In Windows 7, the long bar at the very bottom of your screen is called the taskbar. It is made up of three parts:

1. the "Start" button which opens the Start menu
2. the middle section, which shows you which programs and files you have open and allows you to quickly switch between them.
3. the notification area, which includes a clock and other icons

The graphic belowshows the middle section of my taskbar.  As you can see there are several icons for my most-used programs.   If you click on an icon, it will launch the specific program.   Beginning at the left I have Internet Explorer, Firefox and Outlook, continuing from there.   Having shortcuts to the most-used programs easily accessible on the taskbar saves the hassle of either clicking on start/all programs and then selecting the program from a long list or alternatively filling up my desktop with icons, which is not a good idea. as with each icon you add to your desktop you are using up the computer’s virtual memory.  

In Windows 7 it is extremely simple to add a new program to the taskbar.  Each time you open a new program an icon for that program is temporarily placed in the taskbar.  To pin the program to the taskbar, right click the button in the taskbar, select pin this program to taskbar.   When the program is closed, the shortcut will remain in the taskbar. 

In the graphic above you will see that I have fourteen different shortcuts (icons) in my taskbar.   You have two choices to open the program from the taskbar:

• The obvious choice is to simply click on the shortcut with the mouse to open the program.
• But for those of us who are keyboard people there is a not-too-well-known keyboard shortcut.   Instead of clicking on the icon, press the Windows key    plus the number of the program.  As an example, Embird is  #7 in the list of programs.   Clicking on Windows and the number 7 simultaneously will open Embird.  Now, to me, as I am a keyboard person, that is one of my favourite keyboard shortcuts.  

Finally, you can adjust the size of the icons and even the location of the taskbar by right clicking in an open space on the taskbar, selecting “Properties”, editing any of the available options.

But there is a workaround for it.   If you just want to view a font after downloading it, you can simply double click on the font name and it will open in its own window.  However, you cannot do very much with it other than view it.  

If you decide that it is a “maybe keeper” font, you should save it in a fonts folder.   Ob my computer I have set up a fonts folder called simply “fonts” and within that folder I keep all my uninstalled fonts in sub-folders such as script fonts, dingbats, sports fonts, seasonal fonts, etc., making it easier to find a style of font quickly from the sub-folders.   Since using Windows 7 I have also added a folder called “trial fonts”, where I will save the fonts that I am not sure I want to keep.   

Now, how do you work with these uninstalled fonts?  You have the option of installing them temporarily with the AMP Font Viewer.  This font viewer will allow you to install a font into the Windows Font folder temporarily as long as AMP Font Viewer is open.  And that is the trick, make sure you leave the font viewer open when working with uninstalled fonts and Windows will then think they are installed.   And you can temporarily install more than one font at a time.

After temporarily opening fonts with AMP Font Viewer open, if you are using Font Engine in either Studio or Editor, you should run a search for fonts each time you open Font Engine, so it will pick up any newly installed fonts into your trial fonts folder. 

Good luck with your non-installed fonts now that you have the secret to make working with these fonts easier!

How many times have you copied something from a web site and found that you also copied the formatting that you really didn’t want?   Or you copied from one document to another and included unnecessary formatting.  It can be very frustrating at times, can’t it?  The standard method of copying (Control>C) and pasting (Control>V) brings along all the unwanted text formatting, including text with a different font size or colours, images, tables, borders or any other formatting that you don’t want or need.   

A simple utility called Plain Text allows you to follow the same copy>paste routine but you have options to paste unformatted text with a different keyboard shortcut key (Control>Windows). 

I have used Plain Text for quite a while now and really wouldn’t want to do without it – it saves so much time removing unwanted formatting.  Visit the Plain Text web site for more information on this must-have simple utility.  I highly recommend it.   If you find you need a bit more information on how to use this utility, click on the “Home” tab on their web site.  

Enjoy!

According to security experts you should choose a different password for each one, including numbers, letters, symbols and upper/lower case characters.  Oh, sure – you can remember that many different passwords – or even one password with extra symbols – did that = go before the 3 or was it a + sign?  Does that sound familiar?  And how much do you rely on the “forgot my password” please click here message?

We all probably do the same thing, use a unique password for sites that are extremely important to keep secure such as banking or other financial sites.  All the others share the same easy-to-reember string of letters and digits.  Or you may use the same forget-proof password for everything.  Unfortunately at some point even your dog will know that forget-proof password!  So, any hacker-in-training could figure that out without flexing a single geek muscle.   This will leave you very vulnerable to having your password hacked, especially at sites with less than stellar security to begin with.

Dealing with dozens of passwords is a pain, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.   The solution to trying to remember all those passwords is to come up with unique passwords for eeach site and store them in a safe – a software tool that remembers them, so you don’t have to.   But don’t forget you will have to remember the password for the “safe”.   And, no, don’t write your passwords down in the back of your address book.  That would probably be the first place a burglar would look for information after the refrigerator where you store your diamond necklace!

There are quite a few software programs available to use for password storage.  The most popular and it seems the most secure is Robo Form.  Another password security software you may want to look at is My One Log On.  This suite of tools is based on the web, not on your computer, so you can use it from anywhere.  If you have Norton 360, you do have a built-in password security system.  There are many other free utilities available, but with free, you do get what you pay for, so check out any free utilities very carefully before using them.   Open Source software is free and usually very safe, so you may want to take a look at KeePass Password Safe, a very powerful open-source program.

• The most important thing you can do is to use the correct thread.  A high quality thread from a reputable dealer works much better than the cheaper threads you can purchase or old thread that has been in the cupboard for several years.  If you find a brand of metallic thread that works for you, then use that brand.   There are many good quality brands of metallic threads, but not all brands will work with every machine.
• Use the correct needle.   Use a metallic or “long eye” needle.  If you don’t have a metallic needle, use an embroidery needle.   If using an embroidery needle and the metallic thread is thicker than normal embroidery thread, try going up one size needle.
• Use the correct design.  Dense designs will not embroider well.  If possible, find designs that are specifically designed for metallic threads or use the metallic threads in certain sections of a design that are open and not too dense.
• Increase the thread path.  Metallic thread loops and kinks more than rayon or polyester thread.  When a kink hits a thread guide, it causes extra tension which is the culprit that causes the shredding and snapping of thread.   Use a thread stand specifically designed to provide a smooth path for metallic thread.
• Check the spool to make sure there are no rough edges that will snag the thread.   If you have problems with breakage, turn the thread upside down and have it unreel from the opposite side.
• Check the throat plate of the machine to ensure there are no nicks that might cause thread shredding.
• Slow the machine speed.  This can be the most important thing you can do when embroidering with metallic thread.  The faster a machine sews, the more tension there is on the thread.   A high tension will cause fragile threads to break.
• Check the machine tension.  You don’t want the tension too tight.  Loosening the thread slightly will dramatically reduce thread breakage and puckering.
• Choose the right fabric and stabilizer.  Tightly woven, stiff or abrasive fabrics and stabilizers are not metallic-friendly.
• Avoid adhesive stabilizer.  Adhesives can build up on the needle and thread, impeding smooth sewing.

Don’t give up on metallic thread.  The final results of a completed embroidery design using metallic thread in all or part of the design is well worth the effort.  With a few of the suggestions I have listed, you can successfully embroidery with metallic thread.

Digitizing your own designs can be both fun and addictive, can’t it? You can sit peacefully for hours enjoying digitizing your own designs.

But then chaos ensues and that “perfect design” turns into a nightmare. You don’t know what went wrong, spend hours trying to redo it, and are just about ready to give up.

But there is help out there, if you know where to look. There are many machine embroidery lists on Yahoo that are devoted to machine embroidery or specific mail lists for specialized software programs or embroidery machines. If you go to Yahoo and do a search for machine embroidery, you will find literally hundreds of different sites. Join one or two of these lists and you will be amazed at how much information is available.

If you use Embird Studio to digitize, not only do I have a Flying Needle Studio Yahoo list, but I also provide monthly lessons on embroidering with Embird Studio. This month’s lesson – July, 2010 – covers embroidering crazy quilt blocks and several other techniques, including how to do your own sew-in-the-hoop designs. I also have a specialty lesson on digitizing columns using Embird Studio, which can be a real bug-a-boo for some people as well as other specialty lessons. You will find the list of lessons available on the left of this post. So do take a wander through and see if there is a lesson or lessons that will help you.

Two articles which I recently found that will also be helpful are from on-line embroidery magazines.

Erich Campbell has a blog, Needles and Stitches, where he chats about various digitizing topics. One topic that was very interesting is the article on Foundations in Digitizing: Know your Substrate! (that’s just another word for fabrics). It’s a good article and has a lot of very useful information on how texture in fabric can alter the results of embroidery.

Another great article for new digitizers, and even those who have been digitizing for a while is in the July/August Impressions Magazine. It talks about what you can do with a graphic, how to analyze the parts, make changes without actually changing the graphic itself, how to set the digitizing order and a lot more.

Enjoy digitizing, it can be so rewarding when you finish a design and can say “I did it myself”!

Bulk Rename Utility is a free file renaming software that allows you to easily rename files and entire folders quickly and easily.  It will rename multiple files, allow you to replace or insert text into file names, convert case, add number and even remove or change file extensions.  What more could you ask for?  Well, you would want it free, of course – and that is exactly what it is – free!

Be sure to check out the tutorial and frequently asked questions on their web page and you can also download the manual.   I am not affiliated with this web site, just think it is a utility that should be added to your frequently used utilities when working with your computer.

You have several options for viewing the videos:

1. View them one at a time. If they are .exe files usually they have a player with them such as the Camtasia player so they will play automatically. Just double click on the file name and it will play. Close the file after it has completed playing. Repeat this process for any other videos.

2. Unzip or unpack them and load them into Windows Media Player for continuous play (see unzipping instructions further on in this article). I find with Windows Media Player quite often even if the videos are in 1, 2, 3 order in the files area, you will view video 1, it will skip down to video 6, back to video 2, etc. I have never been able to continuously play videos from the first to the last video in a contiguous order, without starting each video individually from the list.

3. And the last suggestion is you can combine videos together using a video combining utility.

It can be very frustrating to view five, ten or more 2 or 3-minute videos, opening video 1, closing it, opening video 2, etc. but you can combine two, three or as many as you want into one complete video if you use a software utility to combine videos. There are several different sites that offer software to combine videos, but the software that I have been using and do recommend is the BoilSoft Video Joiner. This utility works with all Windows platforms up to and including Vista and Windows 7.

The upside is that the software is very easy to use, there is literally no learning curve, but the downside is that is not free, but for the small $20.00 price you pay, it is well worth purchasing if you wish to join video files together.

After unzipping the videos you do have the option of deleting the smaller files after combining them into a larger file, or you can retain copies of the smaller files as well as the new larger combined file.

One thing to be aware of is that when combining videos, the videos you are combining must have the same speed and frame rate or they will not combine. But most videos in a group of videos from one site will usually be produced with identical speed and frame rates, so that is not usually a problem.

If you unzip or unpack videos and then plan on joining them together, I would highly recommend that you create a folder for each set of videos as it will make life much easier to find them at a later date. If you start by being organized, then you won’t have to organize yourself later, will you? (see the Organized or Confused post for information on setting up your own personal folder system.)

As an example, let’s say you have downloaded videos from my site that are for a specific lesson. All the lesson files should be saved in one folder; a sub-folder can be created for the videos within the main lesson folder, storing and unzipping the videos to this sub-folder. ? Now, you are asking how do you unzip or unpack a video. Usually a zipped video will have an .exe extension. If you open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you have saved your videos, find the video you want to unpack, right click on the file name, follow the prompts to unzip (or unpack) the video. I would recommend simply unzipping it into the same folder. If there is a player such as the Camtasia player included with the zip file, delete the Camtasia player as you do not need several copies of the same player. I would recommend, however, that you do keep one copy of the player as you may want to use it at some future time. If you do not have any extra unzipping software you will not have the option to extract when you right click.

A workaround with Windows XP is to copy all the files I want to combine to a new folder so you do not change the existing ones. Once you have copied the videos into the new folder right click on each video and then change the .exe extension to .zip and extract them deleting the player as I they are unzipped. You can also use the built-in zip utilities that are part of the Vista and Windows 7 platforms if you do not have unzipping software.

Many embroiderers have developed their own technique as to proper stabilization and the types of stabilizer that work for them. If you do find a stabilizer or several stabilizers that work with different fabrics, you are usually better off to stay with those stabilizers instead of trying out the “latest and greatest” stabilizers every time there is a new one. Yes, do try other stabilizers, but usually after a lot of experimentation, the ones you find work best for specific fabrics are the ones you should work with.

There are many methods of stabilizing fabrics, including adhering the underlying stabilizer with an adhesive spray and stitching a template around the hoop to attach the stabilizer to the fabric prior to stitching out a design. One method I would never recommend is hooping the fabric and then sliding a piece of stabilizer under the hoop – this just doesn’t work, as your fabric essentially has no stabilization without also hooping the stabilizer.

Type of Stabilizer	Used for
Tear-Away	Light to medium weight woven fabrics	Typically used on cottons, canvas, satin and corduroy. Usually considered a light weight, soft stabilizer, though does come in several thicknesses. If using a large filled design (ie lots of stitching) it is recommended to use two layers of tear-away to improve stabilization. I personally use two layers most of the time. On completion of design slowly and firmly tear away stabilizer as opposed to pulling too quickly. Redwork and some appliqués may only require one layer of stabilizer.
Cutaway	Stretchy, unstable fabrics	Typically used for knits, fleece, stretch denim, velvet, toweling, corduroy. Considered a medium weight stabilizer. If using a larger filled design, it might be necessary to use two layers of cutaway. Need to cut away excess stabilizer upon completion of stitching, leaving at least half an inch around the outer design area. Do not use on sheer fabrics or fabrics where the stabilizer may show through on the front of the fabric.
Iron-On	Most fabrics – especially lightweight fabrics	A paper based stabilizer which has a waxy-like film that you iron onto the back of the fabric. Can be used in combination with a layer of tear-away if you require further stabilization. Helps ensure proper hooping. Excess can be carefully torn away or peeled off upon completion of stitching. Try to avoid iron-ons with too much glue which will gunk up a needle and cause stitching problems.
Water-Soluble	Freestanding lace designs and as a topping on toweling, corduroy, velvet and knits	Can be used on top of or underneath fabrics. Good to use on top of toweling to ensure fabric nap does not poke through embroidery designs. Good for intricate designs where it is impractical to tear away or cut away a stabilizer. Excess washes away in water.
Sticky-Backed Stabilizer	Fabric or quilts that can’t be hooped	Sticky on one side (and covered by protective sheeting). Typically used where fabric can’t be hooped including quilts, shirt collars, cuffs, socks. Place stabilizer in hoop with sticky side up and place fabric on top of hoop/hooped stabilizer.
Heat Removable	Fabrics/projects that cannot be washed and delicate fabrics	Removed with the application of heat. Use only on fabrics that will not burn.
Spray Adhesives	Appliqué designs and multi-hooped designs; any fabric where hoop marks may show.	Multi-hooped embroidery designs or anywhere that a stabilizer cannot be used. Can combine spray adhesive with a stabilizer.

Cutwork embroidery is a beautiful form of needlework where portions of the background fabric are cut away and discarded, with the edges worked over in satin stitching.

There are many kinds of cutwork. The simplest form of cutwork is that which contains small open areas, such as eyelets, with no connecting bars.  Richelieu embroidery is cutwork that needs stabilizing bars worked within the cut-away designs.  The edges are connected by bars that are the same width throughout, except possibly on the edges. Traditionally satin stitch fillings were used in the design, and then the openwork was done, cutting away unnecessary background fabric to give a much lighter appearance.  When embroidering cutwork by machine the process is reversed, much like reverse appliqué, where the appliqué outline will be embroidered first, then the fabric cut away and then the remaining of the design will be embroidered.

Cutwork was originally done on linen and reached its zenith in the Renaissance.  Whitework was originally in the domain of nuns, but peasants were needed to help in the making of the church vestments and linens, and were bound to bring home the secrets and use them for their own personal house linens.   I certainly would have.

Cutwork was originally done on linen, not too fine a fabric, and the nuns were known to remove threads from the linen to make the work "lighter".  That was the beginning of drawn work.

From the Ionian Isles and Corfu comes another type of openwork in which buttonholed bars were connected to the edges across a linen surface.  This linen insert was afterward removed and was later known in Venice as Reticella.

Cut work was so called because the background was later removed.  This caused the astonishing discovery of the century that the background linen was not needed at all–the stitches could be built up by themselves.  PUNTO IN ARIA, literally "a stitch in the air" was born.

Cutwork designs with machine embroidery are quick and easy and the results can be very stunning. My daughter came home from Paris a few years ago with a beautiful blouse that cost a fortune. It had a beautiful cutwork design on the back, which was the reason for her purchase. Looking at that blouse, I realized I could do something very similar using machine embroidery techniques. I very quickly became a “Parisian designer” by replicating the cutwork techniques on that blouse, much to my daughter’s chagrin, thinking she had something very unique from Paris.

The moral of that experience is that with machine embroidery, we can do almost anything that used to be done laboriously by hand!

If you want to learn more about cutwork embroidery, be sure to take a look at my Studio monthly March cutwork lesson. But remember, it will only be available until the end of this month!