Wish we could split the other one into about 6 parts! I bought a Brother PE 770 a few months ago and I'm having a blast with it! I'm in the process of putting together a quilt with embroidered flowers on a black background. I ordered a complete set of hoops and finally got some cutaway stabilizer to use with the heavier thread counts. I've also bought some T-shirts to embroider for my two youngest grandkids. I hope to do a lot of stuff for Christmas this year.

I started quilting just over a year ago. Have been a long time sewer but have discovered my passion is really quilting. I purchased a Janome 6600 which is the ultimate quilting machine but have struggled with FMQ. I recently learned about using an embroidery machine to quilt and the more I researched this the more excited I was!! Just this past week I jumped in head first and got an excellant deal on a Bernina 830LE which was a show machine. My dealer is fantastic and while I am extremely overwhelmed at the moment, I am taking baby steps with this new girl, go to my first class next week and am over-the-moon in love with her!! My nephew is getting married in October and I have his wedding quilt pieced together. I hope to be able to finish it up with my new machine.

Karen in MN

Last year, I bought a Janome 6600 and a 350E. I absolutely love having embroidered blocks on quilts--I think it adds such a nice touch. I'm glad I got the two separate machines because I can be sewing on the 6600 while the 350E is doing its thing. I bought the Digitizer JR software, but still haven't figured out how to use it(other than for making labels). There are so many designs online, that I don't know if I will ever get into digitizing. I considered buying the lesson CDs, but don't know if they are worthwhile.

Karen, the 6600 is wonderful for FMQ...especially if you have the FMQ bobbin case. It's not very expensive, and worth every penny!

I have a Janome 7700 that I do all my quilting on and a Husqvana diamond I do all my embroidery on. I also use it to quilt my quilts. I have the 4D software and love it, for many reasons. I of course design my labels with it and digitize the quilt patterns. Outline only.

I have been quilting since Oct 2006. Got my first embroidery/sewing
machine in Dec 2007. Instant LOVE for machine embroidery from that
point on.

Got another new sewing/embroidery machine in Jan 2012 along with
the Floriani digitizing software which I am trying to learn how to use.

The machines I have are both Brother's one is the Innov-Is 1000 and
the newest is Innov-Is 1500D.

This is the latest project I have completed for a mug rug swap on another
website.



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Dixie,

Yes I use Floriani thread, I LOVE it and have never had any issues with
it. Below is EVERYTHING that I do/use when stitching out ANY design
being polyester, rayon or metallic thread so far this is what I found is
working for me.

Machine speed: 350spm (slowest the machine has)
Needle: 90/14 TopStitch (or 90/14 large eye sharp)
Stabilizer that is right for the project I am working on
Thread net!!! (I found that this REALLY help control the thread during stitch outs)


I bought the Organ large eye sharp needles from ALLSTITCH.com great price
as you get 100 needles for less than $30 (plus shipping).

It took MANY trials and errors for me to find this combo that worked on
my machines.

Hope this helps.

I purchased my first embroidery machine, a Brother SE270D, about 5 years ago. It is a combo machine. I had an inexpensive Singer sewing machine which kept giving me problems and so I thought the combo machine would be perfect for what I could afford. I fell in love with both functions of the 270D. I knew nothing about embroidery...had only done hand embroidery in the past. I WAS a little intimidated by the embroidery feature but my DDIL just jumped right in and figured it out. Of course, there was a lot to learn about stabilizers, etc which has come with time and study. At first, I only used the designs that were stored in the machine but I soon branched out to downloading designs from on line embroidery sites. I now have so many, I would have to embroidery 24/7/365 to complete them all!! LOL

I soon found, however, that the 4x4 hoop was very limiting and it was especially difficult to embroidery on larger, thicker items. Sooooo, I called my dealer and bought the Brother PE700II...fell in love again! It is actually now my "go-to" machine for embroidery with its larger 5x7 hoop. I have embroidered so many things for family that I think they are "tired" of receiving embroidered gifts!!

I purchased a couple of embroidery/digitizing software....Embroidery Magic II and Sew What Pro. I also own Monogram Wizard Plus which is mostly a lettering software but has been recently upgraded so that designs can be merged with the lettering. I'm not sure that I want to really get into digitizing and the auto-digitizing features leave a lot to be desired. Manual Digitizing is a more complex feature and takes lots of practice (kinda like FMQ!)

I want to try some ITH (In The Hoop) projects and lately I have been downloading quilting designs and hope to use my 700II to do some quilting.

My sister owns the Brother Innovis 4500D and the PR650 (the big one) and she uses PE Design software. So yall can understand why our family has tired of all the embroidered items as gifts!!

I have a Brother PR 620 and use Floriani and Artista Software. I started with a Brother ULT that did both embroidery and sewing but never used the sewing function so I traded it for the machine I have now. The ULT came with software so I didn't really know what you could do without software. I saw and really liked the Artista software so I bought it and now use both it and the Floriani.

There is still so much to explore but for now, after buying multitudes of patterns, I have declared a moratorium on purchasing any more until I use what I have. Like buying fabric, it's easy to go crazy.

I'm looking forward to this thread and now much easier it will be to see everything.

I have been doing machine embroidery for several years and still feel like a newbie sometimes. I have a Baby Lock Ellageo that I dearly love but some day would like to upgrade. {It still uses the floppy disks.} I do a lot of embroidery for my grand kids and just for fun. Love to put embroidered block in my quilts. I tell my friends I have ADD, I am Addicted to Downloading Designs. Sometimes I spend more time looking for designs than I spend sewing, but I sure have fun with it.