Have you ever had problems in deciding the key features to look for when buying an embroidery machine? Is the machine that you are just about to buy the right fit for the kind of work that you intend to do vis-a-vis the cost you are about to pay? What is the best way to set up your sewing area? How do you select the best needles and thread for your embroidery work?

If you are being plagued by the above questions, we have the right book for you which addresses all of the above concerns – The Complete Sewing Machine Handbook by Karen Kunkel . This reveals the secrets of the professional embroidery machines in a simple lucid manner starting with the fundamentals of stitching. It also has a troubleshooting guide with loads of helpful hints and tips. Do let me know if the book helped you?

Have you been searching for the perfect home embroidery machine? The machine that would help you in your crafts and handmade gifts for your friends and family. The machine that would make quality children embroidery designs. The machine that you would make use of to monogram your baby’s name on her first bib. The machine whose cost would be easy on your purse! Introducing the Brother PE170D Disney Home Collection Embroidery Machine We know that all of these activities can be done with a big embroidery machine, but the Brother PE170D (weighing just 21.5 pounds) is the right fit for your home needs in terms of size, weight and cost.

The key features are the built-in needle threader and quickset drop-in bobbin. The freebies available for you are 87 built-in embroidery designs which includes Mickey Mouse and Friends patterns and 3 alphabet fonts for monogramming.

Once ordered, the first thing to do is to view the instructional CD for necessary tips such as bobbin winding and proper framing. It is necessary to buy some good machine thread for this embroidery machine to ensure smooth and flawless embroideries.

Cute appliques are the ones to look for and we have got a great resource for you – Joann.com – Search for “appliques” in the search box. You would find a large categorised variety of applique embroidery designs, where you can click on “Iron-Ons and Appliques”. This is not a normal applique which you stitch onto the master cloth. In iron-ons, there is an adhesive on the back of each of the applique patterns and the method is to iron the ready-made design onto the desired apparel. The heat produced firmly adheres the applique pattern at the desired place. Apart from women and children apparel, the other places that these can be pasted onto are notebooks, backpacks and lampshades! Embroidery designs do touch various spheres of our everyday life.

All the iron-on’s displayed at Joann’s are low priced sewing embroidery designs and the information on embroidery machines would come in handy here.

This is truly sparkling. Ordinary embroidery design sets transformed into a special glory through a sparkling template. Visit Embroidery.com for further details. This concept is courtesy “Adorable Ideas” whose unique contribution to the world of embroidery is well appreciated. Each embroidery design set contains the embroidery design file (which can be sewn using your embroidery machine), one sparkle template matching the particular design (made of rhinestones) and a CD with instructions and step by step demonstration video. Once you feel that the embroidery design sewn is perfect, you could then use the sparkle template, since there is only one template per set. (More templates can be purchased if necessary.) The design is machine washable. Rhinestones sparkle when light falls on it. They can be used on most fabrics except nylon, velvet, acrylic, leather and vinyl.

Amongst the sample sparkle embroidery designs – the goldfish, oops-a-daisy and movie star are really well done. To start this project, I would suggest the “Sparkling Sun and Palm trees”. Simple yet attractive. This is sized 4.24″ by 4.54″ and contains 4485 stitches. This is available in ART, CND, DST, EMB, EXP, HUS, JEF, PCM, PCS, PES VIP AND XXX formats. (to know more about formats, view PC Machine embroidery). The main color stops used are grill orange, french toast, olive drab and irish green.

Knitting has been a favourite of the embroidery enthusiasts the world over and it is time to make an analysis of the various embroidery knitting machines available today. The best resource I came across was at All Brands – Click on “Knitting Machines” on the navigation bar on the left hand side.

Most of the machines are from Artisan, American Bond and Haque – with a tilt towards American Bond for all categories of embroidery machines, ribbers and accessories. For simple sweaters, I recommend the American Bond Basic 100 Needle 8mm Ultimate Sweater Knitting Machine, Instructional Video & Yarn priced economically. The special features are that it stitches upto 1200 stitches per minute at 12 rows per minute. There is a higher version which stitches upto 1500 stitches per minute but the earlier one is perfect for home use. You can make cozy sweaters to the lofty Afghans (as they call it) comfortably in this knitting machine. The free accessories include a carry box, extension kit, row counter, intarsia keyplate, beginners pattern book and an instructional video.

You can cast on up to 130 needles and knit any number of rows you want in verigated or solid yarns or in stripes of different yarn colors. You can also knit a pattern to fit on the machine by putting needles into work and out of work to shape a sweater front, back and sleeves to later seam together by hand, sewing machine or serger. You can use the cut and sew method by knitting unshaped square panels, cutting them out to fit the garment pattern and putting in the seams by hand or machine.

If anybody wants to learn knitting from scratch, there is a FREE 5 day MINI COURSE for you at Knitting Tips. You would also find advanced courses for expert knitters at this same site.

If you are searching for charming baby embroidery designs, your search ends here!

We have for you here some unique free embroidery designs straight out of Disneyland! All characters at Needlework have been embroidered really well. What is more important is that a great deal of information has been given for each of the free machine embroidery patterns. To give you an example of the free cartoon embroidery design of Minnie Mouse next to this post, the total number of stitches is 18958 and the size is 88×113 mm.

The free download contains the .dst file needed for your embroidery machine and the image contains the thread consumption details – White(4.5m), Medium pink(11.2m), Pink(6.0m), Meadow(1.6m), Orange(0.2m), Marine aqua(5.7m), Floral pink(0.7m), Red(0.7m), Silver grey(1.8m), Black(26.1m). The upper thread is 59.6m and the bobbin is 19.9m. The polyester details of each thread are also well detailed. These disney embroidery designs would be suitable for baby dresses, bibs, towels and bedsheets. Very very cute indeed!

Monogramming is fast becoming a category of embroidery designing with its growing popularity amongst embroidery enthusiasts the world over. Stylish letters interwoven with design is the fad and is frequently used for embroidery gifts and packages. We have for you a complete set of applique alphabets at – Embroidery Garden.

Each alphabet has the associated object interwoven along with it making it look cute and giftable. The entire set available in hus and pes formats comes at an affordable price. All design blocks measure 3.93″ x 3.93″. The set consists of 30 blocks which includes 4 number blocks.

The information on machine embroidery would come in handy here.

For all lovers of machine embroidery patterns, this is a great resource of free downloadable embroidery designs, (all in NGS format) – Stitch.com. If you want to convert the format from NGS to something compatible with your embroidery machine, pls go to Coats EDV – You can register yourself OR use this login – “shikhadeepak@gmail.com” and password -”welcome” – all small case letters – and download the free software – Coats EDV16. Armed with this software, you can see the digitized embroidery designs used to programme major makes of embroidery machines.

You can also use it for tracking your designs and exchanging information with key friends and customers without worrying about the machine format. As for the free embroidery patterns, the best I liked was the rooster beside the post. Very colourful and complete in all respects. The shaded effect and the feathers are done exceptionally well.

Thanks to one and all for the overwhelming comments on my various posts. Keep writing back to me on your expectations OR on any topic that you found interesting! You can use the “Contact Us” button right at the bottom of any Embroidery Designs Guide page.

Check out this unique natural style of embroidery (perfect for any natural images like birds or animals) – called “thread art”. In “thread art”, the direction of sewing is not in normal straight lines but depending on the figure being sewn, it could be in various directions with the single purpose of giving the final result a natural texture effect. You can check out some samples of thread art at Embroidery SA.

If you take the example of this African fish eagle next to this post, the beauty stems from the distribution of the thread colour so smoothly to the places where it naturally occurs in the bird. Generally this style of digitizing results in a longer ” time to sew” than conventional embroidery. To allow natural distribution of colour, a greater number of jump threads are needed. This is similar to what happens when embroidering in cross stitch. The modern home embroidery machines would help in automatically cutting the jump threads for you.

Again taking the example of the African eagle, take a look at the background scenery. Doesn’t the sky blend beautifully with the clouds?

Its Christmas time! This is a great time to look at some of the best old fashioned Christmas embroideries we have at SecretsOf.com – Navigate through Home -> Everything for Embroidery -> Scroll down to “A Bit of Stitch” -> Old Fashioned Xmas. These are great appliques and can be used on towels, greeting cards, table linens, pillows, wall hangings and winter cardigans. A thin layer of cotton under the applique fabric gives the patterns a 3D look and feel. Applique directions and special instructions are included in the color charts. All designs are sized for the 5×7 hoop.

I would like to draw special attention to the free downloadable embroidery game – Tic Tac Toe done using machine embroidery and is available in hus, jef, pcs, vip, sew formats! Have a great Christmas this year.