Janome Continental M7
 

Just wondering if anyone has seen/tried this new machine....and what does it cost? Would love to have that much throat space!

I had not seen this machine until reading this thread. It looks amazing. I like that the screen is above the work area instead of the side. My only frustration with my Skyline 7 is that occasionally when bunching a quilt, the quilt touches the screen and can change the stitch. It’s not all the time so it’s a minor nuisance but... I don’t need a new machine, anyway. I’ve had my Skyline less than a year. I love it compared to my old smaller Brother machine.

$8000 is the MSRP, or at least that's what folks are reporting on Janome's FB page. Have not yet seen what the street price is.

There was a photo posted somewhere on the group that had a closeup of the stitches, and they were not very good. I'll try to find the thread.

if you look at Janome's site and scroll down to see the photo of the stitches, you'll see what I mean. The site claims they are the "heirloom" stitches, but they look pretty darned wonky to me.

look at the black menu bar on the right of the touch screen.
you will see a little icon shaped like a key.
i believe this is the settings lock icon.
while it's active, your settings can't be changed until you unlock it.

Thank you, PatriceJ! I will try that next time. I’ve used it to lock it when away from the machine so my daughter doesn’t touch it but I didn’t know if I could sew while it was locked. I suppose I should have looked in my manual. 😄

I hadn't looked closely enough to notice the quality, or lack of quality of the stitches. The harp space just knocked me out. Thought the name sounds a little pretentious. Anyway, at $8,000 I think I'll stick with my Janome and my old Kenmore a bit longer!

I tried the M7 at the Sewing Expo a few weeks ago. For the money, I is not worth it for me, particularly if the stitches are wonky. I did not check the stitches closely....other ladies wanted a try. I did check the stitch sample on Janome's site and all of their "heirloom" stitches were wonky. It has some new features and looks to have a huge throat space....but my Janome 8900 and Janome 15000 have a little over 11".....so 2 inches and an automatic throat plate exchange are not worth paying $8000 or a little less. If you measure your throat space....I have a S7 too, is it worth $8,000 for 5.5" more to the right of your needle? Will that 5.5" make that much difference in quilting your quilts? If throat space was a problem for me, I would look for a mid arm machine. Just my thoughts. Janome makes great machines that last a very long time with no issues. Stitch quality is more important to me than the throat space. I think they missed the mark on this one.

One thing about the new high end do all machines of any brand; the updates for it are usually around $700 or more per update. There are great deals to be had on trade ins for the newest machine. It pays to stay one step under the newest. There will always be a newest.

My local shop is selling it for $5999.99. The stitches should be the same as the earlier versions. I don't think a longer bed should effect stitch quality.