A Week of Learning and Embroidery

I may be 69 but I am still learning new things.  I've always loved learning and discovering things. At one time in my life I thought I would have loved to be a professional student. Maybe that's actually what I am just not in a formal educational setting.

So what did I learn this week?  I learned more about what Floriani Total Control Universe is capable of doing and then how to actually begin doing it. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would spend so much time on the computer learning and creating with various software products. Sometimes I wonder if I actually prefer creating projects on the computer more making the projects. I've played with designing quilts for years. Now, I'm working with machine embroidery designs.

Project number one involved taking an embroidery design which is too big for my largest embroidery hoop and breaking it up to stitch in multiple hoopings.  My largest hoop is 9-1/2" x 14".  To learn how to break up a design I chose one which was 6-1/2" x 15".  Turns out the splitting the design in the software is really easy.  The computer and FTCU software does it with a click on one button and a few inputted information such as what size hoop do you want to stitch it in.  Since my design was just under 7" I decided to stitch it out in a 5" x 7" hoop.  I did this in three separate hoopings.  The trick to learn was how to get the material perfectly hooped  so the design match up and stitch correctly in each hooping. I didn't get it done perfectly, but for the first attempt it turned out pretty good. I did learn some things that will help make it easier to do again and hopefully correcting the problems with lining the design up. For this design though  broke it up for a 5" x 7" hoop, I think it would have been easier if I actually stitched it out in my 8" x 8" hoop.  I could then have use my camera on my machine and had room to move the design around a bit to get perfect placement.

So here is the results of my learning.

It has a fair amount of puckering, but I know it will quilt out when I put it into a project this fall.

It's destiny is to be the front pocket in a reading pillow. 

Learning project number two was taking an applique pattern, in this case a VW Beetle, and turning it into a design to be stitch out on an embroidery machine.   Once again I used the FTCU software. I also had to use my Canvas Workspace software to change the JPEG scan I made into a .FCM cut file that I could import into FTCU in order to work with the design. It took some trial and error (actually it took a lot of trial and error) to get the design so it would stitch out as I wanted.  It's not a pretty design as far as how the stitching goes. I still have a lot to learn, but the end result was something I was proud of. For now I will accept for myself that the end result is what is important not how I got there.  I will keep working on it though and fine tune the process. 

Here is the outcome of this experience.

In the process of stitching this out I did discover corrections I needed to make and have made them to the design should I was to stitch it out once again.  

This learning project was inspired by a good friend who has a pattern for an appliqued quilt that she wants to make, but wants to do it on her embroidery machine.  The first project was undertaken for a class that I teach once a month on using FTCU.  

So the learning continues.  I have a few other things in the works. Hopefully they will show up here in the future.