embroidery machine
 

I've been sewing for 30 years, quilting 15 years and this weekend finally bought my first embroidery machine! I'm so excited to start "playing" with it and I'm asking for any advice you can give me on all aspects of my new hobby, thread, stabilizers, brand names to stay away from, websites, etc. I got a Brother 770 in the box from the dealer, they say I should buy all my supplies from them, but I'm sure you guys know cheaper places to buy this stuff from. They acted as if I were speaking greek when I mentioned buying from connectingthreads. Thank you! :)

Join the site, Designs By Sick. It is free and they give away designs daily, every hour and every 1/2 hour. The designs are a good price too.

I have a Brother 770 as well. I recommend checking out the videos on youtube by Vince Acuri(sp?). Just search Brother 770 and his videos should come up. He saved my sanity yesterday when I had to go back and see how he puts his thread on the spool. He has a video that is over an hour long for the new owner that is super. I have been getting my stabilizers, prewound bobbins and temporary adhesive from Amazon and I purchased a bunch of thread from threadart.com. Threadart also has designs and a digitizing service which is kind of neat. I've purchased a couple of designs from Embroidery Library and one from an etsy shop. There are lots of options for designs. I'm using the Sew What Pro program to incorporate purchased designs in my Brother 770.

Have fun with your new machine

I buy most from www.emblibrary.com I am a lifetime member of www.designsbysick.com I wait until sales and get a bunch! www.bfc-creations.com is wonderful too! I have bought my thread from www.bfc-stash.com and have been VERY pleased with my purchases http://www.myfloriani.club/index.php has wonderful thread and if you ever get a chance to check out their stabilizers / software please take the class. Not associated with any of them, just a happy customer

You should also take some time to learn about the different types of stabilizers. I get mine from all-stitch:
http://www.allstitch.net/department/....cfm?killnav=1
They have links to 3 excellent articles on stabilizers. Follow the link below scroll down a bit:
http://www.allstitch.net/department/....cfm?killnav=1

I buy from Amazon for my thread and stablizers for the most part. Also, threadart and connecting threads I have been happy with. Here is some great sites to visit also.
www.emblibrary.com (the one I use the most)
www.designsbysick.com
www.swakembroidery.com
www.annthegran.com
www.lynniepinnie.com

Don't buy lots of anything until you find out what you like. This goes for thread, backing (aka stabilizer), and even designs. Start with embroidering stable woven fabrics before knits since it is so easy to stretch the fabric out of shape on knits. Embroidery Library has some great tutorials about embroidering on different types of fabrics, and it is worthwhile looking for them. Accept the fact that different fabrics need different backings, and you will need an assortment. For thread, it is important that you try a couple of spools of any thread brand before you buy a complete collection. Your machine (or just your preference) may not like one that everyone else does!

Enjoy! I started 20+ years ago with a little 4x4 design space and now have a 12 needle pro machine. It is very addicting.

Pam

Sign up to receive newsletters from embroidery sites, such as emblibrary.com - they frequently have fantastic sales and there are also a lot of free designs. Another site with good freebies is pamelasembroidery.com

My Janome 350e loves Madeira polyneon thread, which I buy from sewphisticatedstitcher.com - their prices are good and service is fantastic.

No matter where you get your designs, there are so many different brands of thread that it can be hard to find the right color. That's where a conversion chart is worth its weight in gold--and here's the best conversion chart I've found: http://threadchart.info/threadchart.php?f=MADPOLY7.

One major suggestion: Keep your designs organized! Here's an excellent article on how to organize designs on your computer: http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/ELProje...oductid=pr1735

A word of caution: Embroidery, like quilting, is highly addictive!!! Have fun!

Keep notes on what worked for you and what didn't. Not only what combinations of fabric, stabilizer and thread, but also your machine tension & speed. And like others have said: Have Fun!

I agree with the advice you are getting: embroidery is a whole new world and you will love it. I prefer Floriani stabilizers and frequently use their threads as well. I tend to stick to polyester threads as early on I was advised that rayon thread might fade over time, but I haven't been at it long enough to have experience with that. RNK distributing has a great stabilizer reference that you might want to print off http://www.rnkdistributing.com/resou...izer-guide.pdf.