Bjbaxter

I recently purchased a Bernina 770, with the idea of adding the embroider module when I could afford it. I really don't know anything about embroidery, and my intent is more to do "quilt patterns" like feathers in a wreath pattern, not to use it to add animals and that type of thing. I was just given the opportunity to purchase an embroidery unit for the 700 Bernina series of machines for $600. Its only been used twice and the person selling it decided that "embroidery" was not her thing. I am asking for your input as to whether this is a difficult process to learn. As far as I can tell it's a good price. The owner will also let me use it before I commit to buying.

Barb

quiltingcandy

I can't speak for Bernina - I love my Viking Designer Topaz. It was not learned overnight. It takes some trial and error with picking the right stabilizer with the fabric. I have the computer program 5D and I believe you will need something. But you need to determine that with what you want to do, and again I do not know the Bernina machines. So someone else will talk to that. And I buy a lot of thread - Sewing Machines Plus has some good prices for thread groups. If you have a sewing buddy it will be a lot of fun. I have a sewing buddy and we learned together on my machine, then she ended up buy the Brother PE770 because of the cost and she wanted to be able to buy Disney designs.

From what I found on the internet that is a fantastic price.

I can't say enough how much I love my embroidery machine. People are going to hate to see me coming soon with my dishtowels and embroidered napkins. And I have made quite a few quilts with embroidered blocks. I have done some baby onesies too. My daughter teaches 4th, 5th, and 6th graders (depending on the need that year) and for Christmas I embroider bookmarks for all the students and at Easter I make them each an egg holder with a plastic egg with candy in it. The kids love them and I love to make them.

QuiltMom2

There's a learning curve with embroidery on all machines, the price is good. One drawback is you might not have much dealer support.

jmoore

I just pulled my Bernina Embroidery module out of the box for the first time about a month ago...there are YouTube videos that help immensely, however, I have not yet learned how to download additional designs to my machine so have been limited to the ones it came with. Bernina has a software program but it is an additional $1,500 or so and not in my budget.

IwantItgreen

Grab it, that's a great deal. Does your 770 have the latest update, that was rich with embroidery updates. Don't worry about software unless you want to digitize. My dealer is teaching an online embroidery mastery class that you may be interested in here; https://embroidery-essentials.com/

Barb2018

Yes, go for it. I have a Bernina 880 with the embroidery module and never looked back. It's simple to learn. Bermina has a free software package called Artlink 8. With it you can take designs that you get online and convert them to the EXP format that the machine needs. You don't need the big software package.

Bjbaxter

Thank you all for your responses - I didn't realize that there could be additional costs, but sounds like I might not need to go that far. It is a new machine and am assuming it has the latest updates. Classes won't be available till sometime next month. I am sure there is a lot of learning to be done and a lot of things I simply don't know about.

Pennyhal

If you already have the 770, run right over and bring that embroidery module home! I had my Bernina 180 for two years before starting to do embroidery on it. Then I was hooked. You buy designs online and many are free. your 770 should have the ability to convert whatever format you buy to the ART format that this machine uses. It should also have BerninaArtink. it's free and allows you to size, rotate, format, edit any design. I'd not buy the Bernina software until you've worked with Artlink for a while. There are a lot of Software programs that are not as expensive as Bernina's and work well. If you want to "digitize" your own designs, the Bernina is nice. I have no inclination to create my own designs and am happy with buying designs from others. It's a lot of work and takes a lot of skill.

I started learning about how to quilt on my new Babylock Destiny2. It's not as easy as it sounds. Everything has its own learning curve.

IwantItgreen

The Bernina 770 uses .EXP format. However, if you have designs in other formats you can download the free Artlink and convert them to .EXP.