Finishing off a cushion cover with machine embroidery and LOTS of hearts

I loved the motif I created yesterday using the decorative stitches in embroidery mode on the Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 2. There are over 800 decorative stitches on this fantastic sewing and embroidery machine, and being able to manipulate them as I did with embroidery and other tools, I now have millions of stitch combinations.

Today, I’m finishing off the cushion cover with machine embroidery. Let’s get started.

I wanted to check out the files in the mySewnet Library, so I headed to the website to see what I’d find. The Library is a bonus if you have the mySewnet embroidery software and a Wi-Fi-enabled embroidery machine. Since I have both, I’m good to go. I can purchase individual designs or collections from the mySewnet Library if I don’t have a Wi-Fi-enabled embroidery machine. If you want more information on how to acquire designs from the Library and which embroidery machine can use them, contact your local Husqvarna Viking dealer.

OK – so I went to the mySewnet Library and used the search tool for hearts, where over 300 heart designs popped up. Would I have been able to find that many hearts in my embroidery files? Maybe, if I were better organized, but searching through the Library made it super easy to find what I wanted.

I found hearts of all techniques, including felting, free-standing lace

However, some of those hearts were too large, so I refined the search by size and got 60 motifs, which was easier to search through. As happened the day before with the decorative stitch, I had no preconceived idea of what I wanted to make or how I wanted the design to look, so I started with the designs to get some inspiration.

I could do several things at this point. I could save each motif (my favorites), so I can come back and revisit them. Or I could send them to a Wi-Fi-enabled device; in this instance, it would be the DESIGNER EPIC 2 or the mySewnet embroidery software on my laptop. I chose to send the motifs directly to the DESIGNER EPIC 2, and use the large embroidery edit screen to figure out what to do with the motifs.

I narrowed the search down to 13 designs I liked, and a plan began forming in my head as I went through the designs. When the designs arrive on the embroidery edit screen, they all end up in the center position, so basically, they’re sitting on top of each other, and you can’t see the individual designs.

I quickly selected each design and dragged it to a space in the embroidery edit to get a better feel for the sizes and shapes.

Once I saw the motifs, I started deleting designs with the Delete tool in embroidery edit, and I had nine motifs left.

I was OK with all the motifs except the two on the left in the bottom row. The middle design had several satin stitch outlines around it, making it too large. And the one to the left was all the same color, while the ones in the other corners used two colors. Making the changes is easy enough in the mySewnet embroidery software.

So, I sent the entire design via Wi-Fi to the mySewnet embroidery software on my laptop. I love technology, and this whole process is exciting. No cables, no USBs.

I won’t go into detail, but I eliminated the excess rows of satin stitching from the one design and added a color stop, so the outer ring of the satin stitch would be a different color than the fill stitch. All the other heart motifs have a dark outer border; this one did not, and a couple of clicks of the mouse were all it took to make that happen.

Then I inserted a color stop for the other heart so the outer outline would be different from the stitching in the center. It’s hard to see in the photos, but I made those changes!

Then I sent the entire design back to the DESIGNER EPIC 2, to start stitching it out. You can see in this photo that the outline around the bottom middle heart is different, and that’s simply by adding a color stop!

I should point out that it’s super easy to send the designs back and forth – on the DESIGNER EPIC 2, there’s a small airplane on the bottom of the screen, and by selecting it, I can move the designs to another Wi-Fi-enabled device, in this case to the software on my laptop. I love this feature and would miss it if it were not there. Well, I could use a USB, but that’s old school!

I’m not sure which I enjoy more – the stitch-out process, the design process, or the ability to edit process. But let’s put it this way – I love all aspects of machine embroidery, and the more I get familiar with the tools, the more I love it. Using the Modify tools in the software and the edit tools on the DESIGNER EPIC 2 (and starting with great designs), there’s nothing I can’t do! I love it!

And then I went on to the other hearts, leaving the two I modified for the end. You can easily change the order in which the hearts get stitched and use color sort for more efficient stitching. I chose to stitch each heart one at a time, changing colors back and forth a few times. Since there are so many ways to achieve the same thing, and this stitched pretty fast, I was OK with watching.

And here is the second side of my heart cushion. WOW – I love it. I trimmed it to 12½” and added a 2½” border around it. I haven’t trimmed the threads yet, and I see that the filled hearts were a bit denser than I thought, so I should’ve used two layers of stabilizer. That’s OK. Everything I do is a learning experience, and I should’ve paid more attention to that!

Then I trimmed the front and back to 16″ as I’m using a 16″ cushion form, and I hate pillow covers that are too large. I trimmed the corners off. Refer back to my tutorial on cushion making to see how and why. All that remained was to insert the invisible zipper, which is super easy, and voila – there’s my cushion cover.

I have to say that the new template set for the Circular Attachment, the mySewnet embroidery software, the mySewnet Library, and the Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 2 were so much fun to play with this week. The more I learn, the more I want to learn, and there’s no stopping me now!

It’s the end of the week, and I did three projects, but I have visions of so much more I can do. WOW — I’m off to do some more exploring!

Have a great day!

Ciao!

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: Using decorative stitches to create machine embroidery motifs