Whew....I just re-read this whole thread....I think I am on brain over load, you guys are awesome-such a wealth of information. I have learned so much in the couple hours I have been sitting here reading. I have a Brother EM/Sewing combo and a White just EM machine-haven't been happy w/ the White since the day I bought it, but I part of that is because I go to long in between using it, now this thread has re-sparked my interest.
Karen thanks so much for starting this years a couple years back.
dee

emb. chart for fabrics
 

The afore mentioned chart was prepared by Diamondthreadworks...it is about a 3-4 page document and can be downloaded from.... http://www.docstoc.com/docs/41766919...rt-for-Fabrics
I had a bit of a time finding it again and was about to offer to share my copy. :-} As I said before, it is only 100kb, but has lots of info. Did you know you could embroider on balsa wood? I didn't either, and still not sure about that, but it is on the chart! Sorry you guys couldn't access it.

I had the Janome 11000SE and the MB4 Both good machines. Upgraded the 11000 to a Horizon 12000. Think I might sell the MB4 and just use the Horizon. MB4 is easy to use but seems to have more problems than the 11000 and I think the quality of the stitching on the 12000 is as good as the MB4. The one great thing about the MB4 is less time threading the machine.

Here's another company that offers lots of character designs. http://needlework.ru/page/spring-is-...mbroidery.html Most of them are free, but I think you have to spend $4 to get something like 35 designs. I picked up the May Gibbs set for a baby quilt. They also offer logos, which doesn't seem quite right, but who knows?

I just wanted to share some pix of a little quilt I did for this month's doll quilt swap. I hand-pieced it and originally thought I'd hand quilt it -- but my partner probably wouldn't receive it until December if I did! So I decided to quilt using my embroidery machine. I'm happy with the way it came out.

And, by the way, if any of you are interested in signing up to join us, there are still two days left!

I have a Janome 350E. I'm new at this so look forward to everyones comment.

I have a Janome 9500. It uses JEF. Have ordered some designs but they haven't come yet. My machine has some fonts that i can use and a few embroiery designs in the machine. Haven't tried thread embroidery yet

Not sure how I missed this thread, but it has been very interesting. I started out with a Bernina Deco 500 that was used. Met several other people that had embroidery machines at our quilt guild and we decided to get together and work on specific embroidery projects. We all did not have the same machine. We learned a lot from each other and also about thread, designs, stabilizers. I upgraded to the Deco 650 for a bigger embroidery field, then a progression from the Bernina 165 to 200 that was later upgraded to a 730 and now have the Bernina 830. There is so much you can learn about any machine by going to the manufacturer's website. There are some free designs and also projects that will lead you through doing things on your machine if you can't get to classes. There are also Yahoo Groups for specific machines that have a lot of information and you can ask specific questions if you have a problem.

mltquilt

You're very lucky!! Sew happy for you that nothing more came of it. Yes, it does pay to be cautious.

When you click "about us" when you go to Saveondesigns, it does not tell you anything about this site. Also, I don't see where they say they are a licensed distributor for Disney. Has anyone bought from them?



[/QUOTE]

I have a Viking Topaz 20 and so far I love it (well most times lol). I have made two smaller quilts with it, and now working on a third. The shirts I am not to happy with and frustrated with, and not real into those. My DH and family wants me to be.. but they never turn out right.

My understanding is that Disney designs are licensed to Brother and that anyone else selling or giving them away is in violation of copyright.

I started off on this thread with 2 Brother ULT's, but yesterday I was using one to embroider quilt blocks --I think they are Harley Davidson bikes (son says they're anatomically correct for colorlines.) I got one mugrug finished and 4.5 blocks done when suddenly the machine gave a death rattle and locked up totally. The hand wheel won't move, tho I have cleaned the bobbin area thoroughly. I think it is off to repair..I'm worried.

I had that happen to me once. AFTER paying $160 to the technician, I was told there was nothing wrong with it. Sometimes if you are stitching a lot they just shut down and seem to need a rest. If there's a reset button, use it.

I love this thread since I just purchased a Brother PE 770, but I have a bunch of questions! I'll start with just one, LOL!
My EM uses a flash drive to obtain patterns from the internet, but I have no way to organize them! I've been having them sent unzipped by email from which I can put them on my flash drive and then on the EM. I store these in a file on my email account. I print the color change and picture off for each one (lots of work). The pattern shows up as a black "blob" on my machine, then the areas being emb. show up as smaller black blobs. I've been looking at Amazing Designs "Catalog It" and it looks like just what I need. Does anyone use this and how do you get it from the catalog program to the machine? Flash drive? I'm sure considering buying it before I collect anymore patterns!

Sylviac, congratulations on your machine! I have a Brother PE-770 and love it! Never a problem.
As for the designs, I bought something that turns files into icons, but I can't remember what it was. It was around $25. There are lots of Yahoo Embroidery groups and one of them -- I think it's DesignsbySiCK -- has a downloadable file that consists of category folders. It sure is a time saver. I use Windows 7 Professional so I just set up another "Library" called Embroidery. Have fun with your new machine!

I have the PE770 too and yes, the view on the machine is one black blob. However, the price of the machine was excellent, so this is what I did. Search on the internet for ERA Universal. There are quite a few sites. This is a free program, but I got the CD and paid $14.95 forshipping. You might be able to find a dealer, who will let you download deirectly on your computer, if you live in the US. It is a full digitizing program and, yes, no other costs or annoying e-mails. They also have the more expensive Liberty of course, but I am happy with the "freebie". I don't digitize very much with it, but I can alter the designs and scale them. The most important part is that you can see all the steps of your embroidery and look at your computer screen.The learning curve is quite great, but slowly, but surely I like it more and more. Good luck with your machine

I have owned a Bernina 185E for five years and last fall I bought a Happy Voyager. I liked the Bernina, but I hated having to change the thread for every color. Also, the company is not great on customer service because they tell you to call your dealer. My dealer is very condescending to women and I won't tolerate that.

My sister once told a dealer who was rude to me, "Listen, she was born, she was potty trained and then she started to sew. She knows what she's talking about." I love my sister. I am just now learning how to use the new machine (12 needles) and would like to know if anyone else has one. I have a home based business and have embroidered on bibs, clothing, taggie blankets and lots of other things. I love embroidery. It is total creative freedom.

Mermaid( love the name!) thanks a lot, a big help!!

Give your sister a big hug on behalf of all of us who have been subjected to rude dealers!

update on my machine
 

I found a fixit website and "dived in" this morning--took the end cover off--and it is definitely thread wrapped around a bearing near the thread take up lever. A rainbow of colors. This machine was bought 2nd hand last Dec., and I know I'm not responsible for all of this! Seems when our thread breaks, we pull the end out or break it in the machine and it builds up. In future I will do a thorough look-see when I have breakage. Meantime, the instructions on line say if you can't remove it all, then it's up to repair man to remove the needle bar . The wheel is still locked tightly.

Re: the problem seeing downloaded designs...there are many free programs to help with that....There is a viewer that lets you see thru folders as well as singles, and has a print function. At Secrets of Embroidery you can download a free file that has category folders to sort & store ..install into your docs. There are other free software programs that you can use until you decide to buy an expensive program....when you want to "create" your own designs.

Mermaid, I couldn't find your free file on Sec. of Emb. You can download a free part of Embird, but then you have to buy it if you want to keep it. I went back and looked at Catalog It and decided to go ahead and order it. I think it will do everything I want it to do now. I'm not ready to get into digitizing yet, just need to get organized. Catalog It looks very easy to learn, too, and I don't need anything with a big learning curve since I'm just starting out. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions. And I'm sure I will have more questions. My closest dealer is 2 hrs away. Wish I knew someone closer that had either this machine or the PE 780.

Take a look at Buzz Tools before you order. See if this would meet you needs. I use it and really like it. It organizes, it gives you a thumbnail of the design, it converts designs, it is easy to learn. It did take me awhile to get use to it, only because I kept putting it aside before diving in to learn it, when I did, I was amazed at how easy it was.

organizing designs
 

Go to http://www.secretsof.com/content/608 and it opens the page telling you how to use this organizer..be sure to read or copy the instructions how to open the downloaded file. I just ck'd and it is still there. Sorry you didn't find it . There are many categories of folders and you can add or change the name of the folder you are storing in. And go ahead and try the Embird free for 30 days. I like it for converting formats--an entire folder full at one time. It is not expensive to own unless you want to add a lot of extras. You can open a folder and see thumbnails of each design stored in the folder. Really neat.

emblibrary has a project that shows you how to embroidery on balsa wood. It's a great site with lots of projects; tips and techniques; and lots of designs. If you order once a month they'll include you in the sale; like the one they just had, any 10 designs for $10.

Viking's web site offers advice on stabilizers along with free designs and emblibrary.com also has lots about stabilizers. It even shows you what happens when they've tested different stabilizers. it's a great site.I have a Ruby and Viking is great.

Just came across a wonderful sale on machine embroidery.
If you buy three, you get six free
Buy five and get ten free
And many of the sets only cost $2.50!
How can you go wrong?
http://www.wattsemb.com/index.htm

Recently I was telling you all about the embroidery thread
that I bought from Amazon, and how much I liked it.

Also talked about how I was not going to have enough of
one color to finish my "Year of Angels" in the end I got ALL
but one angel finished before running out of thread.

Well last week I broke down and ordered another set of
that thread just so I could get the one color I really needed.

Now to get rid of the 9 colors that I DO NOT like lol.

That is soooo not playing fair with me... you KNOW I have
an "addiction" to embroidery designs (over 100k at this time).

But I am in the process of buying some of their designs, I love
the snappy smart remarks sayings of Stella and the others lol.

Ha! Those are the only ones I DIDN'T purchase! I love all the little baby quilt designs - not that I have any babies or grandbabies around, but hope springs eternal!

Sounds to me quilty-louise, that you will use those up without a problem.

Here's a weird tidbit. I was watching a Fons and Porter video yesterday and they had a woman on who was using embroidery to embellish a quilt. When they got to the tips section she recommended taking all those itty bitty pieces of washaway stabilizer, snipping to bits and dissolving in water. Save in frig and then paint it on fabric, let dry, and - instant stabilizer. I cannot imagine what kind of fabric you'd paint it on. Anyone else see this?

I use the water soluable stabilizer as glue for my appliques, works great. I also use it on my doilies to make them stiff again as well after having to wash them. makes one wonder if it would work on your fabric, if it makes everything else stiff, would be worth a try to see if would work again as stabilizer. It makes a great paste for glue. I made an embroidered hot air balloon ornament and used the water stabilizer to keep the balloon part stiff and worked great.

I have been reading this thread with great interest over the past few days as I have been considering buying a new embroidery machine.
I have a Designer 1 but it is quite slow reading the USB and getting the designs up but sews beautifully, and will now go up for sale....anyway it has been a really hard choice but yesterday I bought a Janome 11000 upgraded to SE...although it is about 4 years old it is extremly good condition and came with the AQ frame, clothsetter table and giga hoop (not that I know how to ue them yet)
I bought is for just over $2000 which is the most I have ever spent on anything other than a car...The dealer, here in the UK that I bought it from was great. I spent nearly two hours in the shop with him going through it all.
He even offered me two weeks to bring it back and get a total refund if I was unhappy with anything as well as a years gaurantee. He is a really good dealer, very reputable and people travel long distances to buy from him.
....so guess how I am spending my Easter break.......!!!
I use Embird but would be really interested is anyone is using any Janome software.

Little RoO Congrats on your new machine!

Rosemary, you are going to have soooo much fun with it! I can't wait to see what you do first!

Hello,
I am new and I love both quilting and Embroidery.
I have went through 2 Bernia 170 and 170E machines and 1 Brother ult 2003, and now i am up to the Commercial 15 needle SWF/B T1501... I just love it to pieces... and would never look back as I burn the home machines up..
I retired from Retail Management back in 1998, and did not want to just sit around the House, (To Hyper) so I purchased my First Bernina Quilters / embroidery machine and I have been hooked every sense..

All Cottons, it is great for doing fabrics that go through printers and stuff, but through the years I was always told to put a teaspoon of Alcahol in it so it does not mold. and to keep it in the frige...