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I have finished a Harry Potter quilt, and I wrote the names of the books on them with fabric pens, and heat set the ink, I used, black, white, silver and gold pens, it looks really neat.

If you wanted to purchase a embroidery machine any way then go for it. If you are thinking of buying one just to do the book titles then I wouldn't. I would go to a sewing machine shop and ask if they do embroidery, use fabric pens to write the titles or hand embroider them.

I use my embroidery machine to do some of my quilting - and I've made embroidered quilts that are very unique. I've got it so I will use it and love it!!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-PE...roduct+Reviews

This is the cheap Brother machine. $258. I want to do that quilt, too, for my DH, a big HP fan. I'm having the same quandary you are. I bought one of the first embroidery machines years ago when my kids were little and never mastered how to use it. However, it appears that they are easier to use now. I actually want the PE-770 for $600, but not sure about spending that much for something I'm not sure I will use. So I have been really thinking about this machine. As far as doing the embroidery by hand, that is how she did the original quilt. It looks doable, but I love the one I saw posted on here with all the fancy machine embroidery for the book titles.

P-BurgKay would love to see your quilt done with fabric pens. Never thought of doing it that way. How well has it washed?

For stabilizer, I've read that coffee filters work well. Never have tried it myself. You would need a spool of bobin thread and a spool of each color you want to use. Whatever machine you decide on will come with one or more fonts to do the labels with. If you want more than those fonts, you will need software to do your titles. There are so many options out there for software. You could spend $20-$1000 for software. If you have EQ7 you can get EQStitch to do your fonts and more.

The embroidery machine is the easy part. Unless you are going to spell out each word small enough to fit inside your hoop with one pass you will have to re-hoop and hope you get it right. A four inch field is pretty small when it comes to lettering.

Well heck, I guess I will be doing this by hand. Checking into embroidery machines I really don't think I want to spend money like that for one quilt.Then learning a new machine to boot So do you still need to use a stabilizer if doing it by hand.

P-BurgKay, would love to see a picture of your quilt also. Thanks everyone..

Before you invest in an embroidery machine really look at how much you will use it. This time only? It does take time to learn how to use one and how to design the wording. If it is a one time thing or just for a few I would have someone else do it for me. I have a great machine but I use it all the time so that was my decision to buy. The good ones are expensive so that figures into it too.

If you are going to hand embroider, they have great no slip hoops now. I would use a big piece of fabric and do a chalk cutting outline with a little extra between the titles. If you hoop the whole piece and cut them out to separate them, it should go fairly quickly. In Redwork there are 2 main stitches for doing outlines, the Stem stitch and the Backstitch. I prefer the backstitch myself because I have more control with it. Instead of embroider floss, I prefer the perle cotton in the little balls. You don't have to worry about keeping the floss strands together as the perle cotton is one thicker strand of thread, I like the # 8 .

Thanks Tartan,I have some of the books made into blocks already,I thought I would sew them into rows and then do the embroidery. Do you think this would work and do I need a stabilizer also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan in VA (Post 6138914)

I could farm out a ton of embroidery designs I needed done to my friends who have and regularly use these machines (and therefore are proficient at their use) before I've spent enough money to have bought my own machine!!! :shock:

Perhaps I'm the only person on the planet who does NOT want an embroidery machine!:rolleyes:

Jan in VA

No Jan your not alone I don't want one either I love doing it by hand as I'm relatively new to embroidery and I love the challenge of the tiny stitches - mad I know!!!!