Quilting on a Hoop Frame Pro with a Janome 8200

I've recently moved my Janome 8200 to my Hoop Frame Pro to give me more space for quilting. See how much more I can quilt and what's changed in my quilting process:

What is the biggest difference quilting on a Janome 8200 verses a Janome 1600?

Space! The biggest difference is being able to quilt almost 8 inches of vertical space on the quilt.

On the Janome 1600, I had around 5 1/4 inches of vertical space. 

On the Janome 8200, I have almost 8 inches of vertical space. 

This vertical quilting space is very important because it determines how big of a quilt block or border I can stitch across in one pass. This is the difference of quilting this border in one go verses having to shift and re-clamp it two or three times.

I can comfortably quilt up to a 7 1/2 inch quilt block or border on the 8200. On the Janome 1600, I could only quilt up to 4 1/2 inch quilt blocks or borders. Anything bigger and I'd have to stop, unclamp, shift, then re-clamp the quilt.

This is the biggest criticism of the Hoop Frames - having to stop and shift the quilt is time consuming and with a small machine on the frame it can feel like you're spending more time shifting / clamping than actually quilting.

But this issue is solved by using a bigger machine on your frame!

And just in case you're wondering, you can put any of the following longarm machines on this frame too:

Qnique 19

Qnique 16X Elite

You know the best thing about the Janome 8200? It is compatible with all three of these awesome accessories! I plan to add QCT to my Hoop Frame Pro soon and I can't wait to use a computer to stitch out beautiful designs on my quilts.