A link to my embroidery projects.

Wow! SUch clever and creative work. Where do you find the time?

Have you ever thought of putting your work on Etsy?

I have had an embroidery machine for about 7-8 years so what you are seeing was done over that time. Probably more recently than back because I haven't had the digital camera to put the pix on the computer all that time. A lot of what you saw was done as gifts for various things, Christmas, weddings, births, birthdays etc. While I was still working at the bank, and when DH was watching TV at night, I'd be embroidering or finding free designs on the computer. You see, once the design has been sent to the machine and the fabric is on the hoop and the hoop attached to the machine, and thread spool and bobbin filled, I just push the right buttons and the machine stitches what it is told to do. But this is a home machine so every time the thread color needs to be changed, I have to manually do it. The commercial machines hold several spools of thread and switches the color by itself. But they are horribly expensive. In fact this was expensive too but is a sewing machine also with lots of capabilities. I love it.

Oh to answer where I find the time----remember I've been retired for 5.5 years and DH was layed off November 2008 and hasn't been and won't be called back. Depending on what the government votes the 28th, his unemployment may be done. GRRRR. Also, we are home bodies. We only shop at Home Depot and Meijer---never the mall. I have said that I wish HD sold underwear and groceries and then I'd only shop there. LOL

The way this works is that someone who has a "digitizing" program/software (it uses the computer to write the instructions to the embroidery machine) scans the picture of what they want made into a design and then the program does what it's supposed to do. I suppose the person chooses the colors and the type of stitch they want in each area. But I don't have that, as it is terribly expensive and I already have over 10,000 designs that 99% of them were free. And I know of some inexpensive places to get specific stuff if I don't have it. So only when somebody wants me to do something like a company logo, do I have to pay to have it done. I can make designs up to 10% smaller or larger, change the position of the design (tilt it or flip it) either on the computer or on the machine, combine different designs as long as the final design isn't larger than my hoops. I have three hoops. One is tiny 2 x 2", one that is about 5 x 4" and one that is 7 x 5". There is a way to do even larger stuff but I never learned how to do it. The sewing machine has some built in designs and lots of built in fancy stitches and some lettering capabilities. It also does everything that a top of the line sewing machine does.

Impressive to say the least!

I'd love to have an embroidery machine someday. But also would love to "retire" while I still have the energy to learn how to use one properly. I have a ton of fabric in storage just waiting on having the time and energy to turn it into quilts. I inherited a great deal of it from my mom. It's something we did together before she passed away. I've done a little since then, but very little.

Thanks for your kind words, but it is like any other tool, you learn to use it and after a few messes, if you keep trying, you eventually figure it out. They did offer classes and also I can get a one on one class any time I want. I have gone in a couple of times when I ran into something that I couldn't fix and needed help.

I don't know what caused me to get the machine when I did. It was maybe 3-4 years before I retired. I'm glad now when I see my stock values jumping around that I bought it when I did. I don't think I would have spent the money on it now. There are ones that have a deeper ---forget what you call it--where the cloth can slide under to stitch on---I'm not sure if it is the Janome (New Home) that I saw that was better to use for quilters.