When I bought my Viking my dealer told me that it would not talk to my Mac, that if I wanted that program it would cost $2800.00 and he never bothered to tell me about the additional software that I needed. My DH had an HP so I tried to load it and the new software didn't like my DH's computer, which turned out to be okay since it was too far away from my machine. So I ended up buying a new laptop from Costco since it was way less than $2800.00 that would take the new program. Even though it has cost me a lot more that originally anticipated I am still happy I got the embroidery machine.

Oh my gosh I can so relate to being forced to buy software, just so I could look at the designs! And having to use my computer to download designs and all that learning scared me to pieces. I agree that we do get somewhat blind sided when we don't know anything about how it all works. I was in tears the first year. And spent way more than I was wanting to spend. Now I look at it as maybe a blessing in disguise because I now have what I need. If I had known what I was getting into I may of not bought anything with an embroidery feature. Now it is one of my most cherished parts of sewing and quilting and gifting. Who would of thunk??!!!

Actually, I did not purchase either the embroidery software or a PC to run it on. I was so angry that the larger picture had never been mentioned, let alone explained, that I left in disgust ... and resolved to make do with the regular hoop sizes and multiple hooping.

Another thing worth mentioning: Last Christmas season, I purchased an in-the-hoop design I was excited about. But when I loaded it onto my jump drive and plugged it into my sewing machine, the sewing machine told me I needed to use a mega-hoop. That's why I bought one, and that's why it never dawned on me that I couldn't just attach it and get right down to business.

I'm mostly glad that y'all thought I had gone through with the additional purchases because your positive statements about having bitten the $ bullet and now being glad you did ... well, I'm rethinking my first decision. We'll see how well the re-hooping goes on those Christmas stockings!

If I didn't mention this before, I did learn that embroidering on Minky using a polymesh stabilizer under the fabric and water soluble stabilizer on top - as several of you suggested - worked beautifully. During our long trials and errors, the teacher ended up floating a cut-away stabilizer where the polymesh had begun to tear, and that worked perfectly too! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Mermaid.... I just wanted to tell you that I did spend some time yesterday playing with the Wings my Editor.....I like the way it changes the colors and cut parts of designs.....Thank you for recomending it....
....generally I am now finally getting to the point of not being so intimidated by degitizing softwars.....after all they are all using more less the same terms........the more you use it the easier it gets...the problem is that we want more and more...and the more options thay have, the more expensive they gets....LOL...
....
As for Sushi.......Go for it.... ..... ...... You will be crying a lot on the way but it is so rewording........ And yes, it,s really bad they didn,t tell you before that you will need another software and anothe computer.... ...this is the most ennoying part......... ...... ......good luck
Happy quilting and happy embroidery to all.... Don,t let this thread die....

Thank you Ania, for updating about the software--I'm glad you were not intimidated and jumped right in. You can resize by clicking the little square that stretches, but remember to change the density of stitches afterwards. You can also merge designs or parts thereof. There's a free conversion table you can print off at www.chantells-creations.com. It is really handy to have this chart when you resize.

Thank you mermaid....thank you again and again....only now I also realize that it will be so helpfull to have some quick software on my Toshiba laptop....and the best of all is that it is free......I will defenetlly play with it...I still have to learn how to use it with all the posibilities in there....Thank you so much for the tip about the density of the stitches....for newbee like me, its an eye opening .....
.........hugs...

Brother or Singer Futura
 

I have been looking at embroidery machines and can't decide on brother 770 or Futura.Does anyone have thoughts on these machines? I have a Janome 6600 that I love so I don't need sewing machine. Am not very good with computer things so it has to be pretty easy! Thanks for any help Dee

Hi Dee...did you check the Janome 350e ??.... I am happy with mine...Only wish it has bigger hoops.... but mine came with two hoops and I can still do many things with them... the screen is also not the best...but again...you get what you paid for....it allows you to use a USB so you can easily transfer designs from your computer to the USB and to the machine.... ....Good luck

I would choose a Brother over a Singer any day. That being said, I love, love, love my Janome embroidery machines. I own the 200e, 350e, and the 500e. Janome also has a 400e, which is basically the 500e with a few less features and quite a bit less expensive. Since you love your Janome sewing machine, look into the Janome embroidery machines.

Cari

I agree with Cari-in-Oly...the Singer brand has not had a very good reputation for a while. The machines by Brother are very user friendly..I have 5 of them , but since that is the only brand I have owned (well, one is a Babylock but it is basically a Brother), I cannot express opinions on others.

Mermaid I am first and foremost a Brother gal, I own around 25 Brother machines including an ancient Brother PE200 embroidery machine that runs as well now(after I repaired the damage caused by previous owner using the wrong bobbin in it) as it did when it was new. I bought my first embroidery machine(MC200e) from the Janome dealer because I didn't like the way I was treated at the Brother dealer. I was then sold on Janomes because of the machines themselves. I do know that the Brothers are every bit the work horses that the Janomes are. The PE770(and its' twin the Designio 820) are very good machines.

Cari

As long as you can convert the designs you create in your software to the format that your machine uses, I think you can use almost any digitizing software. It doesn't have to be machine specific. Now, having said that, please know that I am not an expert, by any means. I love machine embroidery and have been doing it since 1996. I currently have a Babylock Destiny embroidery machine with Upgrade 1. I use Brother PE Deisgn software (Brother and Babylock use the same format). Another great digitizing software that is non machine specific is Embrid. It is less expensive than most other software and people rave about it. There are several Yahoo groups you can join to learn about this if you like.

I have 2 Singer embroidery machines and love them ! The advantages in getting a Singer(to me) are that they are very user friendly, the machines can stitch out any other machine format, as well as their own, and my new one can stitch a huge design..at least 15" x 20"...it can also do a design continuously, (think border)...I love the software that comes with them, you can convert any drawing or picture ***easily** into an embroidery design..I am not a computer whiz so it has to be easy!
My 2 machines that I use for sewing are Brother machines, and I do love them, too...the reason I went with Singer over Brother for embroidery was that Brother limits you to Brother (PES format) designs, and the Singer stitches them as well as Juki, Husquvarna, I think they stitch over 20 formats from other manufacturers, where if you buy another brand, you're limited to things in their format only, and the Brother hoop was a lot smaller,
There is a learning curve with any embroidery machine, and I do believe that's why some Singer reviews are not good, if you read between the lines on them, their complaints are due to inexperience, not machine breakdown.
My old embroidery machine is a Singer CE 100...the first one they made !! It is still working well, but it has a much smaller embroidery hoop, so I use it for smaller designs only.
I did seriously look at the new Brothers when they came out, but I just couldn't justify the cost.
Whatever machine you choose, you'll love it! Embroidery opens up a whole new world for quilting! Good Luck!!!

Donna13350, very well stated about your machine. Machine embroidery is a learning curve and I think once we master our machines we love them. I think most of us go with a machine that we are comfortable with. I recently took a class at a shop that sells a different brand of machines than I have. I have a Viking and love it. The owner of the store could do nothing but bad mouth my machine. I have had Vikings since the 80's and have loved each and every one of them.

I have a PE770 and really like it. You are limited in hoop size but you can do most designs with the 5x7 hoop. You can also get a 5x12 hoop for larger designs but the machine doesn't read anything larger than 5x7. The 5x12 hoop is good if you're doing a continous design like a border. You don't have to rehoop as many times. Like the others have said, it's a learning curve. If you can, buy from a dealer that offers classes. You'll get a lot more out of your machine that way.

Donna13350.... Its the second time here that I hear good things about the singer machine embroidery.....Its a huge plus that it can read any embroidery formats....and it has big hoops.....it seems like you do know a lot about the singers machine I will be happy if you can tell me more about your machine....or why is it that so many people are not too happy about them.....which model would you recomend for embroidery only ???..... And sure, its nice to know that they are cheaper....what are the common problems with them that could be evoided ???

The most important thing(to me), to keep in mind is the software that is or is not included..it can come in a bundle, for a price very close to what you'd pay for a bare bones machine, and if you want it later, it is hundreds for each DVD.
My new machine is the Futura Quartet..(2 years old now!)I bought it on HSN because it had the best software bundle with it..but they have a great refund policy, so you have till after x-mas to try it out and if you don't like it you can send it back...I'd call and talk to a rep, though, and see how many days and who pays return shipping if you want to go that way..but it might be a great way to try it out.
Just as a caution...I have seen some software for sale on ebay, but when you ask the seller if they have a serial number, they say no..so they can't be registered with Singer and you won't have any phone help if you need it! As for the phone help..they are here, in TN., I believe, but are great people and will walk you through any problem you ever have.
The only time I ever had to call was once when I turned the machine on and it made a bad noise and the needle vibrated like crazy..it was me..I left the needle in the down position when I turned it off...evidentally it didn't like that!
http://www.hsn.com/search?query=futura
As for complaints...it's the usual stuff you hear when people get a new sewing machine, thread breaks, tension is wrong, needle breaks..stuff like that. It's not just a sewing machine, it has it's own way of doing things, but any new embroidery machine will..I know that I told you I have 2 Brothers that I sew on..the Singer sews beautifully, I just don't want to use it for simple sewing, I have quilted with it, though, when doing extra large quilts because it does have a larger throat area than my Brothers do.
The Quintet has more features than mine, but I have never used it..if you click on the Quintet and scroll down to reviews...the majority of bad reviews are for threading issues...people get error messages or birdsnests. It is very important with my machine that the presser foot is up and the needle is in highest position when you thread it..I suspect that is the issue most people have that are complaining.

Thank you Donna for the usefull information.....

You're quite welcome. All embroidery machines stitch out very nice projects from what I've seen on this board. I guess it's just a matter of narrowing it down to the features you want, and price.

Yes...price is a very important issue usually....and a realable dealer....I am reading now some more about the singer machine.....I am not to thrill about having the computer connected to it.....but with this price one shouldn,t complain........ ...happy quilting and happy embroidery to all.....

Viking actually includes the software to organize, view and some editing along with their machines. I had the Ruby and then got the Diamond deluxe and it came with the current version (of that time) of software to do these things. Now they do have a full scale software program that isn't included but I was happy they at least gave you some basic tools to start off with. The only thing that I don't like is that you have to pay for the upgraded versions. That's not right.

One thing to note as far as software, even though I purchased the full Viking 5D Pro software, I now also own Floriani, its easy to use, they have free tutorials constantly on how to do different things and the best part about their software is that the upgrades are free. In order for me to get the upgraded version on 5D it would have been almost the cost of the software in full. 5D is great software but I don't like it when a company (not just Viking) continues to upgrade but then doesn't support the version you paid a fortune for. As much as software is, all of them should be free upgrades for life, just saying.

Hear hear!!!

I must also add: And they should be compatible with Mac computers as well as PCs.

Brother and Embrilliance both have Mac friendly software.

Cari

Viking is compatible with Mac but its the upgrading cost that gets me.

I do second that, Sushi...so right...

But embrilliance also charge you for the upgrades

I understand that everyone needs to make a living, but isn't there a better way than charging good customers every time they sneeze? Perhaps embroidery needs to be a group activity/investment where each member chips in a share of both the initial cost and the cost of updates.

Glad to hear about Floriani software from a user. I just attended a Floriani seminar and they talked about all the software could do and it was free upgrades. They also mentioned all their software uses the same icons, etc. so if you buy one it all looks the same from program to program.

The Singer updates are free, although it's up to you to go to the Singer site and check for them, because they don't e-mail you. I've only had to this twice, though..they are pretty reliable. As far as I know, the software isn't interchangeable from model to model, though..they could be now, my 2 machines are 20 years apart in age, and software is only compatible with each machine they came with.

5D is great software but I don't like it when a company (not just Viking) continues to upgrade but then doesn't support the version you paid a fortune for. As much as software is, all of them should be free upgrades for life, just saying.
This is what happened to me! Eventually my perfectly good Pfaff became "obsolete" because the software no longer worked with it. Eventually I had to give it up and went to Brother which isn't as good or intuitive but...Now my Pfaff is totally useless and I couldn't even give it away. I can't sell it for scrap metal because it's all plastic. Do they do this with a man's hobby such as guns?

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The game is to make us buy more and more.....and many times when we buy some upgrades ( in generally) we are ending up with new problems.....and need more upgrading......

I have Florine also, I honestly haven't used it to its full potential but I do like the upgrades for free. I use the resizer the most!

For those of you who are not fond of free motion (or unable to do it - I am utterly FM challenged !:) ), you might be interested in the Edge to Edge Embroidery software for quilting a quilt. It was really inexpensive in the scheme of things when I bought late last year at my lqs - and that worried me about the quality. I tried it once when I bought it and struggled with it - only because of hooping the quilt -- BUT ... then I bought one of the 5X7 magnetic hoops and just this week used it again. What a difference! Even though the software says small designs are a little over 5X9, I used my Embird software (which I also love) and resized one of the designs down to fit in the 5X7 hoop and embroidered around the borders of a 42 X 40 quilt. So if you want the look of free motion designs but cannot do it, check out this software. Mind you, I don't worry about perfection and hooking up exactly --- but this definitely is an improvement over stitch in the ditch (my previous goto).

This is the lady who created it if you want to look at her site, and there is a great YouTube video on it also. www.ameliescott.com

And by the way, I do have a machine that will do the 6 X 10 designs, but I do find the 5X7 size designs in any embroidery I do a lot easier to work with because the bigger the hoop, the more opportunity for problems because of too much play with the hoop moving and also in getting a snug fit inside the hoop. JMHO

Everyone, have a great day. I recently retired and hope to get my stash used up (so I can get more - ha ha).

[QUOTE=Rennie;7695946]For those of you who are not fond of free motion (or unable to do it - I am utterly FM challenged !:) ), you might be interested in the Edge to Edge Embroidery software for quilting a quilt. It was really inexpensive in the scheme of things when I bought late last year at my lqs - and that worried me about the quality. I tried it once when I bought it and struggled with it - only because of hooping the quilt -- BUT ... then I bought one of the 5X7 magnetic hoops and just this week used it again. What a difference! Even though the software says small designs are a little over 5X9, I used my Embird software (which I also love) and resized one of the designs down to fit in the 5X7 hoop and embroidered around the borders of a 42 X 40 quilt. So if you want the look of free motion designs but cannot do it, check out this software. Mind you, I don't worry about perfection and hooking up exactly --- but this definitely is an improvement over stitch in the ditch (my previous goto).

This is the lady who created it if you want to look at her site, and there is a great YouTube video on it also. www.ameliescott.com

And by the way, I do have a machine that will do the 6 X 10 designs, but I do find the 5X7 size designs in any embroidery I do a lot easier to work with because the bigger the hoop, the more opportunity for problems because of too much play with the hoop moving and also in getting a snug fit inside the hoop. JMHO


Everyone, have a great day. I recently retired and hope to get my stash used up (so I can get more - ha ha).[/QUOTE
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I bought these designs to work on my own quilts. I could not get it to load on my babylock ellisimo II. I tried it very which way and just didn't get it.

I have the same software and it makes quilting a lot easier. My machine only handles a 5x7 hoop and I did like
Crqltr and resized the designs to 5x7. I really couldn't tell much difference in the quilting. I used My Editor to resize them and kept the proportions the same as the original.

Crqltr, I use it with my Babylock Esante. Could you just have gotten a bad disk?

I would defenetlly consider buying it if someone will tell me it will go with my Janome350e....and same about the magnetic hoop..... As for now....... I have the Brother Pq1500 and it does make the free motion but it doesn,t have the stitch regulator and the stitch is not so perfect..... It has 9" in the throat....
Wings my Editor is fantastic for changing formats resizing and much more...Mermaid had introduce me to it....
......
...Happy embroidery and happy quilting to all.....

I've been looking at Wings My Editor and think I'll give it a go. My BFF uses Buzz Tools software and she likes it.

Cari

Cari, don,t even think twice....Wings is wonderful....and for being free, it does so many things...its amazing....
Don,t get intimidated first time you open it.....everything has a learning curve.....when I open it first time, the screen was completelly black...... Its normal.....the jumping rulers in there are also normal, actually they are helping you....
Mermaid here is my Wizard of OZ...she recomended it to me and is still helping me to move around.....but its really user friendly .....Nice people in here posted plenty of links to free designs which were in different formats...thanks to Wings I was able actually to see the designs and to change the format.....Some of the designs are very nice and they have plenty of fonts and number as well.....but you really need time for all of it....I am doing it little by little, few each day..... Happy embroidery and happy quilting to all....