Alignment Stitches With Embird

I had someone ask what fusible fleece is.  Fusible fleece is a thin batting that you fuse to your fabric.  It's not fusible batting which is much thicker.  

Here's what I was talking about when I was using Embird to make an alignment stitch.  Sticky stabilizer is like contact paper and is used if you don't want to hoop something.  For the quilt block I am working on, hooping each design over and over would stretch out the fabric and distort it.  However; I think I'm doing a good job of that on my own.  LOL.  Here's what sticky stabilizer looks like:

From Embroidery Designs

On the first test out I drew horizontal/vertical lines on the stabilizer but it didn't work as I was still off.  I tried several times to line with the lines I had drawn on the fabric to the lines I had drawn on the paper.  Then I realized the lines I had drawn weren't done right with the marks on the hoop as I did the alignment stitch on it.  Sigh.

Here's what the fabric looks like on top of the hoop.  You can see the references lines I've drawn.  My design HAS to be perfectly aligned with those lines or it won't fit.  I know the lines aren't perfectly straight when I placed it on the stabilizer either because I'm not that good.

From Embroidery Designs

In Embird I can do an alignment stitch that does a horizontal/vertical set of stitches so I can double check my if my marks are exactly centered on the hoop.

From Embroidery Designs

Errr...  I think I'm just a little off.  If I just guessed my design would have gone over into the other design.  Sigh.  I'm really pathetic at lining this up.  LOL.

I take out the stitches and I get needle holes in the stabilizer for exact placement.  I thought about doing that first, but it actually works better if stitch over the fabric first.

From Embroidery Designs

I put the my fabric lines up with the perforated stabilizer and it works perfectly every time.  And yes; I have tried it with the grids on the lined paper.  You still need center marks on the sticky part. 

It would be totally awesome if the machine gave you this option.  Or if the overpriced 4D Extra would do this as part of their editing.  If you are looking for embroidery software, buy Embird.  The name brand software programs aren't awful, they are just extremely limited in what they can do and they force you to keep buying up until you spend a fortune on their TOL software.    

"Aquamarine Ambience" Block One Test

This is for ytsmom as you don't have your blog settings set so that I can reply.  I got my Janome 6600 table from Ken's Sewing and Vacuum Center off of Ebay.  I believe you can get the table from OK Sew And Vac in Omaha as they sell Janome machines.  If they don't have one in stock, they can order you one.  Or check with Ken and see if he'll send you one.

And yes, it will hold a Bernina but it won't fit into the table.  You'll have to get a board to put over the opening as I've done for my Topaz. I put rubber mats under the board so it doesn't move.  

Block One Stitch Out Test

My first block has been a test block to see how things stitch out.  LOL.  I have ripples in the block as I obviously haven't mastered stabilizing for this block.  

From Embroidery Designs

Here's a close up shot:

From Embroidery Designs

I ran into another problem.  Color.  My second green is driving me crazy.  I love the yellow-green and the aqua green but but I tried 2 other greens with some mixed reviews.  The circles in the center are done in Hemingworth's Caribbean Green.  It's very bright even if it doesn't show that way in the picture.  The green in the left motif is Hemingworth's Wintergreen.  It looks darker on the spool but comes out gray green on the fabric.  

I'm heading up to Omaha next week to check out some other colors.  

Blackwork Quilt Top Done!

I got my Topaz back from the dealer this morning. It got the update it needed and she said the up-take lever problem should be fixed. I sewed on it all afternoon without any problems. So far so good.

I got my Blackwork quilt top done today:

From Blogger Pictures

I'm not sure I like the white border width. I'm planning to do some some decorative stitching on the white so maybe it will soften it up some. If my editing skills were better I'd take some of the designs from the blackwork and put them together as a border.