clamps to hold my quilt securely in place while the Janome MC15000 did all the hard neck & shoulder ache producing work for me! Now THAT is what I call wise. All 8 blocks down the center of the quilt were quilted in this manner. Some were stippled, some were echo quilted using a variety of stitches such as stem, triple straight stitch, candlewicking, etc. The top right & bottom left blocks were also quilted in the same way – using micro stippling.

Ambiance Quilting: the top one shows well as I used red embroidery thread for the narrow satin echo quilting. The bottom one was white thread triple straight stitching with tiny spacing between the echo quilting…….all design elements I was able to easily select & edit in Janome Digitizer MBX

• Machine quilting using the JANOME  Acufeed Flex foot. Notice the Serpentine stitch in the pic above. I really like to use this stitch instead of what I think is fairly boring straight stitching. I usually open the stitch up a bit by making the SW the full 9mm wide (on Janome machine models which have 9mm stitches and this stitch). I quite often increase the stitch length setting as well. Doing a test stitch out first on a scrap of quilt sandwich is a good plan as you can adjust the stitch until it is pefect for what you desire for your quilt.

I would not dream of not using the Acufeed Flex foot for this machine quilting. If I am not using the JANOME embroidery machine & hoop (Acufil quilting & more) or Free motion quilting, then quilting with my feed dogs has to be done with the correct tools! If your Janome sewing machine does not have the Acufeed system, please use a walking foot as you will not be happy with the results if the top & bottom of the quilt are not fed evenly…….which is why another name for a walking foot is an even feed foot!