I didn't know that Janome made Kenmores. I have a very old Kenmore thats over 30 years old. I don't use it and have planned on giving it to my daughter but maybe I should rethink this idea lol

my machine model is 18221. one of the ladies i sew with told me about it. when i ordered the plexiglass sewing table for quilting it had janome on the box. if more people knew they could save alot of money. I STILL HAVE MY FIRST SEWING MACHINE FROM THE 60'S. it's a kenmore in a cabinet, but i don't think it's a janome. :D i love quilting !! lil

I can tell that you are a new to sewing.You have been given a lot of information here - a lot to digest.Very good info too. But, you are wrong in the idea that you can not get special feet for the Brother machines from Wal-Mart. I have a Brother from Wal-Mart. It is a good little machine, I use ALL of my feet from my old machine, and my other machine on this Brother. Once you figure out if you have a high or low shank machine - you can even buy specialty feet from Hancock Sewing at a very reasonable price. I have not found a foot I can not use on it, you MUST find out if the shank is low,high. or slant. Yours is most likely a low shank - most of today's machines are.

All Kenmore machines that start with model # 385. are made by Janome.

This item# 200315122009 on ebay should fit your machine. I would post the link but it was exceptionally long!

Go To Brubakers, call their 800 number and they will tell you if the foot below is for you. This is the open toe for low shank, but they also have a closed toe for low shank.
http://brubakerssewing.com/store/ind...low-shank.html
If you tell them that you belong to the Janome yahoo group, or if you order on line, they will give you 15% off.
Tell them Diana sent you,...(I don't work for them or receive any discounts). I order from them quite often and I have always received great customer service.
Diana

What is a stitch in the ditch foot?

It is a foot that guides your stitching when you use "stitch in the ditch" for your quilting technique. You basicly are quilting over the seams of your patchwork.

I purchased a Brother from Costco to haul around to Guild etc. but I wore it out in a year. Bought a Janome and love it! The low shank feet from the Brother also fit perfectly on my Janome. I had a plastic darning foot but purchased a metal one for under $20 when I took a class from Jill Schumacher, "Quiltmaker to the Queen."

http://www.quiltmakertothequeen.com/INDEX.HTML

She has stencils, feet, patterns, and teaches great classes

A stitch in the ditch foot has a bar in the center rather than the right side.

If your walking foot has a very small stitch, it could be one of 2 things. Your fabric is too heavy in the front and it doesn't have a chance to feed through at the proper feed. Hold the fabric up so the walking foot isn't doing all the work. Or it could be foot pressure. SOme of the sewing machines has knob at the top that will put more pressure on your foot giving it a chance for even feed.
I hope this helps.

That explanation makes sense. For the future, I will try to lift up the fabric more and see if that helps. I haven't machine quilted a lot, but always make sure to get a low loft batting so it's not thick.

I've only eyeballed the stitch in the ditch, didn't realize there was a foot for it.