1) Think about the designs you want over the entire year (hobbies, holidays, special occasions) so you can "stock up" when sales occur (for example, gnome designs went on sale in February, and you could get all holidays for a tea-towel set (one for each holiday) at a discount)). 2) Get embroidery thread when on sale (buy 3 get 3 at Joann's, etc) to have the ability to make something "on the fly". 3) Learn to make your own designs. software is available for any budget and doing designs is fun. My experience is across the charts for software (inkstitch with InkScape ("free"), SewArt Pro ("inexpensive"), Viking Premier 2 ("expensive"), and each have advantages over the other, but they come with a learning curve. In some cases, just the ability to edit designs (change text) is enough to be able to personalize a design. 3b) Making your own designs teaches you what to look for in quality designs (like those from Embroidery Library). Is there layering of the colors to create depth? What about fill angles and variation that works on different fabrics? Are there running stitches to minimize jumps and improve the production friendliness of the design? Do colors group together naturally for areas of the design to minimize risk of registration error? 3b) I like designs for logos and for converting images of pets to an embroidery design -- each has its rewards and different styles 4) Watch youtube videos by experts and novices to see what others are doing. Facebook has groups for each machine and software so you can see the benefit of community (as mentioned in the video).
How can I get my bobbin thread to not show on top? I've tried everything, including machine tune up. To accomodate, I use the same color bobbin thread as top, but it's so tedious, especially when I have many color changes.
