The density (# of stitches) do have a big part of your problem. Do you have the capabilities in your software to reduce the density? I do that with all my designs, I check the density and also the underlying stitches that aren't needed. Especially on some fabrics like t-shirts.

[QUOTE=laura59;5587412]Try hooping the stabilizer only. Then spray the stabilizer lightly with some temporary spray like KK2000 or embroidery spray. Lay the satin on top of the stabilizer and smooth it out. I don't hoop anything except stabilizer. This seems to work better for me. Hth.[/QUOTE

That has only worked for me for designs with smaller amounts of stitches. Just saying- maybe it's my fabric. I think satin and silk are especially hard to keep from pucking.

romanojg,
I purchased the new Babylock Spirit, it is an embroidery only machine. I had the Ellure Plus which was a great machine however I didn't use the sewing function as much so I decided to get an embroidery only machine. This machine is new on the market and it comes with a 7x12 inch hoop. I'm waiting today for a phone call from the dealer to go pick it up this week!

[QUOTE=TanyaL;5587592]emblibrary.com has directions on embroidering on these fabrics. Its under Kennys corner, I think. I did organza this weekend; two layers of that with texture magic in between with no stabilizer. It worked really nice and not puckering. We made 3D flowers

I NEED to do this! LOL I think my laptop is slowing down because I have so much artwork (designs) on it!! I went a little nuts downloading freebies when I first got my machine. More selective now but, boy, do I like "Free"!!

I got lots of freebies when i got my machine andI bought a lot of designs from guy in Russia- about 10,000. Now the designs are not what I like, all too simple, too few stitches, so when I see them I delete them. Many are duplicates also.

I have tried the 505 spray on stabilizer, then placing the satin on top, smoothing using a small "wallpaper" roller, then pinning satin to stabilizer, I have used both tearaway and cutaway stabilizer.
I have used solvy on top
So far my best result is sticky stabilizer and smoothing the satin on top.

I did email Kenny at Embroidery Library a while back and he did admit that satin is just going to pucker at little. Mine is puckering a lot!! LOL Of course, this was before EL had done the videos.

I think I'm going to do test strips and write down my experiments...maybe I need a refresher course. I think one of the problems is I'm embroidering sashes which are only a total of 5 inches wide so a strip isn't wide enough to "hoop on all sides". It almost seems as if it is a tension problem but I never adjust the tension.

Try embroidering your satin before you cut it for the sashes.

I am looking for a spiderweb design for doing quilting using my embroidery machine). Can someone point me in the right direction? I am looking for a design specifically designed for quilting, so it is kind of open...

Sending you a PM

So question people, I want to make a chicken themed jacket for show competition next year. The back will have a large quilted in varigated bright thread on a deep blue batik fabric, how would you and what kind of embroidery designs would you place on the front or do you think that would coordinate. Just asking. I found some roosters on Nancy Notions, Barnyard Chickens, and they are very pretty. I do not want to invest in them if the idea does not go well together. I was thinking on the front would stitch designs on a light blue batik, set them on point with the dark blue so they stand out as diamonds going down front panels. Then could do them in diamonds going down the sleeves of the jacket set in the dark blue. This way keeping the front and back seperate? Or maybe doing a braided border around bottom of facket with little chicken tracks.

I have topaz 30 let me know if I can help

Are you showing chickens for competition and want this jacket to wear or is the jacket to judged in a competition of some sort? If the jacket is to be judged, then what are the requirements of the competition? Without knowing any details of the competition how can we know if your jacket will help you to win?
Give us more details. We would love to help you.

There are no criteria on the competition. It is just wearable art. You can enter anything you want. I just like to wear quilted jackets and vests all the time so I make them for me to wear and enter them. I also want the quilting ribbon so that is why the jacket must be quilted heavily as well with design elements. Yes, the jacket will be judged by a judge for overall design, and of course the details of a "quilt" binding and such plus construction. The other is a people's choice competition so you get what appeals to people. That to me is the hardest judge. So if it does not go together well, then the overal appearance is no good. I thought doing a jacket with machine embroidery this time might give it a bit of punch and appeal to people. Plus I really want to make the quilted chicken on the back and play with thread and longarm then add those Sworvoski crystals like on Linday Taylor quilts.

This is the jacket I made this year and won 3rd place, but that is just not good enough. I quilted it with all feathers and I did add beads to the front which does not show in this photo. I took first at one fair with it and 2nd at another by a judge so the construction is good, but it did not appeal to people. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t203941-3.html

I want to hit that mark for people's choice so that is why I thought the chicken jacket would be cool. I have to find a jacket pattern that might work and saw a couple on Nancy's Notions I liked which would work with this idea. A straight cut cardigan type. http://www.nancysnotions.com/categor...urPicks&page=2

I do like the cozy quilted jacket but not sure this idea would work with that pattern.

I agree with raksmum. Definitely take advantage of the Bernina dealer's classes. My dealer is awesome with all sorts of hand-on classes.

Just my thoughts on the design choice. " Chickens" shout "Farm and Country" so loudly to some that it may not be the design for art that you are striving for. It says "cute" and in the art and fashion world "cute" is the kiss of death. Personally I would go for a design choice that said more high fashion, more sophisication. Your construction details would of course be the same - but it would illicit a different choice of complements - like elegant, fashionable,etc. Maybe including different fabics would be a plus for competimg such as a suede tuxedo collar dyed in the correct color quilted or embroidered. Good luck in whatever you do. Your workmanship is obviously top notch.

Took a class I quilting with emb. machine today at my dealer's. What a great class. Now I can do something other than straight line quilting. Practiced on a quilt for Project Linus. Don't think the kids will care if it isn't perfect. Spent about an hour on emblibrary looking for good patterns to use for the quilting. I do love having this machine more than I thought I would

See where you are going with that TanyaL. So if I want to do the chickens, then I need to get the fancy elegant ones then spruce it up from there. Roberto Fabuloso, said the same thing as you. I need to think fancy roosters with great plume if I want to theme that jacket. he sent me a couple of photos of a beautiful jacket with a rooster on it, but had flowers spread across the jacket to add for elegance. It also had a wide bottom and is a fitted jacket. This gives me a direction. When I get some funds built up I am going to buy those roosters from nancy's notions and use those designs. Then I will also be looking for the fabric foundation color and florals to go with it to add into the jacket. i can do this. The quilting will probably be McTavishing so that way it is a firm fitting jacket and use wool for the batting. Wool is so fun to quilt on.

I think you will be fine as long as no one can look at it and say "cute". In art school, if anyone put cute on one of our projects we knew it was an automatic F. The jacket should shout "I cost several hundreds of dollars and was bought in Paris or Rome!"

I will work on that on paper. I never went to art school and wish I knew more on that direction for my wearable art and designer quilts. But learning as I go.

She's here!!!!!!!!!
 

My new Babylock embroidery machine. So far I'm only reading the manual but I know i"ll have fun with it! Its called the Babylock Spirit, an embroidery only machine that stitches up to a 7x12 frame. It includes a 5x7 frame and the dealer gave me the 6x6 frame for free. right now I've been busy organizing my embroidery designs into categories on my usb drive and I'm almost done!

Wow! That is something you will have fun with.

Great thread
 

Found this thread that is nice to learn from. I have an older HUs. Viking Designer 1. Have done a number of quilt blocks etc. Didn't get a dongle with it but will hope I can find one to work with the machine. One person told me that some dongles will only work with the machiine it came with..anyone know if this is true?

CONGRATS I know you will LOVE her!!!

the best way to handle this type of fabric is to soak some water soluible stablizer in a jar of water, scraps work fine. paint the solution onto the fabric and let dry. repeat until the fabric is as stiff as you need it to be. after embroidering rinse out the stablizer and your fabric is nice and soft. if you need more help feel free to pm me. by the way i have an ellisimo by babylock.connie

contact a gal by the name of leslie at, [email protected]. her jacket and vest patterns are the best fitting i have ever seen. she teaches at the local college and has her students do a fashion show each year. you'd be amazed at the different sizes and shapes that come from 1 pattern. good luck with your project. connie

i use a zigzag stitch if i'm using invisible thread. there are times when i don't want the stitches to show. connie

Well, I never got to use this machine!
 

We had a fire on October 19th and lost our pickup and 5th wheel on our way to TX for the winter. We spent 6 months a year in that set up. I lost 3 machines plus all my kits, my fabric stash. It was a total loss but it's only stuff. We're fine and the dog is fine and we have good insurance!!! The lord was looking over us as it went up in flames very fast!

LilaKay,
I'm so sorry about the fire, but glad that you and your dog are ok. How frightening that must have been. I hope you are able to get a replacement unit soon and continue your wintering in Texas. Losing everything, even if it is just stuff is very hard and emotional. Take care.
Donna

For Vikings, the dongle is only used for software not the machine. I'm not sure what version of software yours came with if any but they come with now 5D organizer which doesn't require a dongle to use. Once you get any of the versions of 5D suites like I have 5D Pro then you use a dongle; it tells the pc what version of software you own plus if you have added any extras like CardShop.

If you are just talking about the USB; then you are in luck. The USB is where you can save designs too and then take them to your machine and either download them onto your machine (depending on machine) or just use the design from the USB. I just learned that you can use any USB as long as it isn't too large or too full. Mine came with a 1G usb but I have started using a 4G usb, not because I need the extra storage just so that I can stash mine away so that if I trade in my machine I don't have to worry about it being lost or something. I did have the Ruby for a yr and loved the machine and just traded it in for the Diamond Deluxe.

Did you buy your 4GB USB stich from husqvarna. I was told only one purchased from Viking would work. Also do know how much the 5D embroidery cost.

I orginally thougth that as well. But I'm taking classes for the 5D pro and we were told that we could use ours, I think it might have to be the png (think that's it, I'll check when I go get mine). I since then started saving my files to my own instead of the one that came with my machine and have had no problem. The machines come with 1G and I've heard it was expensive and you can pick up usb units cheap. I know that when I trade this in many yrs from now they'll want the one that came with the machine so I've stored it away for safe keeping. It wont hurt to try. Save some files to a USB and then take that to your machine and pull them up. I was so happy when our Viking teacher told us this. It'd would be great if the dongle could be done the same way but without the dongle that comes with the purchased software you can't use anything except for the organizer. let me know if I can help in any ways or if you need a question answered and I don't know it I can ask my teacher. I normally see her every week. Well, with the storm not sure if there will be a class tomorrow or not.

My Viking dealer tole me I could use any USB stick. Haven't gotten a new one yet, but I was excited to hear that.

I recently purchased a Viking Ruby sewing machine and have little experience in embroidery and quilting. I would like to purchase a kit offering several colors of embroidery thread. I am looking for suggestions as to what type of thread to look for. What is most economical - not to eliminate quality? It can be mind boggling searching because I am not familiar with this product. All suggestions are welcome! Thank you.
beginner di

I just traded my Ruby in on a Diamond Deluxe. The Ruby is a great machine and very easy to use. I would suggest in the beginning to buy a few different types of thread to see what you like. The Ruby, she likes them all. I use RA rayon alot and have recently learned that you can go online to Sears and get it for 3.99 a spool which is almost 1/2 price. I also like Floriani, Sulky, Jenny Haskins and Prencia rayons for embroidery. They have a nice shine to them. I don't buy kits, what I do is when I'm buying colors and don't have a project in mind but just want to either stock up or its on sale, I chose a at least two shades of a color. The reason is that almost every design that I've ever stitched used to similar shades to do the shading in the design. This has saved me so many times.
When you download designs try for VP3 first, then VIP and then HUS, even though Ruby will see almost all of them.

Make sure each month you go to myembroidery.com for Viking and get the free design and project for the month. YOu still have time for Oct to get them. I hope you get to take the classes because you can learn so much from it. My favorite thing is the cutwork needles.Good luck and congratulations on your Ruby. You'll love her.

Thank you, Judy, for this great information!

beginner di

I have a Babylock Ellisimo. I do embroidered quilt blocks (embroider a design on the fabric for the center of the block and then build the rest of the block around it. I like to do embroidered lace Christmas ornaments. All our ornaments are embroidered. This was out of necessity. They don't break when the cats bat them off of the tree and play hockey with them! lol You can embroider on almost anything, shirts, jeans, jackets, placemats, caps (if you have a machine with a hat hoop) and even toilet paper. We have a friend who retired from her career a few years ago. She was a teacher, then a principal and finally an assistant superintendent. She was in the same district (ours) her whole career. She is currently the president of the school board. She has so many shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, jackets, caps, etc. with the school name on it. She jokingly said she would buy toilet paper if it had the school name on it. So we presented her with a roll of toilet paper embroidered with the school name and mascot. She loved it.

I store all of my designs on a external hard drive then when I wan to use them I move them over to a USB drive then to my embroidery machine. I have made folders to store them in by designer and if a freebie I store under misc. and what type of design it is. ie. christmas, butterflies, etc.
I probably have over 100,000 designs including the complete 2005 Dakota Collectibles. I join clubs and download all I can and look for bargins on designs when I shop. I know I have too many and will never use all that I have (but you never know when you will need "just that one").

Ccorazone,
I am totally with you! I'm an embroidery-holic. I can't get enough designs for the life of me. I just organized my usb files, I have two of them, and realized I have over 150,000 designs and like you I look for the best deals and freebies! But you're right, you never know when you will need "just that one" :D