Friends, I have discovered a whole new world of frustration and now I think I understand better why others are frustrated with the look of their FMQ. I do have a question at the end, so please bear with me
I recently bought a used Janome Horizon 7700 because I've dreamt of a bigger throat for years now. I still love my little Janome Magnolia 7318, but we simply don't have room for a longarm or a sitdown mid/longarm, so a big throat machine was what I knew I'd have to get. Great deal too!
So I've heard from many about how the Janome Convertible FMQ foot is awesome, glorious, made of fluffy dream clouds, everything, and it came with the 7700 so I was super excited to try to FMQ on it. I just finished sandwiching a baby quilt for a friend's incoming baby so I started getting the 7700 ready. My 7318 has a hopping foot and I've felt pretty good about my stitch quality and length, and I've quilted many quilts on it from baby to king.
Boy was I ever unprepared for the difference between a hopping foot to a gliding foot. The tension was terrible on my first test sandwich and I didn't realize it at first because I was thinking: gee this feels really weird, maybe this is one of those "sensitive" machines that doesn't like glue basting?? I'm in so much trouble if it won't let me glue baste.... Why is it making that sound? Why does it feel so odd?
When I flipped it over, there were eyelashes everywhere. It was terrible. I could rip a stitch on the back about 3 inches away and just pull the thread straight out. Turns out the auto tension is bad news bears when FMQ and the gliding foot is very particular about the height it's set at. Great. Test sandwhich #2 turned out better, so I gave it a go on the baby quilt.
I broke thread about 4 times in the first 5 minutes. I haven't built a foam insulation topper for the 7700 yet but you bet that's first on my list once there is time! The extension table simply doesn't provide enough space. Using books and boxes around the extension was better but still not great since the quilt still catches on the corners of books. Frustrating.
Ok so here's the worst part: I've always heard people talk about how difficult it is to get consistent stitch length on their machine and I didn't really have this problem. Chalked it up to: 7318 is mechanical, simpler machine, maybe that's what made the difference for me. No! I think it's the hopping vs gliding foot! The gliding foot on the 7700 means there is absolutely no resistance when I'm moving the quilt under the needle. For me, that means sometimes the weight of the quilt in front of me is much harder to control and I can't move my hands smoothly (I've heard about putting a pillow in the lap to take the weight of the quilt, but I couldn't try that since our 2 year old was in the room with me). I also had to reposition my hands much more often. With the hopping foot, it provides a little bit of resistance - enough that I can actually let my hands get more than 6 inches away from the needle and still have control over the quilt. With the gliding foot, it was like trying to guide a slippery eel that was wriggling away from me! My stitch length was wildly inconsistent and boy is that ever frustrating to see.
I knew there would be a learning curve going to a new machine, I just didn't realize what the problem(s) would be and boy it sure seems like it's going to take forever to learn how to use this foot. I've ordered a hopping foot for the 7700 so hopefully that works better
In case it doesn't:
Has anyone gone from a hopping foot to a gliding foot, and other than practice practice, how did you overcome it?