I have a brother Inovis 5000 Isadore Laura Ashley,my second one, I love the site designs by juju, if you have little kids. Also, my brother like brother thread and I do too. Some of my facebook buddies give me sites that have sale on emb desigs go to Kreative kiwi, she have great sale, google her

I bought a new Janome 12000
 

I have been told to use stabilizer cut away, that it is the best for cotton and doesn't pucker

There is so much to learn and so many companies waiting to take your money? Lol. It is a ton of fun though. I don't spend a lot on designs. I look for free ones first. Etsy usually has reasonable prices. Emblibrary has excellent embroidery tutorials especially for difficult fabrics. It's a whole new way to unleash your creativity. Enjoy.

Take a look at http://video.wpt.org/program/sewing-nancy/episodes/. There are always the last 2 years of NZ shows free. She has a 3 part series on embroidery that you watch among others. She has a great serger series for any baby lockers out there.

I agree with Judi - Hatched in Africa designs are great! Sew out so well. And Embird is what I use also. Like every program, just take it a step at a time. I love the look of Embroidery Library, but gosh are they stitch intensive and have a lot of color changes. I always have to do something to eliminate some of the stitches. That being said, I did their Last Supper design, and it is one of the embroideries I have done that I absolutely love! Took hours to do but well worth it.

You can purchase stabilizer at JoAnn's, it's on the bolts with the Pellon stuff. Inexpensive and good way to see what you like before you go out and spend lots of money on rolls of stabilizer. Use a medium cutaway for most things, use an iron on for stretchy things, tear away for towels with a wash away topper to keep the stitches from sinking into the towel. I love Metro Thread www.metroemb.com right now 1000M spools are on sale for 89 cents, they also have assorted packages, great for starting off. Polyester thread is all I use, it can be bleached, some people like the shininess of Rayon but you can't bleach it. I use Embird software, buy the basic module and Iconizer so you can see your designs. Go to the thrift store and buy t-shirts, woven shirts, towels, etc. Have a play date with yourself and try out the different fabrics with different stabilizers. Then wash the test items and see what happens. If you get puckers it may be you stretched your fabric when hooping, or the stabilizer shrunk. I always steam iron my stabilizer and wash the item to be embroidered so it all shrinks before I embroider it.

I have bought both thread and bobbins from MetroEmbroidery. They have great prices, and excellent customer service. My machine likes their thread also. Enjoy your machine!

Hi, I use Metro Thread, it's an online store. They prices are extremely low. Under a $1.00 for a 1000 m spool.
They have stabilizers too. I bought stabilizer from them to use for my 'trial' stitch outs. Pre-cut blocks, that fit
frame. Makes life slightly easier. There customer service is outstanding. I had some thread where I could not find
the free (start) thread, they took the color numbers and without any other questions about it, sent me out new
spools!!! Just so that you know, I do not work for this company...I'm just trilled I found them!!!

Another great place to look for designs is http://www.oregonpatchworks.com/OPW/designindex.php


Lots of different digitizers as well as Secrets of Embroidery. After awhile you will get to know who does the nicer designs. These two sites will give you lots to choose from.

I am signed up on www.SewForum.com they have free designs and lots of help under different titles. Have not done embroidery for a while but this forum has members that create a lot of great designs and then share with members.
Someone designed a fringe snowball with a funny face, it was created by a member and then shared.