Oh that's great! This darn board is getting too expensive for me- now I find myself wanting an embroidering machine and I didn't before HAHA
I've acquired many things since joining that I never knew I HAD TO HAVE :D:D

I have a Brother 1250 and there are a few things that I don't like about it. 1st the embroidery patterns are very small and not in color. Sometimes it is difficult to determine what the pattern is. 2nd, mine is a sewing / embroidery machine and it is extremely sensitive to the kind of thread you use. Coats and Clark won't do. Has to be some of the more expensive thread. Thread gets caught when removing spool. always unthread from the top down. If you get any thread caught in the mechanism, you'll have to take to shop. I didn't know anything about embroidery either. If you reduce the size, most of the time, your piece will be ruined as the thread is loose in the pattern and balls up on the wrong side. If you use a pattern from online, chances are you will have problems there.

I have learned the hard way and have thrown away many items of clothing because of one of these problems.

Sounds like you have a more expensive machine and will work better for you than mine. Good luck.

Congrats on your new machine. I think you will love embroidery. It is adictive, I love making crib/lap quilts with embroidery blocks. There are so many designs available.
It is expensive, but what isn't these days.

:thumbup:

The Brother I bought is around $500. Compared to many of the other Embroidery/Sewing machines, Brother one is $5,000!
Babylock starts around $4500 - $9,000, Bernina has their top of the line for a car payment so to speak $13,000!
I got an inexpensive one to see if I like doing Embroidery first, if I want to do the larger patterns, I can save up for a higher cost machine.

My problem with getting patterns from the internet is not being able to open them. Didn"T know that would be a problem, so before even trying, I downloaded lots of free designs in the right format, . Then when I did try, the files seem to be "zipped" and I don"t know how to unzip them. Can anyone help me with that?

Perhaps a unzip program such as WinZip?

You will love it once you start playing with it. I just brough myself a Brother Quattro a few weeks ago. Anb boy do I love it.
Maryfrances Ellis
[email protected]

Try a memory stick and copy the files to that then use the stick on the usb port on your machine.

You will have a LOT of fun with this machine :D:D:D