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EQStitch Sunday Stitch #23

Posted 01-03-2016 by | Posted in: EQStitch Favorite Posts Sunday Stitch

We had the grand kids visiting for a couple weeks before Christmas.  It was difficult to keep them entertained.  One evening we went to a sing-along in the village where we live to sing Christmas carols with other neighbors.  The 5 year old got bored really quick.  At one point someone was asked to offer up a prayer for everyone.  This particular person does like to go on and on when he is asked to give a blessing.  Even the adults are impatient for the prayer to end!  Of course, leave it to a kid to put it into perspective.  He covered his ears after several minutes and started saying, blah,blah, blah, blah!!!  Thank goodness most of the adults are hard of hearing and did not notice. I didn’t know whether to laugh or quiet him immediately.   Turn those special moments into cartoon character images and add text to

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #22

Posted 12-27-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Favorite Posts Sunday Stitch

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this last week.  I am busy writing lessons during this holiday season.  I write lessons several weeks/months in advance.  Right now I am looking at what lesson content I will include in the upcoming EQ Academy retreat in Ohio.  There are a few openings left so be sure to head on over to the EQ website and register soon.  This is the very best way to learn a software program with hands on lessons and step by step instruction.  The interaction with other students with the same interests also adds to the learning . Open the EQStitch program. Name a new project called ‘Teach Me Well’. Set the preferences for the project back to the default settings of the software. Relaunch the program and open the existing project named ‘Teach Me Well’. Click on the ‘work on stitching’ icon at the top of

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #21

Posted 12-20-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Favorite Posts Sunday Stitch

Personalize a very special snowflake design using the freehand drawing tool in EQStitch.  This design stitches very fast and would make a great design to stitch on a kids napkin for your Christmas Holiday meal. Open your EQStitch program and set the preferences back to the default settings. Click  on the ‘work on stitching’ worktable Click on the patch fill icon on the properties bar at the top of the screen to turn it off. Click on the drawing board options and  set the embroidery edge stitch to a bean stitch, and set the embroidery fill stitch to a no fill option. Click on the freehand drawing tool and click/hold/drag/release the mouse while you write your name with cursive handwriting. Click on the name with the pick tool and rotate it so it is vertical on the page. Click on the ‘clone selected segments’ icon   to make a copy of the

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #20

Posted 12-13-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Sunday Stitch

One color embroidery designs are traditionally called Red Work.  These designs were done in the past stitching pictures by hand using red threads.  Today, we often refer to machine embroidery one color designs as Red Work and then change them to different colors at the machine (blue work, green work, black work).  The trick when designing a single color design for the embroidery machine is to have the elements all connect to each other and draw them so they sew at the machine as a continuous stitch design.  Try not to have jumps, starts and stops, and elements that are not connected.  You can add interest to the designs by changing from running stitches, bean stitches, zigzag stitches, and a small amount of fill stitch areas. Open your EQStitch program. Name a new project called One Color Designs. Set the preferences back to the default settings. Click on the ‘work

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #19

Posted 12-06-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Sunday Stitch

Headed to a 3 day retreat for machine embroidery this weekend!  This is a great time to work on items for Christmas and also for test sewing all those machine embroidery designs I have been working on with my EQStitch program. Designs that work up quickly are linear and usually one color designs.  But, you could always opt to use variegated thread and just let it stitch out the lines and the various colors are automatically added.  I love to use a bean stitch (also called triple stitch) for a linear design or a small zigzag line when using variegated threads. The thread choice always effects the design you create.  Too thick of a thread will cause problems with heavily filled areas and too thin of a thread will cause issues with it not being prominent enough for the overall design.  Digitizing is just the first step to creating lovely

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #18

Posted 11-29-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Sunday Stitch

Text fonts come in all shapes and sizes but not all fonts will stitch well.  Fonts can be letters or small icon shapes.  All fonts you have in your computers’ Font Folder on your hard drive will be available in the drop down menu in EQStitch.  Below are some tips for dealing with fonts in the EQStitch program. 1.  Just because the font is available in the fonts folder and can be accessed by EQStitch does not mean it will stitch well. 2.  The smaller the font size the harder it is to read when created with threads. 3.  Applique fonts need to be fairly large in order to incorporate the zigzag edge stitches without closing down the font shape. 4.  The approximate size on the properties bar when creating text is indeed approximate.  If you need an exact size of letter, you need to select it and then type

EQStitch Sunday Stitch #17

Posted 11-22-2015 by | Posted in: EQStitch Sunday Stitch

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief and action.  Simply put it means to plan ahead.  When digitizing we do this all the time.  Think of what type of design you want to create, the steps it will take to create the artwork, work from background to foreground, apply stitch properties and thread colors, and then sort the information before exporting it to become a stitch file for your embroidery machine.  Did you know you do all that when designing with your EQStitch? Sometimes it is just easier to let the auto digitizing functions of the program take over and think through all the steps for you.  But, when you rely on auto digitizing,  you lose the control to be creative yourself.  

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