bird on limb

Here is another bird design I got on Shutterstock designed by Yulia M.

I think I am most happy so far with Buzz-2-Stitches when the image I am working with is a "cartoon" image, that is, an image with no shading, instead of an "illustration", that is, an image with shading. Let me show you what I am talking about.

Here are two images.  The first image you should recognize, it is image used to create the embroidery design above.  The second image is an illustration that I got on Shutterstock designed by Dianka Pyzhova.

Do you see how the globe has quite a bit of shading?  When I first looked at the globe I thought that it would be a great image to digitize.  But after digitizing and sewing it, I found out there were a lot of colors going on. Just take a look at the water.  There are at least seven, maybe even eight, different colors of blue.  It would have been better if I would have touched up the file first to have only three or four different blues.

Here is the globe stitched out.

I wasn't so impressed!  I only used two different blue colors.  When they said to switch I told it "no thanks!"  Buzz-2-Stitches actually didn't catch all the different colors, either.

If you would  like to try either of these designs, you can down load the free embroidery design files in .hus version here, for the bird on the limb and, here, for the globe. 

Bird

I found a cute set of birds on Shutterstock designed by Yulia M.  Here is one of the birds.  Buzz-2-Stitches did a pretty decent job on this. 

 

One of the nice things about Buzz-2-Stitches is that it is a plug and go kind of software.  I load up the picture file and press a couple of buttons and out comes my embroidery design.  One of the problems with this is that it may miss some details.  On these pretty simple vector files, it does a pretty nice job.  However, one disappointing piece was that it did not change colors for the legs. It may be that I can change the color by selecting the different stitches; however, I haven't played with the software long enough to find out.  

If you would like to try stitching this, you can download the free embroidery design file here.  .hus is the only file type I have saved on this one.

Ewalu Quilt

Ewalu is a special place and God's kingdom and it also has a special place in my heart!  Ewalu is a Christian Camp located outside Strawberry Point, Iowa. I worked at Ewalu as a counselor for three summer sessions and during the school year I would find any excuse to make it out to Ewalu on the weekends.  I loved it so much!!  To top it off, I met my husband there!

Ewalu just celebrated their 50th Anniversary this last weekend!!  We wish we could have been there to celebrate and to catch up with so many of our camp friends!  It is amazing how Ewalu has grown!  The first few years of camp there were only tents.  The cafeteria was even under a tent!  Now there are beautiful buildings and cabins, tepees and pioneer wagons, too!  Such an awesome place to learn about Jesus, our Savior, and to admire his creations!  Ewalu covers over 500 acres of woodland, meadows and stream.  Just beautiful!!

In a couple weeks, on September 18th, Ewalu will be holding their annual fall festival and quilt auction.  It is amazing all of the beautiful quilts they get donated for the event!  I believe you will be able to place bids online too!

I made a quilt for the auction this year!  I used a french braid pattern from Jane Hardy's French Braid Quilts book.   It was a lot of fun to do!  One of my favorite parts of piecing a quilt is picking out the fabric.  This had so many fabrics in it, I had a hay-day in the fabric store!!

Using my Viking Designer 1 Embroidery Machine, I made this quilt label.  There is (or at least was) a stained glass wall hanging of the name Ewalu in the shape of an ichthus.  When I found this embroidery design with Jesus written in the shape of an ichthus, I knew that this would be the perfect label!  I love the way it turned out!!

If you get a chance, go check out some of the quilts that will be at the quilt auction.  I believe they will be posting them soon here.

Flower Quilt Label Machine Embroidery

I made another design file using buzz-2-stitches!  I am going to use it for a quilt label!  The design was originally created by ARCHITECTE on www.shutterstock.com.

I am still getting the feel for the buzz-2-stitches program.  I am a little frustrated with the lack of detail it picks up.  However, I am not really blaming the program at this point.  I am sure it is the user!!  There are several options that can be selected to make the design come out better.  I just need to learn the right combination for each type of design!!

If you would like to try this design on your embroidery machine, you can find the .hus embroidery design file for free here!

Magnifying Glass Embroidery Design

About six years ago I saw an I Spy quilt where they used a magnifying glass embroidery design to make it look like a big print fabric is hidden in a small print fabric.  A couple of up close pictures are below so that you can see what I mean.

So after so many years of wanting to try this, I did it!  I bought a magnifying glass embroidery design from Nobbie Neez Kids.  Then the fun began!!

After completing 20 blocks, I considered how to put the blocks together.  I decided to put some white sashing in between the blocks with a square on-point at the corners.  I have never made a square on-point, so it was a good learning experience! 

For the borders I used a shortcut way to create squares on point explained in The Border Workbook .

I am pleased with the final product. My dear daughter will be sporting this quilt on her bed once I get it quilted!

I think you should take a stab at an I Spy quilt using a magnifying glass design!!  You won't regret it!

Digitized Butterfly Embroidery Design

Using Buzz-2-Stitches, I made my first digitized design.  I am quite pleased with it.  I started with this butterfly vector image that was designed by pixelcraft and available on Shutterstock.

 I just had to go and try it out!  I embroidered the design on a scrap piece of fabric.  It turned out very nice if I do say so myself!!

 
If you would like to try this on your machine, download the free embroidery design here.  It is in .hus format.