no embroidery machine here. I just use a piece of fabric that is fairly solid and that writing can be seen on. Lately I have been inserting it in a corner. The fabric is a folded square, so I have a nice edge to tack town. The raw edges get sewn down along the seam line before I put my binding on. Wish I knew how to blur lettering! That is why I erased the baby's name...one more thing to put on my "I need to learn out to do this on the computer' bucket list!