embroidery machine
 

I am thinking of buying a cheapie embroidery machine. I always wanted to do a bookcase quilt like the one moonrise did. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...r-t211741.html
Could a Walmart embroidery machine do the titles? Is there another way...besides embroidery, to do the titles? I do not do hand embroidery so I don't want to attempt that on this type of quilt.

Thanks for any help.

if you mean this one...http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-PE...chine/20612403 it absolutely can do the titles and so much more. about 20 years ago, that was a $1000+ machine.

Oh that is great, I've been wanting one, I have seen such cute quilts made with embroidery squares, will be getting a GD anyday now, getting excited! This will be my second GC, but 22 years apart, so looking forward to a new baby. I don't know too much about embroidery machines, can I make labels with this one? It sure fits into my income tax return budget.

Is this one from Costco in your budget? A little more, but comes with 8 feet, 12 spools of thread, has a thread cutter, etc. http://www.costco.com/Brother%c2%ae-....11528279.html

just remember that with both of these machines, you have a 4"x4" design area.

Jumping in here with a question. Does wanting a large embroidery area mean big bucks? Just wondering, touches of embroidery add so much to a quilt. :)

The Brother you have here is an embroidery only machine. The one from Cosco does regular sewing too. It depends what you want.

generally speaking, the larger the hoop that can be used on a machine the higher the price - it means a larger computer to handle the more detailed designs as well as some extra throat space for the arm to move the hoop around in. If you're going for your first machine, I'd consider the features you want before you determine the price....frequently, the cheapest machines are ones you have to have hooked to a compute the whole time you are doing embroidery - they're cheap because the machine doesn't contain the computer necessary to do the work - it depends on the computer to do the wok and to download it continuously. For lots of people this is an almost impossible situation since they don't have space near their compute for this to happen. Other machines allow you to load designs onto a thumb drive, or dongle, which is then plugged into the machine to do the work. Other, older machines, require you to insert special computer cards into the machine. You may be able to get an older machine that will allow larger hoops and give you more beginning flexibility than the "cheap" ones...just try several out and see what you want before you buy.

I think this is an important factor. I have the Brother SE 400, pretty much the same machine. It has only a 4x4 embroidery area. What does this mean? Let's say you want to make Christmas stockings with embroidered names. The names will be about 1- 1 1/2" tall. That is as big as the letters get. I made one for my mom and made little tag blankets for my grandkids. The letters were that size, not at all what I had hoped for. The designs that come with the machine are the same. The biggest I have used was about 2".

If you have a dealer close, check with them. Frequently they have trade ins that you can get , bigger bang for your buck.

Mine is a Brother PE770. It can use up to a 12x5 hoop.
I bought mine here and purchased the extra hoops separately on Amazon. I prefer to have a dedicated embroidery machine as opposed to one that does both.

http://www.mrvacandmrssew.com/brothe...age-p-724.aspx

hoops..
http://www.amazon.com/Elipse-Embroid...f=pd_sim_hg_14

I didn't start the thead, but thank you for your input, also have been reading in the embroidery thread. I see that before I buy, I need to do research. thank you

Hi...tapper here.
I want to say thanks once again.
I have asked questions here and always get good info.
I appreciate all the help.
I hope everyone has a bright,bright,sunshiny day! (if not literally than definitely figuratively)

Depending on what machine you buy you can also get designs online for your machine that would have the alphabet letters larger than one and a half inches tall that you can use with your machine. There is a learning curve to using an embroidery machine but it is SO worth it. I have a Brother one 4 x 4 hoop size and I have used it a lot. I am glad I have one. I bought all of my machines from www.allbrands.com

This book is what got me interested in even wanting the machine in the first place.

http://www.nancysnotions.com/product...idence+book.do

Amazon has it too.

My only recommendation is that you buy a Brother machine. They stitch beautifully, are easy to learn, and usually any problems are easily sorted out. If you have a good sewing machine buy the embroidery only one from Walmart. Many of us like to sew on another project while the embroidery machine is doing its thing.

Just to clarify the 12x5 hoop for the PE770. You can use the 12x5 hoop, however the embroidery field (your design is 5x7 largest.) You will have to move your hoop to use the rest of the 12x5 space.

The Baby Lock site has a comparable chart for their machines. You can compare features, stitches, etc and see what you get with a particular machine. Other sites may have the same for their machines. Baby Lock and Brother have many similarities. My embroidery machine is a mid-dollar and as much as I enjoy it, I wish it cut thread between jump stitches. Not necessary but would be a great perk.
http://www.babylock.com/embroidery/compare/

I have the cheap $300 Brother. Bought it on Amazon. Love this little embroidery only machine. Only does a 4 in design but that enough for me. Downloaded lots of red work designs. Drawback is it uses a card and you will need the Ped Basic to do anything with it. Thats almost $100.
But its a great beginner machine. I only make quilt blocks with it, 6 in size blocks. Made a cute teddy bear redwork baby quilt with it. My camera is not communicating with my computer so cant post a picture. Used nine patch blocks as alternate blocks.

Embroidery Machines, from a shop that are used have been serviced before you take them home.

You will not be happy with very small embroidery hoops, I had one, never used it, then I traded up to a Baby Lock Ellisimo and love it. My big hoop I used more than anything it is 8 x 11 1/2. I do a lot of tote bags, also put designs on my jackets and purses. I have had it about 2 years, it is a very EZ machine to use. I had a couple of brother's cheap machines and they ended up breaking on me. I do a lot of heavy duty purses and they just didn't work for me.
If you are just doing light weight sewing like for a quilt, I am sure they would be okay.

I embroidery on Denim and canvas you need a heavy duty machine for that. I agree with the others, go to a sewing machine shop and test some of their machines, most have nice used machines and the prices might work better for you. They will ask you what you are using it for. It is like buying a car, every one doesn't like the same thing.
My Baby Lock was very expensive, but then again I have seen the different in the way one of the other Big name brands did embroidery and that one is very fussy, my machine about the only thing you have to do is change threads,
now if you want one that has 10 threads so you don't have to do that you will pay a few thousand more for that, but it is also only an embroidery machine. My Baby lock Ellisimo is both a sewing machine and embroidery machine, I never use it for anything other than embroidery, for I have two other Baby Locks for general sewing. I have sewn on it just to test if the machine is sewing okay before going back to doing embroidery.

Thank you for all the help.

this is what I was thinking; both of these only have the 4X4 area. Make a square with your hands of something and you can see how small of an area you'll be doing. The potholders can most certanily be done without an emb machine and so can the bookshelf. You can use either a pigma pen or hand embroidery or I know even my kenmore will do words like this. I love my embroidery machine and its got one of the biggest hoops out there for a single thread machine. I have never used my 4x4 which comes with all machines. I like hooping lots of things at once. I'd check out your local stores to see what they have. I were going to chose one of these, I'd go with the one from Costco because if later on you want to go up to a larger machine (it is addicting) then you have a spare sewing machine along with the extra embrodiery machine.

There is an embroidery only Brother that does 5 x 7. It gets great reviews and I love the Brother tol I've had.

Thank you everyone.