Archive for August, 2010

Foolproof Embroidery Design Positioning

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

“It is important to have the right tool for the job.” That was some great advice I received from my father.  A new essential tool in the embroidery industry is the snowman marker.

What is it that makes this little marker the right tool for the job?  The snowman marker works with the Brother Quattro Sewing/Embroidery machine.  It is a special marker because it works with the Innoveye™ camera to precisely, correctly position the chosen embroidery design in exactly the place it needs to be stitched.  WOW!  That means no more designs that are just a little crooked, or just a hair off center.

It is a simple matter to place the snowman marker exactly in the desired position on a garment, quilt block, or home dec item.  Then hoop the fabric in the embroidery hoop.  Install the hoop onto the machine.  Select the icon on the screen that exactly matches the snowman marker, then press “scan” on the machine screen.  The Innoveye™ camera will be activated and the camera will search for the snowman.  The design will be automatically aligned to match the position of the marker.  The design may be moved up or down, off center, rotated (even upside down) to make it exactly match the placement of the marker.

This incredible tool assures precisely accurate placement of every design and enables even a beginner will have perfectly placed embroidery.  It also makes it possible to use the unbelievable print and stitch technology that is built into the machine.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the magic of the snowman, take a minute and visit one of the Quality Sewing Center locations and ask for a demonstration of this amazing tool.   It is the right tool for the job when it comes to perfect placement of embroidery designs.

Carol


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Live from Nashville – Brother Introduces a New 10 Needle Machine!

Monday, August 16th, 2010
Brother PR1000

Brother Entrepreneur® Pro PR-1000

A Perfect 10 in Nashville the introduction of Brother’s new PR1000 embroidery machine.

I attended this morning’s unveiling of Brother’s new embroidery machine and had a chance to sew on it as well. Being spoiled by state of the art embroidery machines from Brother like the Quattro 6000 and PR650, I naturally had high expectations but I was surprised and impressed by how far this machine exceeded those expectations.

This amazing new machine really takes embroidery to the next dimension. Even if you already own a 6 needle machine, haven’t you wished for a couple more colors? With 10 needles you can spend more time embroidering and less time changing threads. A 50,000 stitch 10 color design embroiders 30% faster than a single needle machine and 12% faster than a 6 needle machine! The PR1000 Entrepreneur features a first ever 10 thread eyelet threading system that eliminates tangles and and maintains perfect tension on all 10 needles, even as the needle bar moves. The lighting system is brilliant: 7 Full Spectrum LED’s give you the brightness of 35 light bulbs and eliminate shadows on the huge embroidery field.

Another embroidery first: InnovaChrome LED thread color system. Underneath each of the 10 thread spools is full color LED light which mimics the color of the thread that belongs on the spool for each design. Don’ t have the right thread color for your design? No problem. Use the InnovaChrome system to visually match the recommended color to the the threads you do have. In addition, these InnovaChrome lights flash to advise of thread color change, thread breakage and design completion status.

InnovEye Technology. Just like the Quattro 6000D the PR1000 features InnovEye technology with a built-in camera above the needle. Now you can use the snowman sticker to perfectly match the angle of your embroidery to the angle of your hooped fabric. Precise positioning of your center and starting point is easy with the new 200% actual size zoom and visual grid function. Broken thread? Use the InnovEye to view the breakage point, then select the grid function to determine the spot to restart your embroidery.

Did I mention size? With the optional 14″ x 14″ jumbo frame, the PR1000 can stitch huge jacket back embroidery designs without re-hooping. There’s also an 8″ x 8″ quilting frame and a 4″ x 12″ border frame for continuous borders. The cap frame allows you to embroider 14″ x 2.5″, literally ear to ear across the cap. It also has a cool rotating attachment jig that makes hooping your caps easier than ever.

With large designs like this, the PR1000 includes a very cool large worktable that folds away. You don’t have to remove it when you want it out of the way, you simple flip it out and down. This table will also be available all current 6 needle machines. PENext, Brother’s new software designed for the PR1000 offers 200 name drop templates, ideal for embroidery team jackets, hats or shirts Simply drop in the new name at the beginning of each embroidery!

I could go on and on, but it might be more fun to visit Brother’s website to see videos of this new machine in action. We hope to have floor samples in each store in about 10 days.

Thanks for reading my first “blog” post ever!

Paul

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Live From PFAFF Convention: 5D Embroidery Part 3

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Today was a very fun 5D Suite day for sure!  In the 3rd in the series of my software Certification classes, I got to focus quite a bit on Design Creator.

I am not even sure that I can pinpoint one thing that is my favorite.  Everything I learned has been so great and these new features just blow me away!  Surely I will forget something, so I will just tell you about a couple of things that jumped out at me today;

Gradient Fills—the 5D Suite now allows us, in Design Creator, to fill an area with multiple colors of thread and they all blend together.  This is a great effect if you are wanting to have a shaded effect or very different colors in one area.  The thing that amazes me is how easy it is.  I have worked with several different brands of embroidery software. that can create a multi colored fill. but none have been this easy or turn out as nice.  With 5D you can even use as many colors as you like.  How cool is that?

Cutwork and Free Standing Lace—oh my, where do I start?  I never even imagined that creating your own free standing embroidery and cut work with Richelieu bars could be so easy!  This is one type of embroidery that I had just assumed that I would not make on my own.  Just to much to have to think about—that was then.  In reality, these features are just as easy and telling the software to fill in an area with a click of the mouse.

Another thing that I am truly appreciating about the new 5D Suite is that everything is just so much easier to use. It seems like the programmers have really listened to what we have asked for.  Even better yet, they have gone beyond and anticipated what we may want—even before we know that we do.  Simple things can make using the software so much more friendly and fun; such as, having the zoom bar accessible all of the time, being able to group selected designs together and move them all at once, being able to easily change your mind about a choice you have made in Design Creator, or just having the tools organized in a logical and easy to understand way.

It has been such a fun day full of great new things learned in 5D.  I can hardly wait until tomorrow when I get to take a class that is beyond the certification classes.  Then I will get to see so much more of what the program can do.  I can only imagine what the day will hold.

Reva


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New Product: Creative Embroidery Cutwork Needle Kit

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Are you like me and just love fun toys?  I get so excited when there is something fun and new! Embroidery is wonderful and it just gets better all of the time.  At this years Pfaff Convention they introduced the Creative Embroidery Cutwork Needle Kit. See video demonstration here.

These specially designed needles and embroidery designs do your cutwork for you! Using the specially created embroidery designs and the cutting needles instead of regular needles, the fabric is cut while it embroiders.

Just above where the eye normally is, the needle is shaped into a knife like wedge that does the cutting for you. The needles are inserted into your machine just like a normal needle. The set comes with 4 needles, each with a different angled tip and 5 special cutwork embroidery designs to get you going. And all at a very affordable price!

Just imagine the all the beautiful things that you will be able to create! All without even picking up a pair of scissors! To see more of the fun new stuff that we saw at convention be sure to attend one of our Annual Tech Parties. You get a free $5 Gift Card to Quality Sewing just for attending!

Reva


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Live from PFAFF Convention: 5D Embroidery Software Part 2

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Now that I have had a chance to play with the 5D Suite—I am even more impressed!

One of my favorite features of the 4D Suite is Encore. This feature is even better in the 5D Suite.  You might be wondering what Encore is; This is a feature in the software that allows you to take an embroidery design and automatically repeat as many times as you like in a line or a circle.  You can also have it make a frame around the perimeter of your hoop using your embroidery design.

5D Suite gives us so many more options and can do so much more than previously imagined.  In addition to the basic line, circle, and hoop 5D Suite has added an additional 31 shapes and shaped lines that your embroidery designs can follow.

Another thing that I like about Encore in 5D is the ability to use more than one embroidery design in your new Encore design.  In the “Kendall’s Stuff” design that I created here, I chose a scallop and a daisy (both are built into the software).  Then in Encore I chose a star shape for the daisy and scallop to follow.  The software automatically added enough repeats to fill in the shape.

In the floral example, you can see the simple floral scallop that I used to create the beautiful frame to the right.

There are so many applications for the new features of Encore.  I can hardly wait to use them all. I just know you will have as much fun with this new software as I am! For a complete preview of this great new software, be sure to sign up for one of my free 5D Preview Classes that I am teaching next week at many Quality Sewing locations.

I get more hands-on time with this software tomorrow. Stay tuned for more!

Reva


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Live from PFAFF Convention: 5D Embroidery Software Part 1

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Finally I am in Minneapolis, MN at the annual Pfaff convention! I have just seen some of the things that the NEW 5D Embroidery Software can do.  Boy am I excited!  Some of the exciting changes are:

5D Embroidery

  • The screen appearance is fresh and large. It seems like the icons are easier to see.
  • There are new wizards that will assist in making planning and designing so much easier.
  • Measurements are given in both inches and millimeters without having to change any settings.
  • Fonts styles are easy to see and quicker to get to.
  • If you want text to arc over your design it will automatically do that for you.
  • Background images up to 72” (that’s quilt size) can be used for planning right in the basic screen of 5D.  Then those large embroidery plans can be split into sewable chunks without leaving the screen and going to a different program.

5D Design Creator

  • Multi Color Gradient—fill an area with a blending of different colors.
  • Real Time Editing—see the changes to your design as you make them.

5D Portrait Stitch  !!NEW!!

  • Create wonderful full color designs from photographs.
  • Even has a tapestry feature that will make your photo look like needlework.

The NEW 5D Embroidery Software looks so easy and fun to use and yet it has so much more than imagined!  Later today I will be able to get my hands on it and play. I will keep you posted.

Stay tuned!
Reva


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