Janome Horizon 7700 review

Hi ladies (still pretty sure there's no guys here!)

I've had a fairly eventful 2 days so thought I'd pop in and update you all, I think I'll do it over a few posts today though or you'll be sick of me!

First off "The Beast", which is my loving name for the monster of a sewing machine I now have, is rocking my world. She is a Jenome Horizon 7700 and she was made to kick quilt butt!
A little background is needed here.
When I was a dinky dot of a girl, I used to go to my Nana's house (mums mum for anyone not familiar with the term Nana) and watch her magically whip out pretty dresses, PJ's, dressing gowns in fact anything my little girl self could want, on her sewing machine. I have distinct memories of getting told off for skipping with her measuring tape! This outstanding lady had the patience of a saint and eventually taught me to sew on her magical machine. She never worried I'd sew my fingers together (unlike my mum who still panics when she see's me sewing :D) or flipped out when I broke a needle (wrong stitch and foot combination - still do that!) She just calmly pointed me in the right direction and sat next to me while I spent hours sewing up dolls clothes or little lavender love hearts...can you guys tell my Nana is one of my all time bestest people?
Anyway she ended up gifting me that machine about 18 months ago and it has been a little work horse. All of my quilts to date have been pieced and quilted on it and she loves seeing them, which you know gives me that warm fuzzy feeling :) So here is a pic of my much loved "New Home" machine

Yes if you send a business card or anything like that with bee blocks they go on my happy wall, I'm such a geek!

Now while I love this machine she is loud! Stick a walking foot on her and it will wake up the neighbours, hence the tea towel under her, she also doesn't have much throat space for quilting and lets face it she was getting quite cantankerous in her old age. The latest habit was changing stitch programs while I was sewing, I'd start a seam in straight stitch and finish it in a zigzag... interesting yes, helpful no. So it was time  to retire her and upgrade :D

Obviously this is a new toy for 'Bella

So some more pics :)  -

It comes with a rather large extension table, having not used one before I find it really helpful. It has a knee lift but I can't find a comfortable way of using it yet (think i'm smaller than most Janome users, it's miles away from my knee lol) 

A massive amount of stitches (yeah I know most of them won't get used lol) I now have the ability if not the inclination to do 18 types of buttonhole's 

The clear bobbin cover is something I really liked in my old machine so it was a bonus to have a clear cover on this machine. The built in thread cutter saves time and messing about too.

This is how the display shows you whats going on, stitch type, length, foot, foot pressure and thread tension are all shown here.

This is the interface, if you've ever used an iPod you'll walk this! Turn the wheel and click the middle button to select, or use the fancy pants touch screen.

Free arm for sewing things I've not tried sewing yet :D

This beast comes with a shed load of feet and I admit having to look some of them up in the book because I'd never seen them before! The duel foot is good and a shock to my ears after experiencing my old walking foot-Its soooo quiet! Most importantly it works really well. I used it to sew up my little apples quilt and it was a dream the only thing I had to remember to do was change the foot pressure.

The only issue I have so far pops up with the 1/4" foot and going over seams. When I've been playing and had it going over 4 or more seams it kind of wobbles off course. Not too bad if you can anticipate it but a real pain if you don't watch what it's doing.

All in all I think if I left a loaf of bread and some tea bags next to The Beast I'd come back to tea and toast it is that good.

If anyone is thinking of getting this machine and wants me to try out a feature let me know and I'll blog it for you. For what I want it to do it is outstanding and I think it will allow me to take my sewing in new directions, so I'm a happy lady!