Ahey Embroidery is a very nice site where you can purchase machine embroidery and machine cross stitch designs. The have frequent new offerings and of course, like all the sites listed here, they have free samples to download so you can see the quality of the stitches and how they sew out before committing money to buying a design. Some of their free downloads are a small design from a set of designs so it is possible to see if you like the set and if it will meet your stitching needs. They have free samples of both the regular machines embroidery and the machine cross stitch embroidery.
I’ve found another interesting machine embroidery site called 4-Hobby. This sites has an eclectic selection of designs including Christmas, snowflakes, butterflies and flowers. It also has a Hebrew alphabet in two sizes, Hamsa designs, and other Judaica embroidery designs including Star of David and Chanukkah designs. I haven’t ever seen this type of collection of Jewish embroidery designs in one spot as it seems Jewish designs are fairly rare. They also have a nice selection of Freebies to so that you may try out their designs. This site would be worth your while to stop on in for a visit and a purchase.
Just found a terrific machine embroidery site, Laura’s Sewing Studio. I haven’t had the chance to check out all her designs, but I’m very impressed with the machine embroidered quilting designs. One is a Broken Star design that when put together looks very much like a Texas Star. The way the embroidery fills have been designed, they resemble fabric. She also has Grandma’s Garden, Double Wedding Ring,
Here is another great machine emboridery site The Secrets of Embroidery. A portal to lots of machine embroidery designers. Sign up for their newsletter and recieve notification when new freebies and designs are available. I've found some truly lovely designs and projects here.
I also wanted to share and machine embroidery link that I¿ve come upon, it is Sew Swell. Most of their designs are a mix of machine appliqué with machine embroidery. The mix of the two makes your embroidery time go a bit faster. They have designs that fit up to a 6" x 10" hoop. They also have a lot of free samples so you can judge for yourself whether or not their designs and instructions are right for you. When you visit the site, be sure to sign up for their newsletter so you don't miss out on their special deals and newest freebies.
I got a newsletter today from Hatched In Africa. The designs these girls make are absolutely awesome. Many of them are heirloom quality and most of their design sets have a freebie to go with them. With their newsletter today came a link to a Mother's Day gift of an entire free alpha-bet for immediate download. Also there were links to their two newest design sets, both with freebie designs. When I get to the Hatched in Africa site, I get mesmerized and could look at designs for hours as they are so beautiful. But of course that doesn't leave me any time for sewing myself or any of the other things I need to do. If you would like to visit Hatched in Africa, click HERE.
Here is another great design link for machine embroidery designs Gosia Designs. Besides having a large variety of design styles, they frequently have several FREE embroidery designs for you to download. You can download around 1000 different designs from their site for $25 which is obviously a great bargain. They also have dollar packs for downloading. Their designs come come in most home embroidery machine formats also. Stop in and visit and try out one of their designs.
March 2006 Update. Now you can purchase all the Free designs that they have produced over the last several years that you may have missed. Doesn't cost a lot of dollars, but very much worth it. Some of the free designs were only up at their site for a few days and so if you were collecting a set of monograms (alpha bets) and missed a day, you won't have a complete set. Now you can get them all. I transformed some on sale towels into an elegant wedding present with the lovely free monograms that were on the site at that time. They stitched out beautifully.
Before I started my current counted cross-stitch project, I had forgotten how relaxing it could be to just sit and stitch. Because of my physical problems, I am very limited in how much time I can sit in front of my sewing or embroidery machine. Now, with starting to cross-stitch again, I am extending my creative time. While I thought my biggest problem with stitching would be pain in my hands, I am finding that my real difficulty is looking at the chart and back to the stitching with bifocals! I can’t believe how many times I’ve had to ‘unsew’ some of my work. Then last night while doing the backstitch around a flower, I realized I was three squares off. Still trying to figure out how I got that far out of sequence. I do know how to count after all! Oh well, the design still looks good and unless you compare it to the chart nobody will really know.
This morning I got up to an email from an embroidery site that I realized I haven’t mentioned yet. ABC Cross Stitch Patterns is the perfect site for those who like to do counted cross-stitch by machine and also by hand. They just realized a freebie for Mother’s Day that can be downloaded in several machine formats and also as a chart. All come as .zip files. I downloaded both the machine format and the hand format. For stitching by hand you get a chart with estimated floss usage, thread chart in both Anchor and DMC floss, stitch size and size of design depending on the thread count of your fabric. You also receive both a color and a black & white chart for working the pattern. The machine format downloads a color chart based on DMC floss colors and converts them to Robinson Anton Rayon or Sulky embroidery threads. You also will find out how many thread colors are used, how many color stops, size of design and of course the design itself.
Not only does this company have their cross stitch designs, but they have a ‘sister’ company for regular machine embroidery designs. This is a site that you definitely need to visit.
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Here is another good embroidery link Buystitch. They have new designs each week that you can purchase. Specials prices and deals each week also. The best part is, sign up for their newsletter and each week you will get a notice of the weekly specials and weekly FREEBIES! That’s right, every single week you get 10 free designs (a variety of motifs) for most of the major home embroidery machines. Figure the math: 52 weeks times 10 designs! That is a real treasure trove of designs.
I have been a frequent visitor to BFC Creations for a while now. What keeps me coming back are their many new designs sets (usually several new ones each week), their generosity with free sample designs, reasonable prices, frequent sales, and friendly customer service. They have many unusual themes in their designs and many of their embroidery design sets make completed scenes. They also have many three-dimensional bowls and matching doilies sets. I’m hoping one of these days to make a wall hanging from the Victorian wreath design that I purchased from them, but as every machine embroiderer knows—so many designs, so little time. This is definitely a site to bookmark for return visits as they are constantly updating their site.
KennyKreations is an embroidery link that I found through an embroidery magazine just a couple weeks ago. When I had a chance to check out their site, I was very impressed. They have some very beautiful projects on the site with all the coordinating embroidery designs. Their prices seem to be very reasonable and they also have free samples of designs to download. For a quilt project that I’m working on, I sewed out their rose appliqué sample design and was very impressed with how it sewed out at both its digitized size and when I enlarged it on my customizer. I’m looking forward to using this design in the border of my quilt, as it is just beautiful. I’m also looking forward to trying out their threadplay sample. I would highly suggest that you check out this embroidery design site and bookmark it so that you can continue going back to them.
One of my favorite embroidery links is Embroidery Library. They have a massive amount of designs and the prices are great (as in not expensive). On a monthly basis they issue two new free designs. You can also sign up for their newsletter. I just got a newsletter the other day where they were introducing their new quilt designs—lots of them! I’ve seen embroidered quilt designs before, but never like these. Lots and lots of quilt designs, not only full blocks but also half blocks, matching stipple quilting and quilt labels. Not only do they have an abundance of quilt designs, they have an abundance of floral, holiday, etc. designs. Just about anything you want, you can find. The design quality is superb.
Another great link for embroidery designs is Free Embroidery Stuff. Different designers submit their designs each month and they are given away for free. Each month has a different theme; March was Easter, April is spring, etc. Not all designs are in all sewing machine formats, but it is worth checking in each month to see what is available for your particular machine. Besides the monthly free designs, there is also a monthly contest with a valuable prize ( I enter and keep my fingers crossed). This month’s contest features 300 spools of thread, stabilizer and design CDs. There are also various articles dealing with machine embroidery and many useful links that a machine embroiderer would find worthwhile.
Sew N Sew Designed especially for machine embroidery enthusiasts, download fun designs to stitch out on your embroidery machine. Designs are digitised in HUS, JEF, SEW, PES and XXX formats.