I participated in the Applique Getaway in Ft Worth Texas and I am FINALLY catching up with life!  I’m also in the process of having my website completely redone which includes getting the newsletter working properly.  As soon as that is complete, well I’ll tell you about that when it happens – let’s not jinx things!  But in the meantime, if you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here.

So one of the things I love about going to events like the Applique Getaway is that I get completely inspired with new projects and ideas – and seriously put this event on your “must do one day” list as it was an incredible experience.  More on that later! But while I was there, chatting with those that loved machine embroidery – and in particular those that loved applique and lettering designs – I must have been asked a dozen times how to make embroidered letters look like they are twisted together.

So I was talking with Cristy & Janay from The Itch 2 Stitch and I asked Cristy if she would mind if I used one of their monogram style alphabets in a video and boom! here we are 🙂  You will hear me mention “BX fonts” in the video – the BX format is actually an installation file that contains alphabet designs that have mapping commands assigned to each design.  Some call this a “keyboard font” because you can type like in your word processor using the alphabet design collection – sounds fast and easy?  It is!  So you install the BX font to Embrilliance software and when you choose the Lettering tool, you have a new font in your list so that you can now TYPE with that font.  Yes, it is wicked cool, and seeing is believing, so check out the blog post that I did with links to videos and more to get the whole scoop.

So, I created my monogram and then had some fun with my stitch editor of Embrilliance Enthusiast software.  Normally, the letters stitch out in completion in a particular order – left center right, or center left right etc.  What I show in the video is how I made a stitch editing attack plan on paper, and then went to work in my software to put the plan into action.  Clicking on this graphic should take you to the video on my SewBubbles youtube channel.

Just to recap some general stuff about Embrilliance.

**  All the programs are stand alone and run natively under Mac or Windows.

** Each program has a job – Enthusiast is advanced stitch editing and multiple hoop layouts and you can read about everything that this program does here.

** I have all the programs installed but I am only showing you functions that can be done in Enthusiast.

If you are comparing buttons between your software and my software – in order for your program to look exactly like mine, you need to go purchase Essentials, Enthusiast, Density Repair Kit, StitchArtist and AlphaTricks.  But you will NOT see me do anything in this video that can not be done by someone that only has Enthusiast.  I will only click on the Enthusiast buttons, I made sure of that 🙂

** This video was created using the Mac version of Enthusiast.  HOWEVER, the windows version has the exact same steps – the interface is just “window-y”.

Finally, this video was not intended to be a step by step tutorial.  I created it for viewing with your hands on your lap 🙂.  Maybe near the mouse so you can hit the pause button and rewind but not near the mouse so you can do what I do as in a step by step tutorial.  That would have to be a 4 hour video to complete the project at that speed. Thank goodness no one knows how many times I hit rewind – I love the rewind slider when I’m trying to pick up on the details!  I’ve been doing this many years – I learned all of this the hard way and I would love for you to pick up some tips and tricks to make things easier in your embroidery customizing adventures!

As I mention in the video, each project will have a different plan of attack and different ways to accomplish what you want.  I wanted to expose you to a few of the neat features of the program so that you can take that knowledge and play.  Luckily when you “play” in software – you can’t break anything as long as you save your original under a new name!

So I want you to watch and then go play.  And don’t pressure yourself to remember every single thing from the video!  My goal is to remember ONE thing and use it so that I know it….then I go back and watch again and focus on something different.  For example, the lock and unlock of the object pane – this is the COOLEST thing ever and  exists in all the Embrilliance programs!  Have you ever combined a bunch of designs and now your trying to move them around so that they make the perfect little combined design and you keep grabbing the wrong one?  No more scaring the 4 legged embroidery mascots that hang out with you (I know I’m not the only one with pets in the sewing room – and mine leave the room when Momma gets flustered)!  When you get a design where you want it – LOCK IT.  Now you can click on it all you want on the design page and it is not moving.  Just don’t panic when you want to move it and you can’t – select it in the object pane and unlock it 🙂

If you don’t have Enthusiast you can check it out the Embrilliance website – here is a link to the Enthusiast information page.  If you have questions, posting them to this blog isn’t the fastest way to get an answer.  I would hate for you to have to wait for the blog to send me a message letting me know there is a question.  For the fastest response, I would click on the Contact Us link while you are on the Embrilliance website and you can even mention that you saw this video.  I get tagged to answer questions about stuff all the time.

I hope you enjoyed this post –