The Purple Hat’s newly updated set of Petite Purses are ideal for small items like library cards, credit or business cards, lipstick and of course, money! These funky purses are fully lined and completely made in the hoop. There are 5 different designs and full instructions with photos to guide you. All orders with The Purple Hat will also receive a cute Owl Scissors Case project absolutely FREE. This handy project matches the Wrist Pincushions.

I have the Janome 11000SE and love it.  But I am having trouble saving a single line of text which overlaps the two areas.  I have tried everything I can think of.  I know I have done this before without a problem, so I must be missing something this time.  When I save the design it saves in two parts as it should.  However, when I save the design as a vertical layout, it stitches horizontally and the second half is upside down. 

I am pulling my hair out because this should be basic and easy.  What am I doing wrong?  I use the Embird 8.4 Editor.  Your assistance is urgently needed.  I have twenty soccer team jackets to stitch this week.  Thank you, Vicki

Carolyn Keber responds:

As far as I am aware the Janome 1100 can stitch the fill field of 8×8 without having to use the Gigahoop. Set the hoop to the Janome MC 1100 square hoop (8×8 or 200×200) and create the lettering in one file. That should work for you. The gigahoop is mainly used for the smaller machines with smaller fields such as the Janome 300E and Janome 350E.

I hope that works for you.

Kind regards
Carolyn Keber
Step by Step Tutorials for all Embird programs and for PE Design

I want to now if anybody has experience with the Husqvarna viking diamond and Pfaff vision. I have HusqvarnaSE, had a lot of problems with it, so I want to buy another embroidery machine.
gr. Hanne Jans

Here’s an update from Carolyn on what she has been up to lately….

Hi everyone, This is a wee note to keep you up to date with what I am doing. I have been busy beta testing Embird 2009 for the Embird folk. The new program looks good and although Embird Editor and Manager have a few nice new features Embird Studio has a number of changes which I am sure you will enjoy. I have also been busy writing a new Embird Club lesson so if you’re in my Embird Club then you should see this new lesson next week. It’s a lesson with a sneak preview on one of the features in Embird Studio.I don’t know when the next version of Embird will be released and I don’t even know if there will be a charge, sorry.

Just a reminder to you that I have full lessons available for all Embird programs. These are Embird Editor and Manager, Embird Studio, Embird Sfumato, Embird Cross-Stitch and Font Engine. My Font Engine tutorial covers both Font Engine in Embird Basic and also the new Font Engine in Studio that so many people initially struggle with. In Font Engine/Studio I take you right through how to use it and after following my lessons I am sure that you’ll be far more comfortable with Studio’s new look for Font Engine.

Recently I also released an extensive tutorial on Splitting for the Gigahoop. This tutorial was a while in the making and it covers all the difficulties people have had with aligning the Gigahoop and how to get perfect alignments. 

I am constantly working on new lessons to help people get the most out of their Embird and PE Design programs. I am also always available by email when you have any queries or have struck a problem. I cannot always guarantee to know every answer but I am always willing to help if I can.

Kind regards,
Carolyn Keber
Step by Step Tutorials for all Embird programs and for PE Design

Take a look at the superb Bella Tote Bag project new from Michelle’s Designs. This beautiful silk shantung tote with custom embroidery designs has been created with a touch of elegance and flair. The project includes a lovely bouquet design for the front flap as well as a set of floral buttonholes for the back of the tote. You will learn twin needle pin-tucking that is topped with an embroidery design and a gathered ruffle. Also included are two darling accessories, a sweet Eyeglass Case and mini Cosmetic Bag to complete the ensemble. These projects coordinate with Michelle’s A Garden for Bella designs.

I have PE Design 7 and have used your tutorials in the past and have just purchased the latest version. I have been looking at the info on Embird and am wondering if I would find it useful to have both programs.

The following information has been supplied by Carolyn Keber who writes Tutorials for both the programs.

PE Design is a software program created by the Brother/Babylock company. This program enables you to create your own designs which can then be used in your embroidery machine. There are two main design creation parts to the program - Design Center and Layout and Editing. Design center is a click and fill type of embroidery creation whereas with Layout and Editing you use the tools in the program and create the design yourself from scratch. You choose your own stitch settings, fill directions and much more. Layout and Editing gives you much more control over your design than Design Center. Although you can do a certain level of editing in PE Design it is not as easy as it is in Embird.

Embird contains a whole suite of programs starting from the editing software through to the Digitizing software where you create your own designs. Embird is wonderful for editing and you can do so much more in Embird than you can with PE Design. However if you already own PE Design then I would advise you to learn PE Design so that you can create your own embroidery designs but to buy Embird Basic to do your editing of designs. You will not regret buying Embird as it is wonderful and makes editing so easy.

If you do not own PE Design yet, and are just wondering if you should buy it, then I would say to you not to buy PE Design but to buy Embird instead. It is far better value for your money and the upgrades and updates are either free or approx $15 - which is far less than Brother charge for their upgrades. There is a tremendous amount of support on the internet for Embird - Yahoo groups etc - and you won’t have to rely on your dealer for support.

I have a number of tutorials available for both programs - including some free ones. Feel free to download these tutorials from Secrets of Embroidery and see what you think of the programs. I love Embird - I wouldn’t be without it.

Hi to everybody. I have purchased the Brother pr620 with the software pe-design7. Can someone help me to understand why it eliminates the lines of seam that are created by a point to the other above the embroidery rather than under on embroideries purchased on the internet or those that you can free download?
Thanks - Elena

Hello Elena,

Thanks for your query. We do have some tutorials for PE Design V7 written by Carolyn Keber, which may be helpful to you. They are written in a style which makes it easy for beginners and advanced users to understand.

Kind regards,

Margaret Hardwick-Smith
Customer Support
at Secrets of Embroidery

Hi, I wanted to sew some designs out using my Magna Hoops. Using Embird 2008, I called out the desired Magna Hoop size. After I arranged the designs to my satisfcation, I saved it. When I re-opened the saved file, the design is no longer in the right placement. The whole design has moved!

Does anyone encounter the same problem? Have I missed out something?

Alicia

Dear Kim

I sure appreciate the lengths you and Susan ( Mimi’s Sewing Studio) went to to get this through to me (don’t know why the other address failed). It’s rare that someone takes the trouble to follow-up under such circumstances. As it happens, I was able to resolve my problem but it’s really nice to know that if I was waiting for a reply, I would not have been left wondering what happened.

People like you restore my faith in the kindness of strangers — I’m grateful.

Helga

I am now desperately seeking help in a way to increase the width of some satin stitches. Having been into the set size page I find this increases or decreases the size of the whole design, is there any way I can just increase the stitch width?
Learning about this programme I feel sure there would be, but I will be blind from reading the manual before I get  to sew a stitch.

Best regards
Doreen Fothergill

Hi Doreen

The best way to increase the width of the satin stitch in an object is to adjust the Pull Compensation. To do this you should first separate the stain stitch outline object from the rest of the design. Once separated you select the satin outline object and go to Edit/Pull Compensation. Make an adjustment to the setting and click OK. You may have to use the Undo command several times until you get the result that you want.

Then re-join all the objects once the width is to your liking and save as a new file name so as to not over-write the original design.

I do have a small tutorial available - Adjusting Appliqué Satin Stitch with Embird 2004 - if you would like more information on this command.

Best of luck

Kind regards
Carolyn Keber
Step by Step Tutorials for all Embird programs and for PE Design