Please can you help me, for the past 4 months I have been trying to sew a wallhanging project on the Grand Hoop (Pfaff 2170) without success with this script (supplied). I have tried working with Carolyn Duncan’s Sew What Designs also Pfaff Manual, I have moved it every way possible but still no success so I would be grateful if you could shed some light to this problem.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Phyllis Robinson

Hi Phyllis,

I cover text issues in my Using Pfaff 3D Artist with the Grand Hoop tutorial.

The main pointers are:

- Text in the grand hoop can be a problem as the lines of text must NOT be color sorted before splitting

- Problems with automatic splitting of text can be due to the placement of the starting position of the line of text and the center position of the line - they must both be on one side of the hoop

Manual splitting as described in Fitting Designs into the Grand Hoop can be faster and simpler that fiddling with many lines of text so that they can be automatically split.

Carolyn Duncan
Sew What Designs
Author of Pfaff, Husqvarna & Sewing Tutorials

I have just received PE Design 7 and have a brother 8500D machine. I have a question about lettering. Have used PED 6 before, had same question. How can I get lettering to go all around a circle. I know that I can curve it some, have done that, but would like to know how to make it a complete circle. Love your site and columns. Thanks June C.

Hi June

To place lettering at both the top and bottom of a circle you need to create two separate circles (the same size) and then also create two different sets of lettering - one for the top and one for the bottom of the circle. Then you need to make sure that each set of lettering is placed in the correct position. I do have an in depth Text tutorial for Version 7 available which will explain all the settings you need in order to do this.

Creating text that completely encircles a circular shape entails creating your circle shape first and then writing your text and applying it to the shape of path that you have created. Adjustments can be made to the size of the text and the gaps between letters in order to make it fit correctly. All this and much more is also covered in my Text Made Easy tutorial for V6 and V7. Click on the link to read more.

I hope that helps. Best of luck.

Kind regards,

Carolyn
http://www.carolynkeber.com
Step by Step lessons for Embird and PE Design

I have a design of a pea pod with 5 peas in it. I want to eliminate 3 of them (two peas in a pod). I have a Viking Designer 1 and all of the software, but I am not sure how to do it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you, Connie.

Dear Connie,

If you have 3D Embroidery or 4D Embroidery Extra you can go to the edit tab and position the sliders so that only the 3 unwanted peas are displayed In color (assuming that they are stitched in sequence).

Using the “Select visible area” tool you can select and then delete the three unwanted peas. If the peas to be deleted are not in sequence you can use the sliders to isolate each in turn to be deleted.

When you return to the design tab the three extra peas will be gone but it will probably leave a hole in the design where the stitches were deleted. You could use the stitch tool in the edit tab to manually “stitch” extra stitches to fill in the gaps.

Carolyn Duncan
Sew What Designs
Author of Pfaff, Husqvarna & Sewing Tutorials

I want to put my grandson’s name on a bible book cover. I planned to put his name inside a frame. I’m not sure how to finish it. One thought was to leave an edge of material as I cut around the frame and then fold this to the back, tack down with fabric glue and then glue the whole thing to the book cover. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Suzy

Hi Suzy!
 
What a nice project! Your plan sounds just fine, but if you don’t want to fold the fabric under, why don’t you do a “patch” type frame with an applique frame design? It’s really easy…just hoop a piece of cut-away stabilizer (you can slide a piece of regular tear-away under the hoop for additional stitch support) and complete the frame, stitching the name last. Trim around the frame as close to the stitching as possible, touch up any white bits of cut-away with permanent markers in a color that matches the frame satin-stitching and glue to your book with permanent adhesive.

Or if you’d rather not have a cut-away backing (it does add a bit of a cushion) hoop two pieces of a fabric type water-soluble stablizer and create your frame on that. (If you do that, be sure to use pre-shrunk material for the frame.) One other note, if you do use cut-away for a patch frame, remember to add a fusible webbing to your frame fabric and fuse it right to the cut-away after trimming the fabric in the second step of the applique process. This will keep the fabric nice and smooth.
 
Good luck!
 
Evy
www.abitofstitch.com

I have bought numerous machine embroidery threads over the Internet with no trouble at all, but my last batch (un-named) are causing not only the needle to break frequently but the metal feed plate to jump off with the force. I can see no physical difference between these threads and previous ones. I have had my machine serviced in case the problem was there but it has made no difference. I am convinced the thread is the problem but cannot see why as other embroidery is fine. Any suggestions please?
Pauline

Dear Pauline,
 
Sometimes I get a spool of thread that will have a rough place on the edge of the spool which catches on the thread as it winds off into the machine’s tension unit, causing a “catch” that creates enough trouble to break a needle. Have you watched the thread as it spins off the spool to see if this is what is happening? And sometimes a spool just seems to be wound too tightly…like the winding machine got it’s britches in a twist during the process…and seems to “tug” when spinning off the spool. Before throwing out that batch of thread (or returning it) I’d watch how it winds off the spool. See if it “tugs” off instead of smoothly unraveling, or if it’s catching on a rough spool edge. If it’s a just a rough edge you can fix that with a spool cap larger than the spool.
 
Hope this helps!
Evy
www.abitofstitch.com

Hello Carolyn,

Hi Irina,

You need to make sure that you have Support Palette Files checked in Embird Manager. Open Manager and go to Options and place a check mark beside “Support Palette Files” and then Embird will remember the original colors in the design - even when you change from one format to another or use downloaded designs. Check out my small Embird Club tutorial called EDR Files in Embird Manager 2004. That will explain everything you need to know about this command.

However sometimes designs from sites like Embroidery Library are in commercial formats that do not contain color information - and only stops for color changes. You may need to reset these colors yourself using a text file provided with the designs. For more information see the Embird Club tutorial Changing Colors in Embird 2004.

Both these tutorials are still relevant for Embird 2006.

I hope that helps. Best of luck.

Kind regards
Carolyn
http://www.carolynkeber.com
Step by Step lessons for Embird and PE Design

I am a beginner. My niece has a Viking machine.  It bastes around the edge of her designs before it embroiders the design. How can I get my BabyLock machine to do that? Thank you, in advance.
Reba, Sand Springs, OK

Hi Reba,

You can simulate this by using the Embroidery Edit function on your machine and using one of the in-built frames included with the machine. Use the running stitch ones and re-size to suit. Then open your embroidery design and merge the files. Best of luck. 

Kind regards,
Carolyn
http://www.carolynkeber.com
Step by Step lessons for Embird and PE Design