[color:"green"]Hello everyone,

My name is Francine and I live in France. I embroider since 12 years old.

I have been digitizing designs for machine embroidery for 6 years. The designs are varied, alphabets, cutwork, applique, redwork, embroidery for linens, childrens designs, etc.

I have free designs on my site for you to test. Please come take a look:

http://www.francine-broderies.com/?lang=en

Thank you,

Francine [/color]

<img src="/images/graemlins/heart.gif" alt="" /> [color:"blue"]I love your site Francine . I make crazy quilts so I'm always on the look out for new pictures to add to my quilts . [/color]

Wow! How is that work done? What kind of machine is necessary to use the patterns? The monograms and redwork for children are something I could use.

Is there a home embroidery machine for beginners that will work, but isn't so expensive? I know you get what you pay for, but what would an entry level machine cost?

Technically, any machine that does zig-zag can be used to do embroidery. However, a normal sewing machine means that you have to control the stitching on the design and the colours yourself.

A good embroidery machine to start learning on is about $300 - $500. My own personal preference is either Janome or Elna, but every machine embroiderer has their own favorites. My preference comes about simply because I prefer those two brands for normal sewing machines (my own machine is a 1960's Elna, which does embroidery and fancy sitthcing using cams).

Visit your local machine store and the people there should be able to give you some demonstrations and be able to help you with some good comparasions.

Let us know what you decide!

The only sewing center in our area closed recently. I could see the redwork being used to decorate baby items in a vintage nursery theme.

I could whip up some custom valances to coordinate with a (quick) tied baby quilt!

People seem to think that country decorating is out of style, but I still get lots of requests for vintage and country rooms.

I love the Alphabets!! Beautiful work!

Cecile
Stitched Silly
http://www.stitchedsilly.com

I love your vintage nursery theme msbaby! And it's a real shame that your local sewing centre closed down.

That said, Amazon actually has some embroidery machines for sale - they are all good brands and good quality.

I've put some links here to the various machines that may help you to at least see what they do.

Brother SE 270 Machine

Simplicity SE 3

The others don't have very good reviews - these seem to be the pick of the machines according to the reviews I read, and the features they have.

I hope that this helps!

Francine,your work is beautiful.thnx for sharing your site

wooow! adorable site Thanks for sharing

There are 2 machine brands I can think of: Brother and Janome.
Find who the dealer is and how good the back up.This means can you get lessons(free) to familiarise you with the machine and machine embroidery. The dealer with the best reputation is the brand you choose. Every machine uses its own language, but most designs come in a number of languages, so that is OK. Brother uses PES and that is a common language.
Frits

Yes, brother and janome both are best brands. Both brands provide best embroidery machines.

I am new here but wanted to let you know that I post free embroidery designs on my blog site each week Right now I have a couple of fun Halloween designs. I try to do 2 new designs each week www.windwoman.com happy stitching.

Great posting in this forum.Keep it up. Have a nice time.