It's been way too long!

I apologize to everyone for my long absence. I know you are probably wondering what is going on and I can't say as I blame you. Let me see if I can bring you up to date in a few short paragraphs.

We did, for the most part, complete our move a few weeks ago. Since then Mary has been quite ill and we are running way behind. She has fibromyalgia and is often in quite a lot of pain. Everything has come to a standstill around here, at least temporarily. No digitizing has been completed and our dust cover orders are piling up on us. I know she wants to get back to work, but she simply isn't able right now.

On top of everything else our old home was damaged by fire a few weeks ago. Our motorhome, which was sitting in the driveway, caught fire and eventually spread to the front of the house. We had only partially moved our belongings out, so it could not have come at a worse time. At least no one was injured. We were not there at the time.

Our motorhome was a complete loss. The cause of the fire has been determined to be faulty wiring in the motorhome refrigerator. From what the insurance investigator told me the brand we had has a long history of causing fires.

So, from here we simply try to move on. We hope to be back to full strength soon, but much will depend on how long it will take Mary to feel up to the task. We're hoping for the best. That's all we can do at this point. Thank you for understanding.

We Have Moved!

It's been a lot of work, but we're finally in our brand new home here in San Antonio, FL. Just in case your wondering what our new home looks like, I have included a photo of the front elevation. You can click on it for a larger view.

Around back we have a small pond which separates us from the 15th fairway of the golf course. There's nothing better than sitting on our lanai watching the golfers play while the water birds forage for food in the pond.

Things aren't exactly back to normal just yet, but we hope they will be soon. Chances are we'll be unpacking boxes for weeks to come, but the important stuff has been located and within reach. Hopefully we can now concentrate heavily on getting back to business as usual.

We have so many new embroidery designs planned that we really can't wait to get back to digitizing. I'll do my best to keep you posted on our progress. New releases will be announced in our newsletter as always.

Speaking of our newsletter, it's been a while since I've had time to publish one. I hope to get back on our regular schedule soon. Thanks for your patience.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, enjoy your summer. If not, enjoy what ever season is upon you.

We're Moving

Not much is happening around here if it doesn't pertain to packing boxes and readying ourselves to move. The past few weeks have been hectic to say the least.

We anticipate closing on our new home this week. Once that is over we'll begin the process of actually moving everything to the new home. Business, we hope, will continue as usual as much as possible. We apologize in advance if we do get a bit behind. Even if we do, rest assured everything will be taken care of as soon a possible.

Moving is never an easy thing. It's very stressful and can be nerve wracking. Undoubtedly you all know exactly what I'm talking about. Hopefully this move will be our last, but never say never.

Currently we have several new design projects partially complete and on hold. We can't wait to get back to work on them as we're sure you're going to love them.

We should be back to full strength and functioning normally within a few weeks, but please bear with us for now. We'll do the best we can under the circumstances. Wish us luck!

Optional non-standard hoops

Many new embroiderers find themselves confused about how their machine deals with optional or non-standard hoops. The machine, as it comes from the factory, is programmed to recognize a particular set of standard hoops and nothing more. The largest hoop it will recognize depends entirely on the maximum sewing field of the machine.

For example, if your machine can sew a maximum of 130 x 180mm then the largest hoop it expects to find attached is the 5 x 7 hoop. Were you to attach a 6 x 10 hoop the machine would still assume the size to be a maximum of 5 x 7. It would not recognize the 6 x 10 hoop as it would be unable to sew a design that large.

When you purchase an optional hoop, either one offered by the manufacturer or a third party, they usually require special techniques in order to use them. Most large optional hoops require the large design to be split into multiple parts.

With the Janome Gigahoop, for example, a large design would be split into two parts that are sewn individually. The first half is sewn, the hoop is flipped and re-attached to the machine. The second half of the design is then sewn just as the first. Hopefully the two halves line up perfectly giving you a beautiful finished design.

All the while this is going on your machine still thinks it is sewing in the large 5 x 7 hoop, but you know better. It doesn't matter what the machine thinks as long as you know what you want it to do and have set things up correctly.

Splitting the designs properly will be your biggest challenge. There are many software programs on the market that will assist you in accomplishing this task. Once you master the splitting process the rest is easy.

Naturally I recommend Embird for all your editing and splitting needs. You would have to go a long way to find a better program and it's available at an unbeatable price. To help you learn all those various editing techniques we have a great set of Embird Video Tutorials available that will teach you how to use Embird like a pro. Visit our web site for details.