BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Embroidery Do you do machine embroidery or hand?

Hi! I am new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself and find out more about the community members. I do machine embroidery. I just started doing it about a year ago. I have lots of friends with children, so I like personalizing clothing with names and monograms.

Any other machine embroidery fans out there have some favorite websites to find designs and embroidery blanks?

I do hand embroidery, but I found a page today with great free hand and machine embroidery patterns.
Sarah Bradberry's Embroidery and Sewing

Julie

Hi Jam

Sorry I haven't been here to welcome you - I've been away on a work conference (a week on a lovely sub-tropical island- go work!)

I'm a hand embroidery gal from way back. For me, part of my love of embroidery means that I can do it whenever I want, and it keeps my hands busy. (I'm a terrible fiddler!).

Julie - I love that site! Another one to add to the links on the main embroidery site

Hello!
I am pretty much new to all of this. I bought an Jamone embroidery machine not that long ago. I love it but the software is another story...lol..

I am having some problems with digitizing. I am learning it but very slowly.

I hope to read lots of post of digitizing because I have lots to learn..

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

p.s.
I do have the school logo for my daughter that I did digitize pretty well on my blog. Besides doing something simple I am having problems (and it takes forever.)
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Hello,

I'm a machine embroiderer. I've been a digitizer for almost 7yrs. I addicted to it LOL. My passion is creating quilt blocks for the embroidery machine by combinging my loves of paper-piecing, applique & my embroidery machine.

What do you like to stitch out mostly? Have you been making gifts?

Hugs,
Larisa

Hello,
I did hand embroidery for five years, and now I'm switching from hand to machine. There is a lot to learn.
Christine

I have been doing hand embroidary now for over 25 years. One of these days I am planning on buying me a machine so I can do some machine embroidery as well. Everybody better watch out, I will stitch a design on anything close to hand.

Christine - how is the learning to Machine embroider going?

And Lisa, I can't wait to see some of your work.

I also have a group of mad embroidery friends (yes, I'm one of them) who have a motto:

"If it stands still, embroider it. If it moves, nail it down and embroider it".

I should take some photographs of some of it. I will post a link to them here when I get around to it.

What program are you using for digitizing? I have DNS and downloaded a free thing of Embird. I like Embird because it had a lot more to offer but it was so much for me to learn and I had only so many days with it.

Since I already spent my money on DNS and the magic box I figured I'd just try to play with that for a while. To be honest, it's just been sitting in my craft room for a while now (my husband just said something about it the other day too.. I should get back and try to learn the digitizing part more now.)

I did get a Sparten head (my kid's mascot) done and a star wars guy for my son. Although, the Star Wars guy turned out wrong because I put in the wrong colored thread at first (the machine tells you what to put in but I guess I just wasn't paying attention. I try to match the colors as best as I can but there are so many different colors that it's hard to have the right one.. Ok, maybe I should just say I wasn't really watching what I was doing..lol..)

For the holiday's this year I am embroidering some photo albums for my family. I haven't started just yet because I am packing and getting ready for a move to another state but once we get settled in that's my next project.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to digitizing and I know when I do something that I should start slow. The first project I tryed to do was a picture of my son on one of his horses, needless to say that didn't turn out (I think I was trying something a little too hard for my first project. Live and learn I guess...lol..)

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

I love all types of hand work; I have been knitting for over 45 years. I picked up cross-stitching many years ago as well. I bought a Designer 1 in 1999 and just love the capabilities. I have tried digitizing and have done a few simple things. My problem is that I just want to do it, not take the time to learn. Then after I retired, I started quilting. I think I have now found THE thing. I do a lot of embroidering on quilt blocks and make the quilt. I also use the embroidery to machine quilt a small item.

Bricore, you really need to take it slow and easy at the beginning. But don't give up; the possibilities are endless.

I embroider by hand...though someday I'd like to get into machine embroidery.

I embroider by hand and love it! I have been doing this for over 30 years. I also like to embroider quilt blocks then sew them together and outline the blocks with "crazy quilt stitches". I am making a crazy quilt for my brother that is a copy of a 1922 quilt made by a housewife in Florida. There is a lot of hand embroidery on it. She sketched animals from on and around her farm, embroidered them on scraps of velvet and heavy cottons all in odd shapes then outlined each piece with crazy quilt stitches after she had sewn them all together. I have never seen a more beautiful quilt! I have never tried machine quilting but maybe some day when I get a new machine I will try it.

LeeAnna - your quilts sound lovely! Crazy quilting is a great way of mixing embroidery and quilting - and you can mix it further by embroidering your squares and then stitching them together to make a quilt.

There are two ways to do machine embroidery - to use either a digitized pattern (which you can either do yourself using a digitizing program, or get commercially done) or freestyle.

Freestyle allows you to use your machine skills & imagination so much more.

To freestyle machine stitch, transfer your pattern to the fabric in the same way you would for hand embroidery, and then, like you would with hand embroidery, plan your colours and stitches.

If you have a specialised embroidery machine, there are a number of stitches you can use, but you may want to start with deciding on stitch length for your stitching.

You can also get specialised metallic threads that you can use through your embroidery machine, as well as normal threads.

I hope that this helps - perhaps Fritsau (our Machine Embroidery Guru) can give you more information - especially on digitising?

Hi,

Glad to join this forum. I am a grandmother to six and have been doing machine embroidery for about ten years now. Started downloading free designs and ended up with so many I couldn't find which ones I needed when I wanted to sew something. The result was the Embroidery Deduper Software. You can find more about it at our website and also see some of the many projects I completed for family and friends. Love doing the Baby gifts!

Hugs,
Pat
www.gransworkroom.com

I have a designer #1 and the original embroidery program that came with it. I, too, have found digitizing a little overwhelming but have done a few things with it. I download a lot of freebies and purchase particular ones I want. When I first got my machine (1999), my granddaughters were little and I made them lots of things with embroidery. I also have made a lot of gifts with it. I am into quilting big time and I use the embroidery on blocks a lot; it makes lovely quilts. (For hand work, instead of hand embroidery, I do hand applique) I love my machine and the quality it does and am so happy I bought it.

I've been away from embroidery for way too long. This winter is going to be my time to get back to it. I have all my supplies to do hand embroidery. No machine, though I really think they are so cool.

Pat, welcome to the forum, hope that you enjoy your stay!
Rosie

Welcome to everybody - it's lovely to have you here.

There seem to be a lot of you doing machine embroidery - which means I'm going to have to bone up on it and start doing some more machine articles!!

There are actually a few new machines out that I'm planning on doing some reviews on - towards the end of the month as that's when Brisbane is having a big stiching craft show where they'll be on display (and where I can have a play with them!)

And do not forget that Bernina has a new one out. Currently available in the USA, but probably not out in Australia until March?.

In reply to a previous post about machine embroidery. There are stand alone machines. They are great for beginners, but it sounds to me that for someone who wants to use their own designs a better machine is the one to go with. Unfortunately it also comes with a bigger price tag, at least the figure on it is bigger. One needs digitising software to go from a drawing to a design that is ready for stitching out. Neither my wife, the embroiderer, or I are artists, but given a good drawing I scan it and make it into a bitmap or jpg, again this depends on what the software can do. Digitising is not easy. See what the machimne dealer has to offer. A Bernina dealer in Adelaide, Australia, has an embroidery forum once a month. December is sausage sizzle month and January is off as the forum is held on the first Saturday of the month. For every forum there is a newsletter in which a technique or project is discussed in length. The newsletter is published on his website these days, it used to be sent around the world, but this became too unwieldy.
If anyone is interested I can give the website.
Frits

Fritsau, please do post the website here on the forum. I'll also add him to my subject links on the main page as well.

help needed, I am new to machine embroidery i just got a brother combo sewing and embroidery machine. I would like to do a design on a v-neck poncho but have no idea how are there any books or on line video classes for beginners.
manette

Hello, I am new here and to machine embroidery, I was wondering if any one out there knows how to convert gif files to pes files for my brother machine i am lost and confused please help low on cash to!!!

Hello, I am new here. My nane is /Shirley I do machine embroidery I have been doing it for about 13 years.

I do both; but I perfer hand embroidery.
I just love to do hand work I suppose. ha. pinkrosessks

Welcome to Pinkroses, Shrabar and Manette!!

Manette, if your machine can be hooked to the computer, it should have come with software to convert the files. Perhaps Fritsau can help when he's next online (he's my machine embroidery guru!!).

I too am just starting to machine embroider. So far I have only done one sample design from a built in stitch on the machine. I am waiting for cards as the one I have will not read on my machine. I also am waiting for a software kit . I do not know how I will make out with that.I have been sewing and quilting for a number of years., about 25. If any one had nay tips, i would be more thasn greatful for them.

Megasn i will be waiting to see what you have found.

Newbies,
Welcome to the forum, We hope that you all enjoy your stay!
Rosie

Hi! I'm new here, but not to embroidery or hand work. I've been crocheting, cross stitching, quilting and other like things on and off since I was fairly young, that's what I get for having a mom, grandma and aunt that all do at least one of the mentioned things. I'm in college now and still dabble in various things when I have time. If anyone knows of some good sites for stitches and patterns for hand embroidery, I'd appreciate the info, seems like all I've been able to find is machine patterns. Thanks, Heather

First welcome to the forum and good luck in college

Hand embroidery patterns are fairly easy to find. You can use coloring books, old pictures, etc. There are several cross-stitch patterns available free online.

Is there a specific type of embroidery you like? Like blackwork, whitework, redwork, surface embroider, crewel, etc.? Right now I'm favoring cross-stitch, red-, black- and whitework.

I've done a lot of cross stitch projects, not really sure what the embroidery I do would be classified as, my grandma just calls it embroidery, but i think it's closest to surface embroidery and crewel.

I hand embroider - usually embellishments on quilted items. I like to use my own sketches. My mother used to embroider on quilts, also - she was my model.

Hi, One of my passions is hand embroidery. I just love that I can pick it up and take it with me and that I can sit amongst my family of a night and not interrupt anyone.It's very relaxing.

Hand embroidery :viking: Love buying plain tops and adding my own signature to them. Shoes too!

I hand embroider also. I still have some iron on patterns that belonged to my mom. It is very relaxing. Right now I am working on pillow cases for my granddaughter. I think hand embroidery is making a comeback. My daughter likes to hand embroider also.
The interesting part is we do custom embroidery as part of our buiness. (computerized, commerical machines). And most customers think I do it. lol But, I don't.
Sundancer
www.mikessportingoods.ecrater.com