Digitizing – Eileen's Machine Embroidery Blog

Worth the Wait!

May 4, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Software Saturday, Software Updates, Uncategorized / 3 Comments

The May, 2019 FREE update for Perfect Embroidery Pro will be available on Monday, May 6. When you open the software on May 6, you’ll receive a notice to update. I strongly encourage you to do it because the updates are fantastic! Here’s what’s in store for you on Monday!

PEP Ver. 12.92

New Features:

Hi-Resolution Displays: New hi-resolution toolbar icons for 4K displays.

General Options: New look to Tools/General Options:

Realistic view option: (Optional) Increase double and bean run thickness in Realistic view; Tools/General Options/View.

Default Colors: Set default colors on a new design page:

File/New
Set Colors
Click on “Make Current Default”
Click “Yes”
Go to File/New, notice that the new default colors appear.
May also click on an empty box on the color bar for the option.

Print Preview: Print Preview screen is set to “Size to Fit” as a default with a new look.

Eye is sequence view: The eye icon is darker.

Drag and Drop: You can Drag and Drop image file into the center of the work field.

Note: If you have an image on the screen like above, it will transfer to “Auto Digitizer Wizard” If selected.

Hoops: Added filtering to the Hoop feature; remove or add a check mark for the desired hoops. Jumbo Hoop is now fully supported and new hoops have been added:

BabyLock-Brother 240×240
BabyLock-Brother 270×400
BabyLock-Brother 240×360

Trim: A fast way to add a basic trim to the end of an object.

Click on object
Click on the “trim Icon”

When using this feature, it will:

Add the trim and basic tie off to the end of the selected object.
Add basic tie in to the next object.

Trim Branches: A new trim function giving you more control on how you want the trims to be added.

Auto: (default): Trim if the stitch is longer than 2 mm.
Always: Will always trim
Never: Will never trim
Longer than: User can set the distance

Trim, Weld, Intersect: These three functions have been moved to “Shaping” and can be used with a right click when two objects are selected.

Auto Save/Recover: Setup can be found in Tools/General Options/Environment and File/Recover.

To use this feature: go to File/Recover.

Raised Satin: adds multi-layer satins on top of each other. The default is 4.

Radial Fill can be found in Complex Fill.

Special Files: We have moved Inspirations special file formats out of the standard Open and Save. It has its own selection under File called “Special Files”.

Auto Digitizing: Improved color reduction, tracing, support for transparent PNGs, direct victor files (svg, ai, etc.) conversion without tracing. You can try the new same images in c: /dime/Images (Autodigi_*.png and Vectors_*.svg).

Effects panel: One click conversion to various stitch types:

Batch Conversion (Updated): New Batch Conversion options, several additions including conversion embroidery format to PNG. Note: it will convert in 3D realistic mode with no cross hairs. Select by File, Select by Folder.

New and improved curve editing: A new mouse icon appears when editing a curve in an object when the Shape tool (F9) is selected.

More Efficient Editing: The Shape tool (F9) now remains in active mode while selecting new objects for editing. To return to the Select tool (F7), left click on Select.

All Inspirations software programs will have the free update on Monday, May 6. If a feature is standard in that software module (My Block Piecer, My Quilt Embellisher, Word Art in Stitches, etc), then it will be updated on Monday. This software gets easier and easier to use! It’s like the developers know exactly what we want before we do! Enjoy your free updates!

What’s Your Favorite Embroidery Tool?

March 16, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Facebook Live, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Quilting, Quilting with your embroidery machine, Software Saturday, Uncategorized / 6 Comments

Perfect Embroidery Pro is definitely my favorite embroidery tool. This user-friendly software gives me everything I need to create one-of-a-kind embroidery projects. Yesterday, my latest book, The Flower Box Quilt, was released. It’s a sampler quilt with a modern layout plus a table runner bonus project. The 68-page book is loaded with tips and techniques on stabilizing quilting fabric, machine embroidered applique and quilting.

I used Perfect Embroidery Pro through the entire design process. From creating the embroidered applique elements to designing the custom quilting on the blocks to the quilting on the sashing and of course, the overall quilting in the large negative space areas.

How did I go about designing a large-scale project like this? One stitch at a time. Literally. And Perfect Embroidery Pro made that easy. I drew each flower. Then converted the artwork into applique. I used the copy, paste and rotate features to set the four elements into 12” blocks.

Of course, each flower had to be tested and tweaks were made along the way. But as long as I worked in Perfect Embroidery Pro, I could save every version until I was satisfied. Then the fun part started. I visited my local quilt shop to select bright, cheery fabrics.

Once each block was stitched, it was time to concentrate on the quilting. I just uploaded an image of each block into PEP and doodled. PEP gave me the freedom to experiment. I saved several versions of each block before getting to the stitching stage. I love how I can audition ideas without stitching!

If you’d like to purchase The Flower Box Quilt book, click here for more information. This week, on Wednesday, March 20, I’ll be doing Facebook Live at 1:00 CST to share my top tips for professional results with machine embroidered applique. Hope to see you there!

So Much Talent!

March 1, 2019 by eileenroche / Baby Lock, Blog Tour, Continuous Embroidery, Current Posts, Digitizing, Embroidery Techniques, Hooping, Inspiration, Lettering, Marie Zinno, Nancy Zieman, National Embroidery Month, Social Media / 9 Comments

What do you get when you give 11 talented embroiderers a fairly simple fabric panel and a few embroidery designs? Eleven uniquely-embroidered works of art. It absolutely amazes me to see how people put their own stamp of creativity into an embroidery project.

The past month has been an eye-opener – we’ve seen subtle touches such as Marie Zinno’s soft blue filagree designs that are built-in the Baby Lock Valiant.

And an out of the box transformation by Cathy Sundermann of Stitch Fork Designs. That’s an impressive front door!

Deanna Springer of Nancy Zieman Productions sashed the wood grain panel with Nancy Zieman’s red Riley Blake shiplap fabric to spice it up. Deanna ditched the wrapped canvas idea and added a pretty floral border for a traditional wall-hanging.

Milinda Stephenson opted to wrap her panel around a pillow. This was a fast and easy finish and her dog, Iris, loved it!

Michelle Umlauf used the IQ Designer in her Baby Lock Solaris machine to enhance the lettering. Talk about perfect placement! That’s a show stopper technique and wonderful way to show how to incorporate prints with embroidery. It’s all about value – making sure the embroidery is visible on a busy print.

Michele Umlauf – Sewing Machine Artistry

Carla Reale used Baby Lock’s Palette software program to add her own message in the applique heart of the Grateful panel. Join the Baby Lock Palette group on Facebook to watch her video.

Carla Reale of the Baby Lock Palette Community

Karen Parker made two samples! Her Grateful panel shows offset floral sprays at the top and bottom. I love that layout and never think of using it! Of course she pulled her thread colors from her fun, striped border.

Karen’s English Pub theme set the tone for her border fabrics and faux leather trim – complete with nail heads! Her satin circles mimic a dinner plate and the embroidered knife and fork really seal the deal. Finished with two glasses of cold beer, this panel will look great in any proper drinking establishment.

Debbie Henry extended the wood grain quilting beyond the panel edge onto a wide border. Love her delicate blue floral spray in the center of the heart!

The Embroiderist, Colleen Bell, used a dark thread to quilt her Gathering panel – love how visible the wood grain is. She paired her panel with an embroidered chalkboard fabric. As a mother of nine, she knows a thing or two about prepping meals!

Sara Gallegos of Sew Positively Sara added family names to the applique heart on the Grateful panel on her Baby Lock Solaris. Of course, she nailed the placement of the quilting designs with the help of a quick camera scan on the Solaris. Nothing like seeing before you stitch!

Check out her blog at SewPositivelySara to see how she pieced the heart blocks on her pillow.

Our last participant, Debbie Cleek, added trapunto to her floral sprays on the Gathering panel. She used Designer’s Gallery to add the traditional technique of trapunto but with today’s technology.

I’d like to give a huge thank you to all of the participants. If you followed along, I’m sure you’re were as impressed as I was with their creativity. And so many techniques were shared! Please leave a comment and tell me what’s your biggest embroidery challenge. We’ll pick a random winner to send one Farmhouse Sentiments kit.

6 Tips for Continuous Line Designs

February 23, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Quilting with your embroidery machine, Software Saturday, Software Techniques, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Recently, I’ve been digitizing quilting designs – continuous line designs in Inspirations’ Perfect Embroidery Pro. Continuous line designs present challenges to digitizers that are all their own. Since the designs are just one line of thread, there’s not a lot of room for error. But the biggest challenge may be in the pathing – where the needle will travel throughout the design. Sometimes this is intuitive and sometimes, not! I’ve learned a lot as I’ve worked on these designs. Here are six tips that have kept me on track.

Start with pencil and paper. Sketching a continuous line design is the best way to address the pathing. Even if it’s digital clip art, print it out and trace over it. If you have to lift the pencil to draw the next area, there’s going to be a break in the stitching. Find another solution like backtracking (retracing over previous stitches) or looping (adding an extra design element like a vein on a leaf) to get to the next area.

Dive in –Go to the software and get started. You’ll find the time spent sketching/tracing has already focused your brain on the task. Sketching is like stretching exercises before a run – they prep your mind and body for the task ahead. Start drawing the design and adding nodes. It will flow faster than you think. Don’t worry if it looks like a mess at first. You can tweak each node later.

The Close Line feature is a time saver. If you’re drawing a closed shape, at the last node, right mouse click and select Close Line from the drop down menu. The shape will instantly close and you won’t waste time wondering why your continuous line turned into a two-ply. In Perfect Embroidery Pro, draw the shape, (setting modes with a click of the mouse), when the shape is complete, right mouse click to end the line. Select the Shape tool, right mouse click and select Close Line.

The Slow Draw tool is your best friend. Before you begin tweaking the nodes, click on the Slow Draw tool. This tool allows you to focus on the pathing. Keep a close eye on the screen as the design stitches. Get your pathing right, and then tweak the nodes.

Zoom in. Magnifying the stitches on the screen helps you see exactly where they lie in the design. This is quite helpful when perfecting individual shapes within a design. There are several ways to zoom in on a design in Inspriations’ software programs. The most obvious is to click on the magnifying glass.

Or select a percentage from the drop down menu at the top tool bar. I

It’s important to remember when you are zoomed in, you are seeing a magnified view of the stitches – not what it will appear when sewn. So don’t stress out too much! Pull back to actual size often to keep it in perspective.

Save As often. You really can’t have too many versions of your work. Go to File/Save As and rename the design every time. Eventually, you’ll be satisfied with the final design and you delete the earlier versions. But during the design phase, it’s wise to keep each version. Just go for something basic like HeartV1, HeartV2, HeartV3, etc. Use the same method for all your digitizing and you’ll know where to find your latest and greatest.

I’ve found these tips to be real time-savers. I seem to be immersed in quilting designs right now – there’s so many beautiful designs dancing in my head! I’d love to know what you’ve been working on.

How to Use Inspiration’s Perfect Embroidery Pro’s Scatter Tool

February 16, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Embroidery Techniques, Embroidery Tips, Inspiration, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro / 1 Comment

On January 13th, blog reader Sue L requested information on about Inspirations’ Perfect Embroidery Pro’s Scatter tool. The Scatter tool is fun to explore and very easy to master. Let’s dive in and take a look.

An 8” quilt block is the ideal canvas to experiment with the Scatter tool. Some brief text, Bee Happy, and a swarm of bumble bees will bring it to life. Draw an 8” square with the Artwork tool. Select the text tool and select the Tango font in the Properties Box. Type Bee Happy, adding an extra return to space out the two lines of text. Click Apply.

Enlarge and center the design in the square.

In the sequence view, click on the padlock to lock the text.

The Scatter tool becomes active when you have a design on the screen. It’s best to start with a small design such as a symbol because the scatter tool will repeat the design to fill a specific sewing field.

Click on Select to access the Symbol library.

Go to Symbol, scroll down to the Bee and click OK.

Click once on the screen and one bee will appear.

Select the bee and click on the dropdown arrow on the Carousel tool to access the Scatter tool.

In the preview window, you can change the size of the sewing field. The default size is 7.87”. If you’re pleased with the arrangement on the screen, click OK. If you’d like to see more possibilities, click Apply. Every time you click Apply, a new layout will be presented. Since the layout is random, you can not go back to a previously-viewed layout. If you like it, click OK!

To remove the bees that overlap the text, Ungroup the bees. Once ungrouped, all the elements of each bee are also ungrouped. When you select a bee, group it first as you work on arranging the bees. Select each bee that you want to remove. The text will still be locked so don’t worry about inadvertently grabbing the text. You can resize, rotate and reposition each of the bees. Play with the arrangement until you feel the bees are evenly spaced on the quilt block.

Once you’re satisfied, select all, go to Edit, Resequence by Color and Optimize Sequence. View the Redraw and save the design. So fun!

Custom Quilting

January 19, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Inspiration Software, My Quilt Embellisher, Software Saturday, Software Techniques / 2 Comments

Last week, blog reader Kay asked for some help in Inspirations’ My Quilt Embellisher. It’s a popular software program and easy to use. You can design custom quilting for an 8-point star in just a couple of steps. Follow along to learn how.

Click on the Block Library icon. Go to Eight Point Star and select Arrow Star. Click OK.

Select the white diamonds in the center of the block. Right click on a color chip in the tray (bottom of the screen) to change the color of the diamonds.

Change the color of the center diamonds.

We’ll start by filling the negative space with stippling, In the sequence view, select the remaining white shapes (red box) and click on the Stippling icon (red arrow). In the Properties Box, change the Stippling style to Hilbert (green arrow).

To decorate the eight points, use the art tool to draw a diamond. Size the diamond to fill one of the star points.

The diamond pre-set shape in the Art tool drop down menu.

Select the diamond and click on the Contour tool.

The Contour tool fills a shape with rows of stitches.

Copy and paste the Contour diamond to fill the star.

Save the design. That was easy, wouldn’t you agree?

Software Questions? Read on…

January 12, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Inspiration Software, My Block Piecer, My Fabric Designs, My Quilt Embellisher, My Quilt Planner, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Software Saturday, Software Techniques, Vintage Embroidery Software, Word Art in Stitches / 50 Comments

It’s been a fun journey hosting Software Saturday for the past five years. I’ve covered many of Inspirations’ software programs with primary focus on Perfect Embroidery Pro. In order to continue offering educational content, I’d love to hear your thoughts on future lessons for Inspirations software programs.

I know a blog is fairly one-sided but I do read all of the comments and use that information to create new posts.

Please leave a comment below and tell me what Inspirations’ software you’d like to see discussed on Software Saturday. Perfect Embroidery Pro, My Block Piecer, My Quilt Embellisher, Word Art in Stitches, My Fabric Designer, Vintage Embroidery Software or My Quilt Planner? And what topics would you like covered?

You input matters – so take a moment and share your thoughts – let’s make 2019 the year to master the software you’ve invested in.

Set the Stage

December 15, 2018 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Embroidery Techniques, Embroidery Tips, Holiday Stitching, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Software Saturday, Software Techniques / 2 Comments

Many embroiderers are stitching last minute gifts and that can mean trying to tame long fibers like faux fur and lofty knits. You need to ‘set the stage’ for the beautiful stitches and give them a foundation to sit on. Inspiration’s Perfect Embroidery Pro’s Nap Blocker feature is the answer for providing a base for the beautiful stitches while taming the fibers. Nap Blocker adds a layer of complex fill stitches that’s just light enough to flatten the lofty fibers creating a smooth surface for the embroidery. Here’s how to do it in PEP.

Select the Text tool and type JOY in the Properties Box. I used the Bookman font.

Select the design, right click to access the command menu. Select Utility, Nap Blocker.

Instantly, a layer of complex fill is added to the design in the first color position.

The fill extends .15” beyond the design to ensure any long fibers will not obstruct the embroidery. You can change this by selecting the fill only and resizing.

Notice how the complex fill is placed at the beginning of the design in the color sequence.

Stitch the complex fill in the same color thread as the fabric. This is key because you want these stitches to disappear behind the beautiful embroidery. And…you don’t have to use a topper when you use Nap Blocker. How sweet is that?

If you’re working with intricate text, you might want to adjust the shape of the nap blocker. the image below shows the default nap blocker for a paragraph of text. Remember, nap blocker has a default setting of .15″ so if it sees a space wider than that, it will leave it open.

It’s easy to adjust this. Click on the shape tool, select the nap blocker (color 1). All of the points will be visible.

Drag the cursor over the points you want to remove.Hit delete on the keyboard. Poof! They’re gone and the space is not filled!

Much better presentation!

Crazy Quilting

November 24, 2018 by eileenroche / Crazy Quilting, Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Embroidery Techniques, Embroidery Tips, Inspiration Software, My Quilt Embellisher, Quilting with your embroidery machine, Software Saturday, Software Techniques, Uncategorized / 6 Comments

My Quilt Embellisher features 50 crazy quilt stitches that can be combined, sized, rotated and morphed to create hundreds of gorgeous stitches. My Quilt Embellisher is the software I used to create the projects in Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine. To embellish a block with crazy quilt stitches, take a photograph of the block and load it into the software as a Backdrop. Define the horizon and the scale. You’ll find those tools on the left toolbar, just click on the arrow under the Backdrop icon.

Select the Crazy Quilting icon.

Select a stitch from the drop down menu. Select stitch #10.

Once selected, you’ll notice the cursor changes to a small crosshair. Left mouse click and drag the mouse to create the motif. The longer you drag, the larger the motif. Each motif can be dropped individually creating an organic, hand-stitched look. The line of crazy quilt stitches shown below is five repeats – all slightly different sizes. If your individual units are not aligned, select all and click on Horizontal Center Align to align the units.

If a design is skewed, just select the individual design and drag the corner handle to rotate it.

Crazy quilting stitches are such a fun, decorative technique for adding embellishments to quilt blocks, small wall hangings, purses and more. One of my favorite projects from the book is this charming storage box.

If you like crazy quilting, you might enjoy my book, Today’s Crazy Quilting with Your Embroidery Machine. The book includes instructions for creating your own crazy quilt blocks using My Quilt Embellisher software. Follow the steps in the book and watch the video on the CD to learn everything you need to know. You can learn more about the book here.

Projection!

October 13, 2018 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Inspiration Software, Perfect Embroidery Pro, Software Saturday, Software Techniques, Uncategorized / 3 Comments

One of my favorite features in Inspirations’ Perfect Embroidery Pro is Projection. Projection is a setting in the Properties Box under Stitch Type. Let me show you how Projection can transform a simple heart.

Select the artwork tool, and click on the heart.

Drag the cursor to create a heart (about 1.5” x 1.5”). Copy, paste and reposition each heart to make a flower.

Select the flower and in the Properties Box under Stitch Type, select Projection. Click Apply.

Now that simple heart is transformed into a detailed flower.

To turn it into an applique, select the flower, right click to access the Utility menu. Select Create Outline from the drop down menu. Change the distance of the outline to 0.0.

Select the outline, right click, Convert to Applique.

All you have to do now is change the order of the colors.

First, make the applique a separate color.

Then select the applique, right click and select Break Up Path.

Right click on the two runs (in color 2), select order and move to back. Change the color of the second run (this will be the tackdown). The first color is the placement guide.

The projection stitches should sew before the applique. So easy and so much fun!

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