Brother Luminaire, My Design Center, and a candlewicking memory…

Hi, Folks – today is the day! I have to tell you; I was a little trepidatious this morning as I began to explore a new (for me) application for My Design Center on the Brother Luminaire. The unfamiliar can be a little intimidating, yes?

I mean, I was really excited yesterday and the day before to show you my favorite way of using My Design Center – but I’d done those before! They were easy! Can you see why I like almost making your own fabric? And how about adding those gorgeous decorative patterns fills around an embroidery design? Such a perfect way to complete a look!

But today… oh, today! I poked buttons, hit undo, and started over (again and again) as I explored and tested, made my mistakes – and my discoveries. I even referred to the manual (more than once, sigh). And it’s not that any of it was difficult – it wasn’t. It was just… unknown. But I’m really pleased with what I learned, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.

I wanted to take a quilt stencil pattern and turn it into a simple candlewicked design. So of course I turned to a Google search, figuring I’d know which stencil design I wanted when I saw it. A few distractions later, I still hadn’t found the perfect one, so I used the Brother Canvas Workspace for ScanNCut to kinda compile a few ideas into one design. (The how-to on that is a whole ‘nother story). This is what I ended up with:

I zoomed in large (big, bold, and clear will yield better results) and took a screen snip of it and saved it as a JPG; if you click on the picture above, you can download it to a USB stick and keep pace with me as I meander through this adventure…

Power up the Luminaire, plug the memory stick containing the design into the top USB port, and open up My Design Center. On screen, near the top right, there is a leaf icon; touch it, and then down near the bottom, choose Line Image.

Since I have a digital image, I don’t even have to go to the effort of scanning a printout, I can load the file directly. So easy! Select the appropriate USB port, and then choose and Set the design you want to convert, in this case, my quilt stencil outline.jpg.

Let’s keep the first try simple: OK the Framing Changes screen without making any changes, and then Set the result view. Unlike yesterday when I played with fills, This time I want to tackle lines, so touch the line bucket, and then its Properties button, directly below it.

From the Line choices, touch the triple stitch icon and any light color before hitting OK. Now, simply touch the shapes I wish to assign these properties. See the picture below – I’ve shown these ones in red. The changes are subtle, but if you look closely, you’ll see the lines I’ve touched change color (the light colors make it a bit easier to see what I’ve done). And if I touch the wrong shape by mistake, just keep going – I can fix oopsies easily enough later.

Once I’ve got the red ones done, touch the Properties icon again and choose the candlewicking stitch and a different light color, and then touch all the blue shapes shown in the above picture. Don’t forget the circle in the middle! Once they’re all assigned, touch Next.

The Luminaire should now have done its magic and inserted all the stitches as I assigned them. If I assigned one incorrectly, like in my intentional oops below (honestly, it was on purpose – this time! How do you think I learned how to correct it, LOL), it’s easy to fix: touch the arrow keys to cycle though the shapes until the wrong one is highlighted. Touch the stitch display up top and choose what it should be. OK out of this screen and let it process. In this manner, I can correct as many as I wish.

Now – once they all show the correct assignments, I’ll change the candlwicking size. Arrow to any one of the candlewicked shapes, and then press the link icon beside the arrows – all the same-property candlewicking shapes should highlight. Touch the size button, adjust it to 0.120” and OK that. Let it process and… time to stitch!

Touch the Set button to send this new design directly to the Embroidery Edit area of the machine. I used the Size tool to scale it up to fill the 9½” square quilting hoop, and then threaded up. I stitched it on a piece of linen backed with heavy tearaway, and am thrilled with it! What do you think?

So why was this a memory? When I was a little girl and we’d visit my grandparents’ home, when bedtime rolled around, my mom would settle my little brother and I down to sleep in my grandparents’ bed. I remember the knubbly, patterned bedspread. Of course, back then I couldn’t have told you what it was called, but I’ve since learned that it was candlewicking. Every time I see it, it brings back a little piece of my childhood. While this machine version isn’t truly authentic, it’s close enough to still evoke some nostalgia!

I hope you liked this little taste of design creation. It’s amazing how easy it can be, and I find – no surprise here – that the more I play with My Design Center, the more I am inspired to see what else it can do. Good thing, too, because I’ll be back tomorrow to experiment some more. I’m thinking of another marriage between old and new… Intrigued? Then you’ll just have to visit me again to see what My Design Center on the Brother Luminaire can do with a page out of Brother history…