Embrilliance StitchArtist - Digitizing an In-the-hoop Needle Saver
The plan and process to create this embroidery design using Embrilliance StitchArtist
This is the “in the hoop” Needle Saver Project that I have digitized using StitchArtist and that I am going to explain and talk about. What is a needle saver? Most of the time, I have a SCHMETZ 75/11 Embroidery Chrome needle in my machine. However, if I am embroidering on silk or a technical stretch knit fabric, I may change my needle to solve a problem that I am seeing during my test sew. Once that specialty project is finished, I'm ready to switch back to my SCHMETZ Embroidery Chrome 75/11 needle, but the one I was using is still good! I don't want to toss it. I don't want to put it back into the case as a new needle. So I stick it in my needle saver - that has the names of the most common needles that i switch between - and it safe and ready to be used in a future project.
There are many aspects to this project that needed to be considered and decided on before jumping into the software. Remember creating an outline for your essay in grammar school? Its always easier to work from a plan. So I am going to talk about not only the digitizing techniques and considerations, but also the planning that went on before, during, and after the first prototype design was digitized.
Your Instructor
I look back on the list of what I’ve done and say to myself - “DANG I must LOVE what I do because time sure flies when you’re having fun!” And that is the truth - I caught the machine embroidery bug when I got my first embroidery machine back in 1995 and I’ve been passionate ever since.
Yes, I started out as a hobbyist and still consider myself to be a card carrying member of addicted to machine embroidery anonymous. I attended an engineering school back in New England studying Math (Operations Research) and worked for a “think tank” attached to the Pentagon studying computer war simulations data analysis. Don’t you see how that relates to machine embroidery? My mother is still shaking her head at me - she didn’t understand what I did then and isn’t quite sure she understands what I do now :-) Actually a loose definition of Operations Research is finding the fastest, most efficient and least expensive solution to a problem. So with machine embroidery, I like to get from the computer to the embroidery machine as quickly and painlessly as possible. See! They kind of relate!
For almost 15 years I was the Tech Support Manager for a company called Buzz Tools and I gained so much from the experience. I found that I really enjoyed helping people conquer their fear of the computer, your partner in the machine embroidery process. Once you understand that the smart and creative one in the partnership is YOU - the computer becomes a hammer. A tool that has no magical power - it just does what you tell it to do. Now the fun and artistry can begin!
So on that premise I have taught classes and workshops around the world and played with way too many software programs and was really starting to get a bit burnt out on the whole “tech support” aspect. Call it a midlife adjustment - I left my position as “top guru”, bought myself a Mac and decided to pursue a new direction - similar but different. I was no longer representing a software company, I was representing me and what I loved to do with machine embroidery - yes, kind of scary!