notmorecraft

I do both, I love my machine as I can personalise things for my family, make quilt labels, design my own bedding, I only buy white bedding and have done for years and I like putting my personal touch on it. I still hand embroider and cross stitch as well. Horses for courses we are all different and like different things. Just like we all have preferences for machines for quilting and piecing.

quiltingcandy

A few years ago I bought my Janome MC 6600P and told the sales rep that I was never going to do any fancy work, all I needed was a good sturdy quilting machine. And I love my Janome. Two years later I am taking my first FW in to be serviced at my local Sew/Vac repair shop. I was taking it to my sister up in WA so wanted to be sure everything was in order. The repair shop is a Husqvarna/Viking dealer. He asked to show me an embroidery machine and I said I don't have $4K to spend on one, he said he had a floor model he would sell with full the warranty for under $2K. Mine is a sewing/embroidery machine and I cannot begin to tell you how much fun I have had with it. But it is true - the cost of the machine is the beginning, I was so much happier once I got the bigger computer program and instead of buying the thread one at a time, I bought kits. Luckily from QB I have found more places to buy thread at a much more reasonable cost than I can buy it locally. Oh, then the websites and the designs - so fun.

I have done hand embroidery since I was 8 yrs old - now I am 61 and I still like to do it. But my machine embroidery is something altogether different.

grann of 6

I have a DIL whose sister is an avid counted cross stitcher and does beautiful work. We had a conversation about my doing counted cross stitch on my embroidery machine. She said she would be able to tell the difference in something I did by machine or by hand. So that Christmas I made a machine counted cross stitch picture of a snowman family for DIL. I framed it and gave it to her. The sister couldn't take her eyes off it when she saw it, wanted to know how many hours I spent doing that. When I told her about 6 hours, she said that was impossible to do something that ornate in such a short time. I finally confessed that it was done on the machine, and she was simply aghast. She couldn't tell the difference between hand and machine counted cross stitch. So for those of you who think hand work is better, I say it is in what you love to do. My hands don't permit me to do hand work anymore. And my eyes don't permit counted cross stitch or any fine work. The embroidery machine does a beautiful job, and I love the variety of designs available. If this world had everyone with the same thoughts and opinions it would be a very boring world. I love my embroidery machines. There is a talent to finding the right colors and designing on the computer and transferring to the embroidery machine is time consuming, but loads of fun. So I say, try it, you might just find you like it at lot.

Kris P

I love hand embroidery, too, but machine embroidery has it's place, too. For Christmas one year, I machine embroidered big fluffy bath towels for all 10 of my nieces and nephews. For each child, I chose a motif that fit their personality or interests, in addition to adding their names. They were a big hit.. Another year, I embroidered sweatshirts and fleece jackets for each of them. I made sure to buy them plenty big, so they could wear them more than one season. It was fun for them to have something personalized,(especially the younger kids, who often wear hand-me-downs) and they wore them until they simply no longer fit. These are both applications where hand embroidery just wouldn't have the same outcome. I still love to hand stitch dish towels and embellish quilt squares, but i also love my machine.

I've also noticed that Urban Threads sells their embroidery motifs as Machine or hand embroidery, you might give that a shot if you're looking for something a little more modern that the iron on packets they make for dishtowels.http://urbanthreads.com

quilterpurpledog

Like so many other techniques there are hand techniques and machine techniques and there are artisans who come down on either side of the issue. When I purchased my new Bernina about 2 years ago I skipped the embroidery module because I don't care for it but I admire the work that is well done by others. I also think hand quilting is wonderful and I enjoy doing it. However, I spend a lot of time machine quilting because it is faster-not prettier. Time is important. I love to hand embroidery and do quite a lot of it.

jhoward

Check coloring books for patterns. Copy onto your fabric, go for it. : )

Ellageo

May be nice to see some Machine Embroidery projects!

katesnanna

I have two combo machines. A Janome MC 10000 and a Janome Horizon 15000. I use both of them for embroidery but only the 15000 for piecing and Sewing. I love both of these and enjoy making quilt blocks, handbags, In-the-Hoop projects as well as embroidery blocks for Charity quilts etc.
I've always enjoyed the 10000 but the 15000 just opened up so many possibilities.

luvstoquilt

I do hand embroidery too. I think it is relaxing for me. I don't think I would use an embroidery machine that much but I will never say "never".

dms

I just love my embroidery machine. I have done more than one of the Smith Street Designs for applique embroidery on quilts and they are really outstanding. Plus I make a lot of gifts on my embroidery machine and love it for quick gifts. Hope this helps.