QUILTsocial Issue 14

Step 4 - Choosing the font
There are seven embroidery fonts in sizes
from 10mm to 80mm to choose from. In
the photo below, you can see the sizes
represented by the number to the right
of the font name.
You need to start out by choosing the
hoop size. In the bottom left, you can
see the 240 x 150 size is selected. This
will set the embroidery edit screen with
the corresponding hoop size so you’re
designing your words exactly as they
will be stitched out. The hoop space
is shown in purple below. You can
customize that color if you choose.
I wanted to keep the lettering as small as
I could so I chose Mesa 12.
I programmed the names into the
Embroidery Edit screen. It’s easy to bring
up the font menu by touching the green
tab with the letter A on it.
Notice that one of the names was too long
for the hoop so I had to make two lines.
You can zoom in if you need very
precise placement, the number of
designs (I have six) and the total stitch
count are all outlined on this screen.
If you’ll do some embroidery, it’s very
important to become very familiar with
all the tools to get the best from your
embroidery machine.
Step 5 - Embroidering the letters
Once I was happy with the placement
and that everything was spelled
correctly, it was time to get to the
actual stitching.
After touching the green GO shown
on the screen above, I get a Welcome
to Embroidery Stitch Out screen. This
is where I can review that I’ve all the
correct accessories in place – the correct
foot and hoop and any other settings
that I might want to change, such as
basting in the hoop (or not), and other
very important options.
It’s like a checklist of some very
important components to successful
embroidery. I love it!
The embroidery font menu which shows the font
name and size
I’m a very visual person and I like to see
the size of the font rather than select it
from a menu on the screen. I have some
of the fonts stitched out which makes
it easy to see what the font looks like in
the various sizes.
When I did the stitch-outs, I used the
font name and the font size as the
wording which makes it very easy to
know which is which. I need to get the
rest of the fonts stitched out and if I were
really good, I’d have them in a nice book.
Stitch out of some of three of the embroidery fonts
Embroidery edit screen
There are loads of other tools in the
Embroidery Edit screen. I remember
having to do all the editing on the
computer, transferring the design
to a FLOPPY disk (OK – that was 20
years ago) and then loading it into the
embroidery machine.
The Embroidery Edit screen is a very
powerful tool and allows you to contour
the letters to a shape, resize, move,
rotate and a whole lot more. There’s
so much that can be done with the
lettering that it’s hard to fit it all in one
magazine feature!
The Welcome to Embroidery Stitch Out screen
Let’s not forget that I need to thread
the machine. I used a red bobbin
weight thread in the bobbin and my red
embroidery thread on top.
44 QUILTsocial | issue 14