New to this thread
 

New to this thread - again
 

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to edit my first posting to delete the attachment - redundant.

Nita in COOL Florida

Very nice quilt. If you go to emblibrary.com and I know that Viking both have alot on the best stablizers to use for different projects. They've actually tested them and sometimes show you the results of the test. The one thing that I have learned is that the sharp needles work best for FSL and heavy water stablizer. I save my scraps of stablizer and then when I need to double the thickness or do a repair on the stablizer while in the hoop; I spray a little of JT Spray adhesive (from Walmarts) and attach it. Works great and it helps save on stablizer cost. I've been doing FSL and wanted to use the cone thread since I didn't need it to have that shine that rayon has so after a lot of frustration and thread breaking I use a 14sharp needle with the Ultra Solvy water soluable stabilzer and then set my machine to go slower as an added measure of success. It turns out great and it is a lot cheaper to use that thread for things like that. I'm getting ready to make some battenburg lace doilies for my friend and I'll use that type of thread which will also hold up better. A month ago I wouldn't have done it because it was so frustrating. I'm new as well and I have taken a few classes from my LQS but such a long way to go. Any of you who are live close to Raleigh NC, they are having a sewing/quilting expo in June and they have some embroidery classes that sound like a good thing to have. I'm taking mostly quilting because now that my piecing is doing fairly well I want to start the quilting/binding process. I do plan on doing at least one embroidery class and hopefully 2; they have them on the software part as well. Check out some of the sites for info on the stablizers; it helped me alot.

I would be very interested in having the Embroidery chats all in one place. I do a lot of quilting and have just recently started incorporating embroidery with my quilting. Love doing both. They are very related so feel that a spot for embroidery would be great. Love this site and have learned so much and look forward to learning more.

I have Janome 9000, which does not allow downloads - have to buy the cards which are very expensive. Took me years to take the time to figure out how to do the writing, though it's not difficult when you focus on process. Use it for quilt labels now. Have used various designs but don't have any on hand to show. Would love to upgrade, but can't justify the expense. Have fun with yours!
Oh, and I often use the quilting designs on small quilts - they come out really nice, but larger capacity would be great. Bet you can do it on yours.

"new to this thread"..I have the '02 AND the '03 ULT for 9 yrs and I just learned last yr to put my designs on floppies at the computer..!! Up to then I had only been saving them to the floppy from my machines. How dumb is that? Now I find transferring to the floppy is quicker than opening the software & writing to card. Do others with ULT's use their card or floppies more??

This thread is amazing. I have had my embroidery machine for about three years and barely know how to use it. I love designs and have way too many - sort of like my fabric addiction. Anyway I have several types of stabilizer as well. Along with all of the stuff I have very little knowledge so enjoy very much learning.

My machine will use the card, flash drive or direct connection to the computer to transfer designs. I like the flash drive best. I bought the conversion software and some software to load the card. They cost too much and do no editing but will resize the designs (additional software purchase was required). I would like more information on software that does a little editing, conversion and not too expensive.

Also my machine is somewhat picky about thread. I found this great "deal" online and the thread did not work well at all. It shred so it was not usable. Not a good "deal" at all...just wasted money on that purchase.

Hope they will someday make a separate place for the embroidery. I use it with my quilting. I usually incorporate the embroidery style quilting in all of my smaller projects. Haven't got brave enough to try it on a quilt but use embroidered blocks in quilts.

Thank you for sharing your expertise.

I just bought a Babylock Sophia 2 and love it! I have been embrodering many tee shirts and baby clothes for the grand kids. I wasnt sure how I would like embrodery, and was mainly wanting fonts when I purchased this machine. As others have mentioned, the more I get into embrodery, the more I wish I had a machine that could do larger designs. Getting the right stabilizer is still confusing, especially on knits, but it is a learning process. Hope this thread will continue with lots of hints and tips! Thanks for starting it!

Hi SingerSewer, with your thread did you try different needles. Sometimes that makes all of the difference even though I know that a lot of machines are picky. It has taken me from Christmas to this past month to get my machine to FSL using the polyester cone thread because the projects that I was attempting to do didn't warrant me using the more expensive thread. After a lot of hair pulling and reading and playing, I finally got it to work by changing the needles and slowing down the machine; not sure if I need it to be slow but it works so unless I'm in a hurry I'll not change it. I too have tons of designs downloaded and slowly getting them organized into folders. I'm lucky because Viking does supply you with a small software package with the machine that allows you to see what your designs are and do a few other things. I was surprised to hear on here how many machines come with nothing. There is a software that I'm going to download as soon as I finish setting up my new pc. It's called ERA Universal; it's free unless you want a copy of the CD then it's $14.95. It is supposed to do everything so you might want to check it out. I agree that it would be great to have our own place to go but it would be great if it was incorporated here since I use mine in quilting as well and I wouldn't have to go to another forum but either way; it would be great. I know that if you go to yahoo there are alot of groups up there; alot of them are based on what machine you have but Ihaven't went up there; yet.

No, I don't think you are off base. I would like that idea too. thank you for thinking of that.

Looks great on pic. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="1" width="1">



<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" undefined="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" allowscriptaccess="always" height="1" width="1"></object><object width="1" height="1" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="undefined" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed width="1" height="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" undefined="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" allowScriptAccess="always" allowscriptaccess="always" /></object>:)

It seems there is a lot of support for having a separate place for this discussion. By the way, I'm suggesting this for the Quilting Board, not an off board site...similar to the Vintage Machines site and "recipies" and general chit-chat, etc. I for one, would still be on the quilting discussions, because that's what I do most. But I've found this discussion to be very valuable as I am a beginner as far as embroidery goes. And I would never have bought the machine if I didn't intend to use it in quilting. I'm interested in learning to do actual quilting with it on small quilts.

I've ordered the Stitch Era Universal CD and it should be here tomorrow. I hope I don't have any problems downloading it. I think there is a site to help with that. Anyone have that program? Do you like it? If I don't like it, at least I haven't wasted too much money on it!

I have the 830 and love the machine. There is a learning curve, but I truly find the machine very easy to use.
Would be happy to answer any questions.
Donna

I'm getting the ERA this weekend but if you just type in Era universal into google you can pull up their site. Since it's free they say the only support they have is basically a FAQ online tech thing. For the price (free w/out CD) you can beat it. It's supposed to do it all. Let us know how you like it. I have a small version of 5D that came with my Viking. Next month the Viking educator is coming to our LQS where I bought mine and they'll load the big software package onto my pc and let me hook it up to my Ruby and teach us all kinds of things that we can do. The class is only $10 so it is really worth it. I want the big package to really get into creating and redesigning but want to wait until I'm a little more organized and ready to take the classes for it. So this will be a start along with my monthly classes that I get with my machine. I agree; I like the embroidery link to a part of this board since I also like to quilt and want to do them both together.

All machines have a learning curve. Check your area to see if you have a dealer and how much classes are. Even if you don't buy from them you can take their classes. Mine is Viking and they'll teach anyone with any machine and it's $40 a year plus monthly cost of supplies. I think that is a great deal to learn.

romanojg, thank you for the info on changing needles. Do you mean to change the size of embroidery needle - 70 or 80? I usually keep the speed about midway so will try slowing down. I have been using the "deal" thread on the bobbin. That let's me match the top thread and so far, so good! I have two Baby Locks - ellure plus and ellageo. I bought the ellure plus then decided I wanted a larger design field. I really like both of them but mostly sew on the ellure plus. I have several things I want to embroidery so I may set them both up to embroidery and drag out my older Pfaff machine. It sews well.

SingerSewer, Yes, the 70 or 80. Plus if you are doing the FSL the sharps work better than the embroidery needles because it doesn't cut the stablizer so for the cone thread instead of the sharp size 11 needle that is recommended for rayon I use the sharp size 14 and it made so much difference. I got the Viking Ruby because I knew that I'd want the larger hoop size as well and I find that I'm using the 360 x200 most of the time; I normally put several designs in it to save time. I like the stablizer on the roll but it's a little narrow so I run blue painters tape along one side to give just enough width to it to make it stay in the hoop better and then put the clips on the hoop as well. Now I want to see when they have the next endless hoop class so that I can take it. The hoop is alot cheaper thru Amazon than at the LQS. I normally end up using my other machine to piece with as well.

romanojg,
Using the Madeira or Sulky thread there are no issues...just the thread I got the "great" deal on! I always use the embroidery needles so might try a sharp.

Does anyone ever find the designs will sometimes have so many stitches that they get thick in places?

I just looked up the ERA program. It looks like it does a ton of stuff. More then I really want but I like the idea of being able to resize things and the lettering stuff looks good too. So I will probably download the free version.
I also have a question. On HSN they have the Brother PC770 for $799. Looks like a great machine. Since I have the smaller Brother this might be just the thing I need to be able to do larger designs. I have seen a few of you have this, machine. Is this a good price and do you like the machine? It only comes with the 5x7 hoop (if you have the machine) do you know if we can get the 4x4 hoop for it also?
Wow you all are a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing. This is a very popular thread and moves fast. Hopefully they can at least pin it to the top for us. I too still look at all the other forums.

Hi,
I have a Janome 300e, embroidery only machine and have had it for a little over a year. I love, love, love it!!!! Every quilt that I make now I have to put some type of embroidery on it. Here are a few of the quilts I have made and a bag for my grand-daughter. I bought the Janome Digitizer MBX program to learn how to digitize my own designs and I am taking the online classes by Trevor Conquergood. He is very good a teaching the program. Embroidery is just so much fun.

Love Angels, check out Allbrands online. I think they had it for $599. Sometimes they give you "extras" and then tack more money onto the machine.

http://www.allbrands.com/categories/152

It's in the right hand column going down almost half-way.

Great thank you I will go check it out.

Do you mean the PE-770? I have one and I love it. I got it from Mr. Vac and Mrs. Sew and it came with an extra set of hoops, a bunch of thread, and other little goodies for a little bit less with free shipping. I bought it from their store on eBay when I realized they had a shop not far from me. They are really great folks and dependable. Worth a look I think. As for the machine, I love it. No problems except the needle threader but that will get taken care of when I bring it in for the annual tune up.

Fab-ra-holic that is awesome work! Love the blankets and the tote is awesome! Good job!:thumbup:

Fab-ra-holic, beautiful work! Did you do the denser designs on the quilt before you quilted it?

Thanks Donna. I may contact you if I get it and get stuck!

Thanks quilter momma. It is a Great price (half off list) so I can hardly resist. Appreciate your feedback.

YES! Would love to have a machine embroidery section. Many quilts have embrodiery designs for that "special touch".

I would also love to see an embroidery section.

I have a Bernina 630. LOVE it. The majority of my projects are given away. We have 6 kids, all married with children. I love my hobby and hope my family does too.

Re: separate section for embroidery:

I would like a separate section because I would love to see discussion and pictures of embroidered quilts all in one place. I would prefer that it be part of the QB as I'm not likely to go to it if it's a separate board as my main interest is quilting and this is the one I frequent most often. As far as it becoming "crafty" - since this is QB, most of the people using the embroidery section would also be quilters so it's unlikely to have much of a crafty flavor. Can't say ALL, but I wouldn't expect a craft-person would even venture over to QB.

JMHO.

I just found this thread and have only read the first 10 pages, but promise to catch up. I hope this information is not redundant, but my favorite embroidery design site is: http://www.oregonpatchworks.com/collections.php?id=HIA (HIA is a design team called Hatched in Africa".) Everyday you will get a listing for the designer of the day and the special. And there are free designs scattered within many choices. Sometimes the discount is 70% and the designs of many are just wonderful. Today she has designs for $7 for a grouping. Enjoy!!

I have the ERA universal. I love it. I have taken certain parts of designs with the ERA, wrote sayings, slightly enlarged and made smaller, etc. However, I have not done much of my own digitizing with it. There is a learning curve, but it is definitely well worth the money just for being able to do these things and seeing the embroidery designs on the computer. My embroidery machine has a small screen, is in black and white and sometimes looks like a blob. The ERA Universal is a full working digitizing program, if you want it to be. Can't go wrong!

Krystyna,
Thank you for the compliments. I did all the blocks of emb. prior to the sandwich and quilting. However, on one of my quilts, I did some quilting on my emb. machine with all three layers. It was a little tricky, but, I managed it.

I have a Brother SE 350 and haven't done anything yet. i haven't been able to sew for a few wks and have so many projects I keep promising myself I'm going to do and that includes learning how to use this machine. My DH retired recently and my time isn't my own like it used to be so I'm trying to find time to do the things I want. I would love to join with you ladies and learn I think I said I would before and I don't remember seeing anything about it. I know someone e-mailed me that has the same machine but I just haven't got to it. Please feel free to PM me with info. Sue

[ATTACH=CONFIG]330549[/ATTACH]
A Red Hat Society wall quilt I made for my sister using embroidery
The colors are not great but the borders are red and purple.

My CD came today and I easily put it on my computer, registered it, then waited for the confirmation email. I finally notified the dealer I purchased from and she thinks it is being blocked as "spam". I have asked for an email address to put in my address books on both computers, since my spam is being blocked by a program from my email server. I hope that will take care of it, because I'm anxious to play with it! I had ordered "Catalog It!" from Amazing Designs and I've had nothing but trouble with it. My designs are all weird colors and I thought I could put my thread in and it would change everything at once. But you have to use little chips at the bottom and change each color separately! Lots of work! I feel like I just wasted my money on it.

For those of you who would love to have an embroidery machine, but are hesitant to spend a lot, I just got an email from Brother about the new PE-500 for under $300 MSRP. It only has a 4x4 hoop, but it's the perfect machine to get started with on a budget. And, I'm sure you'll be able to find it for well under $300!

Like another I just saw this thread too and would also Love to see another section added to the QuiltingBoard for embroidery and quilts.
For embroidery I have a Viking Designer SE, Pfaff CV, and Brother 10 needle.
I fell in love with the embroidery machine when I first got it 12 years ago.
When I started out I did the usual, napkins and towels, but now I love to make quilts with embroidered centers or blocks; and to dress up clothes. I had a white denim vest that was 15 years old and I could never part with it, and it now has been given new life with embroidery on the back and on the pockets and the top. I find myself checking a local thrift store for items that are new or barely worn and embroider them too - this is a great way to also get used to your machine and stabilizers, that way a lot of money has not been spent on the item and you feel great about the results.
I also buy blank tablecloths on sale and embroider them, and on the round decorative ones, I also add trim.
On the last one I couldn't find any frogs so I could arrange each section on a round tablecloth so I made my own FSL ones. (free standing lace).
Quilts are the best ever to embroider - I just finished embroidering a design to look like quilting on every block, and even did the entire border using the embroidery machine.
Thanks for letting me "speak"
karenSue

I have taken classes from quilt university.com
on embroidery that were very helpful.I took classes from Joanne Winn great instructions and patterns came with the class.I have Babylock Ellegante and Master Works for Digitzing.I will show pict later.