Learn how to jump-start the needle felting process with your embroidery machine!  Make this cute cushion with the Needle Felted Tote Purses Tutorial. 

Create your own fabric collage with silk chiffon fabrics and a needle-felting machine!  Use the finished fabric for lovely, wearable art garments or crafty projects embellished with embroidery designs. See the Needle Felting Silk Chiffon Tutorial.

The new collectable Antique Shoe August quilt block is FREE with any order over $10 from A Bit of Stitch.

Here’s another simple and elegant collection from Michelle’s Designs. The Victorian Romance Ensemble has 3 embroidery projects, 5 custom designs, full instructions and patterns in a beautifully illustrated book. The Wall Hanging Quilt, Pillow and Table Runner projects are decorated with exquisite Victorian Romance designs and would make wonderful heirloom pieces.

Also see the August Sale at Michelle’s Designs with 25% discount off selected design sets.

Will the USB card reader from PE Basic work for PE Design 7.0? My USB card reader was water damaged by my infant and my Brother store will not replace it, they want me to buy the software all over again. Any advice? - Mrs AJ

Could someone explain to me STEP by STEP how to send a design to my usb stick? I have a Designer 1 USB. I am so confused it’s pathetic. Thanks - Fran

 Hi Fran

Carolyn Duncan has created a fantastic tutorial containing instructions on How to Transfer Designs using a USB Stick.  Best of all, the tutorial is free.

We hope this will cure your frustration.

The Team at Secrets

I have a Husqvarna Viking Scandinavia 400 and the reader/writer unit. I want to be able to design my own embroidered quilt labels using downloaded embroidery designs and adding wording, etc. What kind of software do you recommend? The 4D Software Packages sound confusing to me. Which do I choose? I don’t think I need them all, as I don’t believe I will be going into digitizing, etc. Just want to be able to resize a design, change colors, and add wording.

Any assistance would be helpful. I don’t want to walk into the dealer and come home with stuff I don’t need at this time. - Barb

Hi Barb,

Are you familiar with Embird? The basic Embird program will do all you need.  Embird splits designs, re-joins them, resizes, changes density, unzips files, and converts them. The list goes on and on.  It can be used with any type of machine and will convert to most design types.

Embird offer a free one month trial of the program.  This program is fully functional and will work for 30 days or 100 uses (which ever comes first).  The trial Embird program will then expire and you will need to register it if you wish to continue to use the program.  If you are not confident at downloading or would like a hard copy of the Embird demo program, we can send it to you on CD.

The cost to register the latest Embird Program is $131.00 and your password will be sent by email from the Embird company within 24 hours.  This registration number comes with all instructions on how to enter the number into your Embird program on your computer.

We have several great tutorials by Carolyn Keber available for Embird as well. 

Kind regards,

Margaret Hardwick-Smith
Customer Support
at Secrets of Embroidery