karensue

I have the Viking and Pfaff sewing/embroidery machines, but also have the Brother 10 needle embroidery machine. If you already have a good sewing machine and want something for embroidery I would go straight for the 6 or 10 needle machines (BablyLock or Brother), in which the 6 needle is probably equal to the Elegante, and the 10 needle is probably less than the Bernina 830.

After 3 years I upgraded from 6 needle to 10 needle. Until you use these wonderful machines you don't realize the time they save, as well as the absolute perfect embroidery you get each and every time. For some reason you just never seem to get any puckers ever, and I do designs that are stitch intensive (last one was 70,000 stitches), and love to do FSL.

Since they do not have the bed that a sewing/embroidery machine has, you can hoop cloth grocery bags, pillowcases, socks, etc. with no effort and no fussing with the material. And I just finished embroiderying quilt motiffs on many many blocks, as well as doing the entiere border on the 10 needle for a quilt that was about 36 inches wide and 60 inches long.

It takes a bit of time to thread 6 or 10 needles at one time, but after that is done I just turn a baby monitor on in the room and can leave it to do its thing while I do mine elsewhere in the house.

KarenSue

Divokittysmom

That's a great idea,.. and,if someone does not know how to trim a post, then perhaps reference the post they are replying to.

bettysew

The kind of stabilizer I use depends upon the type of fabric I am embroidering. For a non-stretch like the suede you described, I would use a tear away. For the number of stitches you are doing, I would hoop 2 layers with my fabric and then float one piece under the embroidery. The suede is rather stiff and should not need additional stabilizer.
You will just have to test and see what serves you best. Definitely I would baste before I stitched. Sounds like you are on the right track.

aunt eunice

I have the 830. It does beautiful embroidery. I also have a Janome MC11000SE, which also does beautiful embroidery. I use my SE for smaller quick projects because there is no separate embroidery unit to attach to the machine and it takes up less space. have you tested the new Janome 12000? It's much quieter than the 830LE and also does beautiful embroidery. I like using the magnetic hoops that came with my Janome. Don't know if other brands have them. I prefer them over the magna-hoops I purchased for my Bernina.

cmw0829

Bettysew wrote this:
After taking a stabilizer class with Floriani, I found that the general rule of thumb is that you need one layer of stabilizer for every 10,000 stitches. Since I started following that rule, my embroidery is much better.

TanyaL wrote this:
I would like to know more about your stabilizers. What KIND do you use for dense stitching of 60,000-80,000 stitches? ___________________

I watched all of the stabilizer videos on the rnkdistributing.com site (Floriani products) and looked at the stabilizer workbook and resources on florianisoftware.com. (Very good resources.) The videos indicated that the 10,000 reference is for a 4 x 5 design. I'm doing a 60,000 stitch design in a 6 x 6.5 space. So the sq inches of my design are two times the 4 x 5. So I divided 60,000 by 2 = 30,000. Then divided 30,000 by 10,000 and figure I need 3 layers of stabilizer.

I haven't tested this yet but wonder, does anybody see a flaw in my calculation? I did test with 2 layers and still had a very small amount of puckering.

Quilty-Louise

Most of my embroidery lately has been with FSL, to which I LOVE
making.

In my OWN personal preferences I have discovered what seems to
work best for ME, this is by no means what others may like or dislike.

When I first started with FSL I had many issues, after talking to my
local dealer, they gave me some tips that I tried and this is how I
come to be on the right "path" for making my lace.

Most of the tips they gave me was when I was using metallic thread
but I have been using it for ALL of my lace and I like the results.

I start with a SHARP TOP STITCH needle
Use 2 layers of water soluble stabilizer (3 layers if the designs is really dense).
Slowest embroidery speed as I can get.


Lots of patience

I have over 100k designs and I KNOW that using them all will never
happen, but at least I have them if I need something (if only I could find
it when needed).

cmw0829

I finally stitched this out. Used a layer of fusible tearaway and floated two layers of medium tearaway. I added a layer of water soluble to the top. It came out PERFECT!! It is a little stiff but I don't think I could have done anything else without 1) changing the density and sacrificing the design or 2) accepting some puckering.

This experience certainly helped me be more confident about stabilizers. Now I have only 8 more blocks to stitch and then need to make a quilt by...ummm...June 25. Yes, call me nuts.

TanyaL

Would you show a picture of one of your blocks or tell us the name of the design?

bettysew

So glad your design came out perfect this time.

cmw0829

This is the stock image from the vendor - emblibrary.com - and my design came out just like it.
I stitched it on a white on white that had very small lines through it that made irregular squares through the fabric. It's perfect for the designs because it has a bamboo-y look and all of the designs have an Asian flare. There will be nine in total - 6 florals and 3 others - crane, panda and butterfly.