I have always loved embroidery. I started out with hand embroidery in my early teens and continued for many years with the trends of the day: pillowcases in the 50's and 60's, crewel emb. pictures in the 70's, and combinations of many types over the years. The first time I saw a machine doing embroidery I was blown away. Wow! I waited until the Pfaff company produced their first embroidery machine in 1994 before I bought one. You are always encouraged to do a sew out on a sample fabric to check your colors and the density, etc.
I had made several blue jean quilts prior to 1994 and liked them so I decided to do all of my practice stitchouts on old blue jeans. The family provided me with plenty of castoffs. Most of these designs were from the "cards" that are inserted into the machine.
Then we were introduced to the software that accompanied the machine where we could take a fancy stitch from machine, enlarge it, and make it into an embroidery design.
Many more embroidery machines have been made since 1994 and since I worked at the sewing machine store I was always around them I have gotten newer updated models over the years. The hoops have gotten bigger, the computer portion of the machine has gotten more sophisticated. I am continually torn between making quilts and playing with the embroidery machines, so combining the 2 in one quilt only makes sense.
I had made several blue jean quilts prior to 1994 and liked them so I decided to do all of my practice stitchouts on old blue jeans. The family provided me with plenty of castoffs. Most of these designs were from the "cards" that are inserted into the machine. Then we were introduced to the software that accompanied the machine where we could take a fancy stitch from machine, enlarge it, and make it into an embroidery design. Many more embroidery machines have been made since 1994 and since I worked at the sewing machine store I was always around them I have gotten newer updated models over the years. The hoops have gotten bigger, the computer portion of the machine has gotten more sophisticated. I am continually torn between making quilts and playing with the embroidery machines, so combining the 2 in one quilt only makes sense.