Getting Ready!!!

2010-05-06T15:39:00.003-04:00

Hi Kathy and all our Friends,

The cat's out of the bag. 5D is coming soon and I am so excited!

I have the privilege of writing the classes to train your dealers how to use the 5D Software. I've been writing and stitching like crazy! I'm having so much fun and I can't wait for you to have the opportunity to play in the 5D Software too.

I hope by now you have checked out the 5D micro-site that Kathy told you about last week. There's so much information shown there - including the Ideas and Preview pages!

One of my favorite new features is the multicolor gradient! I can't say any more, except it's great!!!!

I've been embroidering a lot of new embroideries I've created lately. I'm having fun testing my creations and can't wait to share some of the finished samples as I complete them.

Well, back to creating and embroidering. Have a great week!

Julie

It's been awhile

2010-04-29T00:45:00.002-04:00

Dear Julie and Friends,

I have received emails from our customers describing their experiences when their computers crash. I can so sympathize with that. Over the past month, I have experienced the pre-crash when nothing is working, the crash, the temporary computer, and now the new computer.

So my public service announcement is: Be ready. When was the last time you backed up your designs, files, pictures, music and all those things you can't be without. Fortunately, I use an external mini drive and my files were backed up. These are relatively inexpensive and can save you a heartache. The other thing is to make sure you have registered your software and keep any product license codes you may have in a safe place. It will make reinstalling so much easier.

Many of our friends may have already seen our software websites announcing the new 5D Software. We are so excited about this new product and I believe our friends will be too. This is like getting ready for Christmas day. This summer we will be able to unwrap this new package. Just like kids, once you unwrap it you are not going to want to stop playing with your new toy.

One of the questions, we are currently being asked in Software Support is: What are the computer specifications required for the 5D System?

PC with Intel processor or equivalent (1 GHz or higher)
Windows 7/Vista/XP
1GB RAM
2GB hard disk space
Screen resolution 1024 x 768, 16 million colors
Mouse or drawing tablet
DVD-Rom drive
USB port

Some early launch materials have been posted on the internet.
For our Pfaff friends they can visit http://pfaff.5dembroiderysystem.com/
For our Husqvarna Viking friends they can visit http://hv.5dembroiderysystem.com/
While you are there you can get a preview of some new features in 5D, as well as read some FAQ's.

It's going to be a busy few months while we prepare for this new launch and create exciting projects to share with our customers and dealers. During this time we will also share with our friends some of our experiences.

See you soon!

Kathy

Final Dress!

2010-04-08T09:10:00.007-04:00

Hi Kathy and all of our Friends,

Well, here is Claire in her finished Easter dress! This is at the mall waiting to see the Easter Bunny. Thankfully we went to see the Easter Bunny because she never wore the dress on Easter! My family was sick over the weekend, so I think she'll wear it this coming Sunday - why not right?

I'm currently working on writing lessons about machine stitches. I love to use machine stitches, like I did on Claire's dress, to create unique embroidery designs. I find using the machine stitches, combined with other elements creates very unique designs.

I was also playing around yesterday in Design Creator. I was filling clip art, like this butterfly that comes with the software with Specialty Fills - like a Shape Fill - using a Motif. A motif in the software is like the stitches on the machine. They are just used in a different way!

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying spring time. We are expecting snow tomorrow, but no accumulation, so I guess it's ok.

Back to more creating!

Walking in Memphis!

2010-03-22T16:24:00.004-04:00

Hi Kathy and all our friends,

Well, I spent last week in Memphis, Tennessee for dealer meetings. I flew in a day early to visit my sister - she plays golf for the University of Memphis! She took me on a tour of Memphis. We did a drive by of Graceland and ate lunch at the Rock-N-Roll Cafe across the street.

After lunch, we visited some of the 'Elvis' shops. They had some fun memorabilia from different Elvis events. As we walked around I stumbled on this sign! I couldn't believe that Singer Sewing Machines sponsored an Elvis television concert! Wanted to share the sign with you.

As far as embroidery goes, I had some great conversations with our dealers who sell our embroidery software. Make sure to visit your local dealer because very good information was shared with them at the meetings! The final set of meetings are this week, so visit your dealer soon!

This week is all about Claire's dress as far as sewing goes. Kathy, you and I will be at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo here in Cleveland Ohio for the end part of the week. If you are in Cleveland for the show, stop by our booth - we will be showing software!

Be back with more inspiring software solutions after the OSQE show!

Letters, Letters, Letters

2010-03-12T14:06:00.007-05:00

Hi Kathy and all our friends,

Well, this week I set Claire's dress aside to work on letters! One of my favorite types of embroidery is lettering. I love all the interesting designs you can create with lettering.

One of my girlfriends is having a baby and I wanted to create something special for her and the baby. I looked up her registry to see what the room would be decorated like and started to create an animal quilt with lettering.

I first created my own outline font using the QuickFont Wizard. I only wanted an outline because I wanted to create reverse applique lettering! Here is the letter K. You'll notice the striped fabric is under the brown fleece. I embroidered the letter, then cut out the brown fleece inside the outline of the letter!

I also used the QuickFont Wizard to create the same font, but as a satin letter to create the names of animals to correspond with the outline letter. I then used one of the 21 different Line Types to create the animal to go with the K - Kangaroo.

The last step for each letter was to create a border around the outside of the lettering to frame it. I used 'stitches' from the Machine font category. I created one 'stitch' then Encored it until I got the right look!

I've included the S as well as the N letters for you to see two other line types and border 'stitches'.

The S uses one of my favorite Line Types, Fit to Wavy Line. If you check the Step box, you can curve the letters around something - like I curved the word Snake around the S. It creates a really fun design.

Well, I must get back to my letters. They are quick to stitch out, however I have a lot to do still! Good thing I have a couple of weeks before her baby shower!

Julie

Is it spring yet..I sure hope so

2010-03-10T21:13:00.005-05:00

Hi Julie and Friends,

I am so ready for spring. Hopefully the last few days of sunshine will last for some time.

I just love Claire's dress. The colors and design are great! You show another great way to use the 4D Software. Will she be wearing an Easter Bonnet?

Claire's dress reminded me of an SOS project we did a while back. We created a smocking design using 4D Sketch. To create a smocking design using 4D Sketch, set the hoop area based on the size of the smocking plate. Just select the stitch you wish to use and use your graphic tablet to draw your stitches. It is a great idea to start on the center vertical gridline and move your pen outwards using the gridline as a template. The best part is that after you draw one line you can copy the line and paste. Then use the horizontal flip so that you do not have long jump stitches. The project goes quite fast after you draw just one line of stitches.

For those that do not know about the SOS, it is a membership program that offers 4D and 3D embroidery support as well as provide many educational benefits such as projects, block of the month program, e-learning opportunities and events, and a monthly newsletter. Julie worked with me on the start of this program and it has become very popular. Julie if any of our friends want more information they can contact their dealer.

Julie you asked about the picture of my dad. I went back into my files and was able to locate the stitch file. Using 4D Organizer I created a picture file that I am posting here. If I was going to stitch this out again, I may take the stitch file into 4D Stitch Editor to remove the background. Using Design Separator I can easily remove those background stitches. This would also eliminate a lot of stitches.

The cars are coming along and I am stitching one out right now. As soon as I have more completed I will share them. Bill can't wait for this to be finished so that I can work on a train project for him. It is good that we can find projects that men love.

Till the next time!

Kathy

Is it Spring yet?

2010-03-04T17:40:00.000-05:00

Hi Kathy and all our friends,

I can’t wait for spring! I’m so looking forward to the pastel colors and spring dresses, yet we still have tons of snow outside!

Kathy, you asked what I’m working on. Well, I’m actually working on an Easter dress for my daughter Claire. I started early, so I will hopefully be done early! It is a high yoke dress pattern. I pleated the top of the skirt and created my own smocking design! I used the Letter tab – Machine category and chose smocking stitches from my machine brand. I chose the stitches by looking at the Sample Guides – Fonts and Shapes to find out what letter resulted in the correct smocking stitch! I then of course used Encore to get the right amount for the pleated area.

Another one of my favorite things to use is Fabric Decorator. It is so easy to create my own ‘fabric’. You will see the cross-hatching in the background behind the bunny and the eggs. That was done using Fabric Decorator. Again, I set my hoop size to the exact size of my pleating minus the smocking stitches I had already created.

Lastly, I created the bunny and eggs using Design Creator. I used Design Creator so I could change the fill patterns. You’ll notice the basket’s bow has a fun fill in it, and the bow on the yellow egg has a radial fill. It’s small and it’s subtle, but it makes it so unique!

Now that I’m done with this design, I’m ready to create my next smocking project. It’s just so fun to create my very own embroidery designs and create such beautiful, unique garments for Claire!

Kathy, how’s the cars wall hanging? I can’t wait to see it!

Creative Energies

2010-02-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Hi Julie and all our friends,

There is nothing better than to be surrounded by creative people. While in London, we were able to spend a lot of time sharing our love for embroidery software with friends from around the world. As you pointed out Julie, people love the Encore feature. It amazes me how you can take one embroidery, click Encore, and this design takes a new shape.

Liberty Fabrics was in what appeared to be in its own little village right there in London. Not only do they have beautiful fabrics and trims but it was a great place to get inspiration as well as share a cup of tea with our collegues. There were so many people shopping for fabrics on a Sunday afternoon.

Andrea, who is from Germany, and I chatted about the ExpressPortrait Wizard found in Family Portrait. While many of us focus of creating embroideries using pictures of our friends and family, you can use pictures and cliparts. The resulting design can be so realistic! Julie, while I know your beautiful children are great subjects, I imagine your 2 dogs would be great subjects for ExpressPortrait Wizard. Right now, I am making a wall hanging of cars. Since my fiance admires from afar old cars, I thought it would be fun to use some of the dream cars on his wish list for this project.

While I love the ExpressPortrait Wizard, it reminds me of many projects I did using PictureStitch. About 6 years ago, I was given a picture of my father when he was 19 and thought it would be a great sample. That sample traveled everywhere and people were amazed that this was created using only one thread color. I had just made a copy of the sample to give to my dad when get became very ill and was hospitalized. I quickly packed, got on the plane, and one of the only extra things I packed was that picture. When I arrived at the hospital, I placed that picture on his bedside stand. He smiled and was so proud of the picture and told all his nurses and doctors about that picture. Today, he has that picture along side his chair. The funny thing about that picture was that after the design was stitched out, I was suprised to see how much my son looked just like my dad. Others that know my son also commented on that. I guess I never realized that before. Perhaps it was because I don't remember my father with hair!

Julie, now that we are back home after braving a few snow storms, are you working on any special projects?

Kathy

London

2010-02-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

It's always exciting to be around other people who love embroidery software. Last week you and I were able to meet with other people in our company in London England where our software is developed. It was so much fun to discuss what we love about embroidery software and what we would like to see in the future. I was talking to Lena Kantis, who some of you may know from other blogs, about our wonderful Encore feature. We both gravitate to Encore because it is so quick and easy to use. However, it's very interesting the difference in our selected designs or shapes. Lena is much more artistic in her selections where as I am more concerned in picking the perfect shape. Everyone has their own technique!
Also, while in London, Kathy, you and I visited Liberty along with another colleague. Many of you have probably heard of Liberty - they have beautiful fabric, trims, buttons, yarn... We had such a fun time walking around the room - checking out all the different patterns and fabrics. I came home inspired and energized to take my software creativity to the next level.

Julie

Welcome to the World of Embroidery Software!

2010-02-12T12:26:00.001-05:00

Hi Julie and our new friends,

Over the weekend I watched the movie Julie and Julia. Isn’t it interesting we are just beginning our first blog and your name is Julie! While Julie in the movie was learning to cook and blog about her experiences, I should have blogged my experiences learning machine embroidery.

When I took sewing and tailoring in high school many years ago, there were just mechanical machines. I am sure like many of our friends in the embroidery world, when they first saw an embroidery machine; they probably sat there for hours just watching the machine create beautiful designs. On my first day of my new job, I was sitting and watching the machine sew out this amazing flower and someone walked up behind me and said, “Kathy, the machine will not stitch out any faster with your watching!” He had startled me, and I fell out of my chair and onto the floor. What a way to be remembered on your first day of the job. Truth be told, I still love to watch my embroidery work stitch out.

Since my previous jobs and training were in education and non-profit management, my approach to learning the VIP embroidery software was to learn just like many of our customer’s learn their own software and embroidery machine. On the first day, I was given a new computer, software, and an embroidery machine and was very eager to unpack everything and get started. I read every manual provided with the embroidery software and machine and went through all the QuickStart exercises. I had so many questions written down and the first chance I got, I asked my mentors. My questions were probably the same questions many of our customers had. I made a lot of mistakes, but I believe that I know the software better by taking this approach. Actually, I affectionately called my mistakes, “creative opportunities”. In just a few months, I was teaching classes, sharing my mistakes with others and my motto seemed to be, “Ask me how I know!”

Six years later, I am still learning and I believe that is why I love embroidery software. I am so blessed to be able to spend time with some very creative educators and sewing stars. Plus, the software keeps getting easier with more features.

Nice to Meet You!

2010-02-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hi Kathy and hi world! I’m so excited to start this blog with you on our experiences with something we both love – Embroidery Software!

I began using the Husqvarna Viking Professional Plus software while attending Kent State University in the Fashion Design degree program. I was working on an embroidery research project with one of my professors. We began by studying hand embroidery techniques for one semester. It was very interesting to learn how to hand embroider because I had already done machine embroidery and WOW the difference! Hand is much harder but I learned to appreciate the awesomeness of embroidery machines.

The second semester was to focus on embroidery machines as well as embroidery software. We had one copy of the Husqvarna Viking Professional Plus software with the lpt dongle – those of you who may remember this one, it was BIG and black and plugged into your computer like an old printer cable. The professor I was working with had used the software a couple of times, so we sat down and taught ourselves how to digitize…..

I am still involved with embroidery software today because thankfully digitizing is MUCH EASIER now. I created the embroidery to go on my wedding gown using flowers from an existing Husqvarna Viking embroidery collection and ‘stems’ I created in Digitizing Plus. I literally ‘clicked’ my heart out to create Satin Columns for the dress. In the end, I created exactly what I wanted and that’s why I love embroidery software. The picture shows a close up of the top and side panels.

I stated with Husqvarna Viking after graduating and thankfully I received more training on using the software.

What was your first experience with embroidery software?

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