Janome 2212 Front-Loading Sewing Machine with 12 Built-In Stitches

This was a wonderful fit for me as a person looking to try quilting as a new hobby without spending an arm and a leg, and also wanting to avoid the random issues that can come up with electronic machines.Pros:-Setup for (in my opinion) everything you could possibly want to do with the exception of a lot of random "fancy" stitches like swirls and such, which I don't like to use anyway, or embroidery which drives up the price of a machine by a lot lot.- Mechanical not electronic, which makes it less prone to issues, and makes troubleshooting much more straightforward.- Literally the least expensive machine that could be used for quilting that also had a great reputation for being solid and lasting.- Worked well for free motion quilting. Since this comes with standard accessories, needed to get quilting accessories separately. (Note: even with this added expense, it was still much less expensive than alternatives)- Much faster and hardier than the Singer Confidence Quilter that I had used previously (see story in background below), there is even a video online of this machine sewing multiple layers of denim.Things to keep in mind:#1 When purchasing accessories, this little engine that can has a shorter needle and different setup than a lot of its siblings (like the Jem) so be sure to check that accessories are for a 5mm front load bobbin machine - thank you love2sew66 for mentioning this in your review!Lessons learned while free motion quilting with this machine:#1 Buy the Janome Front Load 5 Piece Quilt Kit for $50 b/c it will fit this machine, it has both the free motion quilting foot with a clear bottom and a walking foot. Mine was from Sew Vac Direct. It was really hard to figure out if this would fit while online shopping... fortunately it does.#2 The needles for this machine are shorter than most other Janome machines, so be sure to check that you are getting the right type. Janome Red Tip Needles (Size 14) worked well for me as an all purpose type for heavier materials/ multiple layers.#3 Remember to put the presser foot down when free motion quilting. This sounds silly, I know, but it isn't as obvious as when you are sewing normally, since you don't really see it drop down. If you don't then the tension discs won't engage and you will either get a nest of threads on the bottom of your quilt OR it will look like your top thread tension is too loose and the bottom thread will just look like a flat line with eyelashes.#4 If your thread starts getting caught in the front-load bobbin area, i.e. does half a loop rather than full loop around the hook area, take out the bobbin and replace it with a full one. This usually happened when the bobbin started getting low and is the only reason for my 4 rather than 5 star rating.--> UPDATE: Changed my rating up to 5/5 because this issue seemed to be mostly due to using a poly-blend thread. Made my second quilt using a cotton machine thread and only had a jam like this once in the 80+ hours spent piecing the quilt top/bottom and free-motion quilting the quilt sandwich.#4A: USE COTTON THREAD in this sewing machine. This one worked for me personally: http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Quilting-Thread-White-Each/dp/B000WMGJOM/ref=cm_rdp_product#5 Really hold the thread strings down when you start a new line since it pulls hard at the beginning (probably adjusting the tension) and will unthread itself otherwise. I'll often do the first couple stitches using the wheel to get around the hard pull at the start so everything goes more smoothly.#6 When you move the switch over to raise the the feed dogs after they have been dropped, they will not actually go up again until you turn the wheel/ press the petal to start sewing again. So don't get worried about them not popping up immediately after moving the switch.Background info: I'm more of a beginner/intermediate sewer, my recent experience was borrowing a friend's machine to give quilting a try. Had used a Singer Confidence Quilter machine for a couple weeks before it randomly stopped working during free-motion quilting and gave a beep sequence that the Singer representative indicated is an electrical problem. I've been using the Janome 2212 for about two weeks now for both regular sewing and free motion quilting. Just finished a crib sized quilt, well, finished save the edges ;) which is the last step. Hope this review helps some of the other beginners!--> Update 8/8/12: Have now used this machine for the last couple months and have logged 100+ hours in use. Used the walking foot on quilt edging, the darning foot for free-motion quilting, and regular foot for piecing

I looked for a machine to do simple tasks as I use to do as I grew up with my grandma's 1930th shuttle knock-off copy of Jones Family CS made by nascent Red Russia industry (I would dream to have this machine back!). I prefer to fix pants length and jacket sleeves myself as it's easier for me to do it to my liking then to explain it to others. Also kids' stuff needs occasional small fixing before it's ready to be replaced. So, I looked for something simple and inexpensive, but functional and dependable. I saw good reviews on Janome 2212 (it's relatively small brand - that also original manufacturer for some other brands, including top-of-the-line names like Bernina) that not cared by major US brick-and-mortar stores, at least not in my city. Amazon had a good price on it and I placed an order.Here the 5 star review starts.First - service:As it arrived (a day before estimated delivery date - no complains :)) I found that - already good - price dropped by anther $29.80. So, I contacted Amazon customer service (on-line) and asked to call me back. I got call a few seconds after I pressed "submit" button, and within 5 minutes (and without any hard pressure on my side) I was issued a refund on this amount - looks like Amazon has policy to refund difference if price dropped within 7 days upon product delivery!So, I opened machine and used it for a day and noticed some problems that made me concerned that it may be factory refurbished or damaged unit (it had surface marks and scratches and twice locked the needle). I contacted Amazon again and asked what should I do as I want to keep the machine. They offered a replacement. They organized UPS pick-up from my porch for the next morning and sent replacement by FedEx the same day, so I received it just a day later! The service is well above my expectations!As for Janome 2212 itself - it's a solid no thrill mechanical machine that makes routine sewing tasks easy (I have no expertise to talk about complex tasks). The speed is varied by floor pedal pressure the same way gas pedal in a car control acceleration and easy to get use to by any casual car driver, as majority of Americans are (but it has no "break" pedal, so if you running "high speed" sewing it will make a few stitches after you'll release the pedal). It has reverse switch, but it can't be fixed - you need to hold it all the time when doing reverse (it's my only functional complain). It has enough variations in types and length of stitches to cover all non-decorative (and, presumably, some decorative) tasks, but so far I used just default. I feel it can compete with my old Grandma's machine in durability (I sewed through multi-fold denim edges with little if any hesitation!) and even offer some advantages as free-arm and electric power (early 21st century vs. early 20th :)).It's a basic, but not the simplest machine from Janome. But going even more basic will not give enough monetary advantage to be worth of - to save anther $20 or $30 (it's when not on the sale price) you need to sacrifice variable stitch length (important future!) and a few stitch types. Going up - to get "heavy-duty" or top-line electronic machine - it's almost to double price (or go much above), for futures that one may or may not needs (I don't), on potential account of reliability (it's a general rule: giving the same part quality, more complexity comes on account of reliability, and has nothing to do with Janome quality control specifically). So, I'm very comfortable with build and price/value balance on Janome 2212 model.