Louise, have you ever tried putting mylar or that lovely shiny illusion fabric behind them? It adds a lot of sparkle and if you use blues, another lovely background color. The only minor pain is that you really need to use a woodburner to get off all the extra fabric.

This past weekend I visited my guild's quilt show, which was marvelous. There was one quilt that was exquisitely machine embroidered -- photos below. The center panel had hot fix crystals throughout.

I remarked to one woman, "Wouldn't you have loved receiving that as a wedding gift?"
She said, "Yes, but can you imagine your husband putting his dirty boots up on it?"

While we were chuckling someone else was admiring the quilt and wondering why it didn't place higher. A woman, who I think was a show official, remarked with disdain, "Yes, the embroidery is lovely, but SHE didn't do it, did she? No. The machine did it."

So, just wondering if any of you have run into this attitude about machine embroidered quilts.

I mean if you use a programmed long arm, you didn't do it ... a machine did it. So what's the difference?

I have the babylock elegante, ellisimo and the brother PR620 and the little pooh that I can travel with. I love to do free standing lace, quilts, monograms and just about anything that can be done with the machines. I have the babylock palette version 8 software. I have been going to learn to digitize since 1996, but it is just so easy to purchase the designs. I mostly use the software to do Monograms with and to put designs together to make a design. I also use it to change the colors to get an idea of what it will look like before I stitch it out. It is so much fun, but some times when things go wrong it is such a headache.

People with this attitude are the same ones who complained when artists stopped mixing their own oil paints, or using electric tools to make hand made furniture.

I Have the Brother Inovis Quattro 6000D that I got last summer. I am having a blast embroidering everything I can. My machine will read any format, but I always get PES designs. The machine comes with several hundred built in designs, but I am always looking for more and have found great deals online. I embellished sweatshirts, for my grandkids, with Disney characters and their names for Christmas. I have made In the Hoop stuffies, placemats, napkins, towels, runners, purses, and of course...Quilts. I will be posting pics soon.
So happy I found this thread.
Val

QuiltyLouise,
Those Angels are beautiful! And you said you used what kind of thread again? Sorry having a brain fart this morning :(

Krystyna or Quilty Louise, can you explain to me what the mylar is for? I've seen several embroidery designs that ask for mylar paper and don't know what they mean.

Quiltnut, you can view a video on using mylar in embroidery here - it is essentially the sort of cellophane type material that you would use to wrap a gift basket, but with a bit of luminescence. You actually can buy a roll of it at Joann or Michael's, but there is another type to use if you want your embroidery to be washable in a machine.
I don't use it myself, but like using the vapor organzas from Joann. They are just gorgeous and come in so many colors. I also used a sparkly burgundy organza to make napkin rings. So pretty. If you look at post 427 you'll see a little angel I made using some organza - although I also used glitter thread on the wings and some details.

TanyaL - you hit the nail on the head. I think that the use of an embroidery machine is legitimate for use in quilting. Just as legitimate as the use of any other piece of equipment.

Clem55--there is a free download of embroidery chart for fabrics that lists the type of stabilizer to use with ea fabric..very informative. It is at http://www.diamondthreadworks.com and is only 100kb, tho there is almost every fabric listed.