I recently bought a Husqvarna Topaz 20 and took a couple lessons to learn how it thinks. My advice is to contact the dealer, make an appointment for a whole afternoon, and take your book and write notes. I would have never figure this machine out on my own. It's so different from the Janome Memory Craft 8000 I used for years and years. ( Well actually, I burned thru 2 Janomes!) But the good thing about this Husky is that my Janome designs were re-programmed from design cards into the language for the Husky and now I have them downloaded to my flash drive straight to the new machine. I had spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the Janome designs and just throwing that out was not an option for me. So now I not only have all of them, but I can buy great designs for very cheap on embroiderylibrary.com also.

I would use the clear water soluble plastic stabilizer on both sides, maybe even double on both sides since the fabric is so slippery. You can get it in big rolls now and if you watch the sale coupons for Joann's and Hancock's, you can get it for good prices.

I have been playing with my Brother PE-770 since I got it for my birthday in March. I have been using a borrowed software and now I want to find one that is made for Brother. We don't have a dealer here so I talked to one while I was visiting my daughter and all she wanted to sell me was a $1400 Brother software. I went to a Bernina dealer that told me to check out Embird and BuzzTools. Any thoughts out there ?

There are several free ones if you do a google search; one is I think called ERA, it is a full program. You can get it for free but if you want the cd then its like 15. The good thing from what I've heard about the cd is that it comes with a lot of installation, etc info that helps alot. rnkdistributing.com (floriani) has software that is compatible with Brother. I have the 5D Professional Plus and it really helps me do more. My machine came with an organizer that did alot but the full program is great because I like to modify and change things to suit me.

What kind of stabilizer should I use for items like burp cloths, kitchen towels? I was using a tear away but then I read where it doesn't hold up after washes. I am so excited, I got my janome 9500 to read designs from transfers now. I have only had this machine how many years, and just getting into this embroidery. I really need to slow down and read about all this. Up to now, I just been playing around with it.

When you are doing the towels, tshirts, etc the emb has a tendancy to sink into the fabric after washing. To prevent this you use a topping or wss on top as well as the tear away on the bottom. rnkdistributing.com has a great workbook for stabilizer, emblibrary.com also has great tutorials on working on these items and will tell you when they've tested different products and how it works. For tshirts I use a mesh tear away on the back because it stays really soft against the skin. I don't think I'll ever learn enough and just when I think I know what I'm doing I learn a different way to try it. I take classes at my LQS when they are something that I haven't done before and will learn something new. My LQS, also my machine dealer started this yr offering classes on our machines and the software. The machine classes are broken down to the features of our sewing part of the machine and then there will be a couple of classes on the embroidery part. I always learn something new. Then once or twice a yr Viking will have educators go to different stores and offer classes and show us stuff that we probably haven't saw before. I take lots of pictures. I'm also starting getting into the digitizing part of it all. Right now I'm taking a design that I bought and modifying it to make it have a zipper part for money, c cards, etc, plus it can be put on a belt or use a wrist strap and I may add a thin long strap that can be tucked into the bag and only be taken out as needed. This is very easy to do if you are just sewing it but I want to do it all on the emb to make my life easier in the long run. Most of this is because my daughter likes to go out at night but not worry about a purse so this is being geared to what she needs but I like having it too. Every time I go to a website I check out their tutorials and projects. Most all of them have them and I always learn something new or get ideas of new things to make.

Reply to SingerSewer; Anita Goodesign has great designs and if you can find her classes as they go to different areas then that's also great. Also check to see when John Deere and Floriani offer classes in your area. Not only are their classes affordable, you'll learn a lot and get lots of free things and have the opportunity to buy things at great prices.

For organization I use my software that came with my machine. I had gotten one from Floriani last yr that was to just view your designs in one large folder. You save them in the folder with the orignal name and then they show up as icons and you don't have to remember what the name was because you can see all of your designs. The nice thing about this software besides seeing all of your designs as pics so you don't have to recall a name to pull it up because when you click on it, it will pull up the design but it also doesn't matter if you've gotten designs with the same name, it will still store them. This happens alot especially when you buy from different companies. I'm not currently using it and have decided to sell it because I found out my machines software will do the same thing so it's not needed. but it is an easy program to use and it's around a 100 new so really affordable.

When I download designs I first save them into an orders folder with the companies name. This is because if you ever want to reorder a design, it gets corrupt or whatever, you need to have the co name plus the original name of design. I don't rename them until I save them into another folder by catagory. Now I just don't rename them at all, I put them into folders by catagory as to what they are and then have subfolders with companies name so I know where I got them. This is also good if you need to redownload a thread chart or instructions from a site, you need the name. Some companies archive the designs after a while so if you don't have the design name you can't get it again. I save them all to my pc and then do a backup to 2 Cd's. In the future I'll get a portable hard drive and then I'll back them up to it and do a cd and with a copy on my laptop I should be covered. You'll be amazed at how fast the designs accumulate with all the free ones you can get, the ones on sale or just the ones you can resist. I also have a folder called Cd and that's where I save the orginal for CD's that I have purchased so that I'm sure of where Ineed to go to find them. Organizing them from the beginning is so much easier than trying to do it later and then keeping it updated is also a chore but worth it when you need to find something.

I have been making burp cloths out of flannel - double sided so the back of the embroidery is not seen. I wanted them to stay soft so I use iron on very light weight knit interfacing (half price coupon at JoAnn's) and iron on to the entire one side of the flannel. It is enclosed in the seams so I am not worried about it loosening up with washing. Doing the embroidery I do float a piece of WSS on the top. The flannel is washed prior to cutting/stitching, and then again after and there has been no puckering or shrinkage of the stitched area. If I were doing a single layer I think I would use a WSS stabilizer in the hoop and float another piece on the top. I have been doing very simple redwork type line designs and not a heavier applique type design. Jane

You can expect to pay several hundred dollars to as much as over a thousand for a good embroidery software, however, what you spend depends on what you want the software to do.

What features are you looking for in an embroidery software.

Buying this is very much like buying a car, or a new computer, or a sewing machine for that matter. All depends on what you want it to do (what features you want on it).

Hi, I have a Brother SE 350 and haven't had a lot of time to play with it. I replied last post I saw and then lost you while I was away on vacation. Let me know where to look for this conversation I would love to join you and learn and share. Sue