Looking to put together a design for St. Patrick’s Day? This new Quick Project and webinar will walk you through all the steps you need to take to digitize this design from scratch in Generations embroidery digitizing software.

Use the Built-In Tools

Using tools on the Punch bar and Create bar you’ll digitize first the shamrock, then the hat, then the letters. You’ll learn how to turn the first two elements into Building Blocks that can be reused over and over. Finally, you’ll assemble the pieces into one design, eliminating excess layers of stitches.

Looks complex? Not when I break it down into easy bit-size steps. If you have a basic understanding of using Generations, you’ll be ale to digitize this design. And if not? In that case, the designs are included and you can work with them.

Project Webinar

The webinar for this project will be in the weekly free Generations Workshop on Thursday, March 4 at noon MST. If you miss it, don’t worry! All the webinars are recorded and you can watch them for free too! The full list of webinars is listed.

What You’ll Learn with this Project

Even if you aren’t Irish, you’ll learn all sorts of useful things you can do with Generations:

Now you can try out some sample project lessons with these freebies!

Nearly Instant Redwork

This project was created based on a live webinar workshop that demonstrates viewer requested techniques. Redwork is quite popular and with a few simple tricks up your sleeve, easy to do in Generations. Traditionally digitized redwork can take hours. Image a complex design that you are asked to trace with a pencil. Of course there are a few rules:

• once you place your pencil on the paper, you can’t lift it
• you have to trace over every line once and the fewest number of lines twice to avoid lifting the pencil

With Generations, you can digitize redwork in minutes with no tracing and this brief lesson will show you how.

Like those grocery store sample bites, this a mere tidbit compared to the full length projects. This free redwork project lesson includes only a link to the image and no sample embroidery files. Full projects have additional materials which may include embroidery files, artwork, and videos.

Noel from Leanne

Leanne Church, Education and Support Coordinator for Generations with Echidna Sewing Products in Australia has also generously donated a project working with lettering in Generations. This project shows fun and clever ways to turn keyboard lettering in Generations into an interesting and eye-catching wallhanging. This project makes a nice supplement to Unit 2 in the Learn To Digitize Training series, which really goes into working with the Insert Text lettering function in Generations.

To download these two free projects, just complete this quick survey and you’ll have instant access!

Ready for a Full Size Version?

At the time of this post, there are two full-featured full-length projects:

• Exploring Manual Punch Techniques
• Fringe Benefits

Exploring Manual Punch Techniques

This project walks you through creating two golf ball logos, one with an American flag and one with the Australian flag and was based on embroidered shirt I saw on someone at a restaurant. The Aussie version is for all my friends down under where Generations is the number one preferred program for digitizing in its price range. Using no artwork at all, I’ll guide you step-by-step to create your own versions. A full 48 pages of color illustrated steps will leaving you feeling confident to try your own projects.

Fringe Benefits

Ever wanted to add fringe to a design? It’s actually pretty easy when you learn these techniques. In this lesson, you’ll create a simple fringed flower, learn 3 ways of anchoring fringe, why embossing is the secret to anchoring fringe and how and where to do it, plus how to turn the embroidered stitches into fringe. This 18-page fully illustrated step-by-step guide includes 4 sample files demonstrating the techniques covered in the project plus a fully digitized free embroidery design using the fringing technique.

Special Introductory Offer!

Through the end of March 2010, get either one of the full-featured projects for half off!

• Exploring Manual Punch Techniques
• Fringe Benefits

New! Technique Projects

Our weekly free Generations Workshop Webinar continues to grow and the attendees are definitely pushing me to learn more about this program. Participants have also requested written project instructions and as I put those together, you’ll find them here on this website. These projects are carefully written and illustrated so that with a basic familiarity of the program, you should be able to complete the project. Although they are titled Quick Projects, they definitely were not quick to write up into a publishable form!

These technique-based projects are designed to teach you how to leverage the tools in Generations to produce a particular result. In the first three projects, I’ve covered Redwork, Fringing, and Manual Techniques without Artwork. Leanne Church, Education and Support Coordinator for Generations with Echidna Sewing Products in Australia has also generously donated a project working with lettering in Generations.

Each project includes illusrated step-by-steps to walk you through recreating the design or technique on your own. Full projects include sample files, which may be the actual designs in native format, additional designs to illustrate a technique in a “real life” manner, and art work to create the file. You can try a sample Quick Project with the redwork instructions. This sample is much shorter than the full projects and does not include any auxilliary files. It is designed to give you a flavor of the much longer projects.

These projects are ideal for someone who wants to learn a particular technique or wants to enhance their skills with or outside of the Learn to Digitize series. They are not designed for the person who just installed Generations. for that look to Getting Started with Generations.

Blankets for Haiti

Another contribution is from Margaret Bailey who is making blankets for Haiti. The need there is great for many things and you can send some love with a blanket. According to Margaret, “I am making blankets for Hati—they need 10, 000! Project Linus is the group coordinating this effort. They want fleece blankets 42 X 60 or larger. I’m making mine 1¼ yards and finish with a shell stitch using the overcast stitch on the machine. To make it more fun I am putting an embroidery design on each one. If the design is red-work, I stitch it directly on the blanket; if it is a filled design, I stitch it on a piece of cotton then sew or appliqué that to the blanket.”

The heart design is shown on this red blanket (very suitable for Valentine’s Day, don’t you think?) is from my new Frames and Borders Building Blocks collection. You can download Margaret’s instructions for finishing the blanket and visit the national Project Linus website.

Learn to Digitize Training Series

Units 1 (Getting Started) and 2 (Keyboard Lettering) are shipping and participants are sending in their projects. It’s wonderful see how great they’re doing and get such positive feedback. Unit 3 is in the works, a lot on graphics and design. You can be technically good but your designs will suffer if you don’t understand some basic principals of design and color. I also show you how to select and prepare graphics for easier and quicker digitizing. This first series is taking all the digitizing theory and applying it in Generations. Once you understand theory and have a working experience in one program, it is relatively easy to transfer the knowledge to other digitizing programs.

If you’re buried under snow in your area of the country, what better thing do you have to do than give yourself some time to really learn a skill you’ve wanted and maximize your investment in embroidery? No one is “too old” and besides, challenging your brain in new and different ways is healthy and will contribute to keeping you alert and sharp.

These projects are designed to teach you new ways of using your digitizing software to create a specific embroidery technique or learn how to use specific tools in Generations™. You can pick and choose from a growing library to learn the types of techniques you are most interested in learning. In time, projects will be added for other digitizing programs.

They’re also a great way to give you a taste of the full Learn to Digitize series as well as to supplement what you learn in that course.

Projects include an necessary artwork (or a link to a image) plus the completed sample(s). Some projects may include short videos and other example designs.

Current projects assume a basic working knowledge of Generations™. If you are a raw newbie, it is recommended you start with Unit 1-Getting Started with Generations to get you on a solid footing with the program.

Quick projects not only teach you how to recreate a specific technique, they provide insider tips from a professional digitizer about the whys so that you can take the technique and apply it in your own designs.

You can even try a free sample Quick Project. Nearly Instant Redwork demonstrates how to auto-digitize line art to create the look of traditional hand-stitched redwork. Redwork is a frequently requested technique and you can learn how to do it by following the fully illustrated steps. This free sample includes a link to the artwork used but does not include any other files.

In addition to my projects, Leanne Church, Education and Support Coordinator for Generations with Echidna Sewing Products in Australia has also generously donated a project working with lettering in Generations.

• Patriotic Golf Ball – how to use the built-in tools to manually create a golf ball on a tee with the American or Australian flag (2 designs, 46 pages).
• Fringe Benefits – how to manually create and use fringe in Generations (18 pages, 5 designs)
• Nearly Instant Redwork – how to turn line art into redwork (6 pages, free!)
• NOEL Holiday Design – turning TrueType letters into an attractive holiday banner or mini-quilt wall hanging (submitted by Leanne Church, 14 pages, free!)

So celebrate our own month! Why not treat yourself to some embroidery? Or better yet, why not renew your dedication to improving and expanding your embroidery skills and knowledge? You know you want to! Here are some ideas:

Attend a Webinar of Your Choice.

Webinars range from free to $10, some may be more. But that’s still less than you’d pay to attend a class—especially if you had to cross an ocean! In my free webinars, we have attendees from across the U.S. and Canada, to the UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Luxembourg, and Australia. Find out more about my webinars in this post.

Learn a New Tcchnique

Have you tried appliqué? This is one of my favorite techniques. With some slight variations, you can turn it into a free-standing design. How about fringing or 3D foam? Why not get an interesting design from a new designer? I mean a real designer like John Deer or  Zundt Designs (or me!). You can find articles on the ‘net, free and low-cost webinars, or classes and special events at your dealer. And compared to the cost of your machine, they’re a drop in the bucket!

Improve Your Knowledge of Embroidery Designs

The more you know about how a design is constructed the easier it is to produce higher quality results. The best way to learn that is to get inside the head of a professional digitizer. Digitizers need to know how stitches, fabric, thread, needles, and the machine affect the design. Learn what they’ve discovered without having to become a digitizer. I share that information in Anatomy of a Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer and Become a Better Embroiderer.

Dealers are great for teaching you how to use your machine but very rarely are dealers or their staff professional digitizers who’ve produced commercial-grade designs. Take classes from people who are experts in the topic you want to learn.

Learn to Digitize

While certainly not for everyone, many embroiderers at some point hanker to create their own design every now and then. I started because I was tired of trying to free motion multiple identical designs (and I’m rather a perfectionist). I’ll warn you, digitizing can be frustrating, rewarding, and highly addictive!

Many embroiderers, including both home and commercial, simply don’t have the time or the desire it takes to learn how to punch a design “the old fashioned way.” Today, there are automated programs that work quite well. They’ll do the initial hard work and then you can just change some stitch settings here, change an angle there, and put your own designer touch on it and have a design in minutes instead of hours (or days, if you are just starting!). Editing is far easier than digitizing from scratch!

One such program is Generations and I’m writing a thorough learn to digitize training course based on it. I can have you creating a design after the first unit. In fact, after the introduction, that’s the first thing we do: create a simple design. We’ll then go on to look at how to create a more interesting design and finally, I’ll challenge you with a project to create from scratch. I even include the artwork!

Unit 1 will get you off the ground with a guided tour of the Generations interface, how to auto-digitize a design, and how to put your own touch on it. Continue with additional units to go as far as you want.

If you’re looking for a thorough understanding of not only Generations, but how to digitize like a pro, you won’t find anything better than this. Real-life experience, real life tips and tricks from a real-life digitizer.

Of course, it will be rather difficult to learn such a program if you don’t actually own it…

Get a New Digitizing System

It took a lot of arm-twisting to get me to really look at Generations (and about 5 years). Afterall, what professional digitizer with years of experience and thousands of designs under their belt produced in the more traditional manner would promote such a program? Why, its sacrilege!

But let’s face it. The masses want instant results easily. “I want it now” and “don’t make me think” and “I don’t have time” are common outcries (or “I’m too old”–no you are not!). You still want professional results.

Well, guess what? You can get them with Generations. It has auto-digitizing to get you started and then “manual punch” tools for power users like me. Its the best of both worlds. You decide how far you want to go and at what pace.

If you can’t make designs in your current software, why not trade it in? When you’re tired of your car or its too old or causes you too many problems, you trade it in. Why not your software? Why not get something that has a solid training program that will take you by the hand and teach you not only how to “push the buttons” (the manual will teach you that) but how to think like a “real” digitizer?

Not Ready to Trade In?

If you can’t quite make that commitment, do like you do when looking for a new car. Take it for a test drive! Structured test drives are available to let you trial the full version of the software plus have a “driver’s ed” experience through free webinars to get you out of park and onto the highway in no time!

Make a Resolution

OK, so we were all supposed to do that a month ago for New Year’s. How many have you broken so far? Why not make one that’s fun and enjoyable? Renew your relationship with your embroidery machine.

If you’re a commercial embroiderer, make a commitment to have some fun time with embroidery. Then use it to promote a new technique or some products. People are always looking for “what’s new?” Add some new samples, rearrange the old ones, and get rid of those dusty, faded really old ones!

Most all of us got into embroidery because we have that urge to create. It’s easy to fall into a rut. Find something to ignite that spark again!