Would like opinions on Bernina vs Husqvarna

Then you might call one of them and ask if they know someone nearer to you that knows about the Janome. DS drives me across Houston, some 45 miles, which means in Houston traffic, at least an hour or more, to the Pfaff dealer I trust. There was one about 15 miles away, some 35 minutes, but they have switched to Husqvarna. Emily

I'm a bit late chiming in - just found this group. Wife & I went through the show & tell at a HV dealer (the closest, & very able). One positive point for me was the comment that HV uses stepper motors (constant torque regardless of speed). Would be interested to learn (if possible) whether Bernina & Pfaff do the same. The point about service & repairs (more HV's needing it lately) is important, at least to us. And for us, as some others, $ are not as easy to free up for this pasttime. I'm also very disappointed that few of the companies (especially HV) can seem to keep up with technology, specifically related to interfacing with computers. USB and digital camera memories are so commonly available, a SMART company will take advantage (as some seem to be starting) - and WIRELESS is really important now - especially for those of us who find it hard (due to employment) to stay in one location for very long. Wiring infrastructure & co-location are issues I'd rather not have to deal with, if possible, and wireless really helps that desire to be met for many cases. Your needs may vary.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.....

NGA

Stepper motors are used in most if not all modern machines. Pfaff was the first to advertise it as a plus due to their previous association with Pfaff Industrial. Most companies just accept it as fact that they are there. Not really any other way to do it. As for eliminating cables there are several reader writer boxes on the market. But again the smart cards are just so darn easy, and cheap.

Hi & thanks for your reply!

Well, over the weekend, we took a BIG step & sprang for the Singer Quantum 5000. The tipping factors were price and features - I was leaning toward a lower cost, more up to date, but when we discovered we could get a machine like this for less than $2,000, we decideed to give it a try. I can have my ideals, and I'd like to think that some company reps try to learn from these groups, but I won't hold my breath for their implementation...... Any suggestions &/or pointers are always welcome!

Regards, NGA

I don't think you will regret it. It's a remarkable machine, even without the price. There are several groups on Yahoo with members who have the xl5000. Probably worth signing up just to read the archives, but if a question does come up, the list members are very generous about sharing information.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com XL5000andXL6000embroidery_with snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Those are some to look at.

Joanne, thanks so much for the suggestion. I'm also a new Singer Quantum XL500 owner, and just starting to dip my toes in.

Wonderful! I think you're going to be really amazed by what you can do.

No doubt! Right now, I'm in the early stages of planning unique embroidery on denim shirts for seven family members. We're all going to Disneyland in November, and DD and I had one of those "light bulb" moments. She's a graphics designer, so she will draw out a character for each of us, and I want to digitize it for embroidery on shirt blanks. I'm not at all sure I can conquer all the steps before then...

Really good machines. I love the orientation feature. We trained on the XL1000 and it was a beautiful machine. I adore the bobbin winding feature and the thread changer. Lots of help from the groups listed above. Great bunch of people too. Your gonna have a ball.

"Hanna's Mum", may I e-mail you off-group? I have started reading the archives of the Yahoo XL5000 group, but I need a queston answered ASAP regarding digitizing software.

TIA,

Well if that doesn't work out there are lots of Disney on the net. Brother has a whole series of them.

I know about the Brother's ones, but I thought they had an exclusive franchise. Do you know of any in the Singer format? Would they have to have the .psw extension. (Sorry, I'm really new to this.)

You have to change them to the format your machine uses. Embird is a very good conversion programme and very reasonable for what it does. They have a free demo for 30 days, but it is well worth the cost to get all the great things this programme offers.

Be very careful about Disney® designs. Disney is one of the most AR rights owners around. There is only one embroidery machine that came with licensed Disney characters, and they can be used only for personal use and not for resale. Digitizing your own Disney characters may be one thing but you don't want to offer anything with them on for sale - there was a church rummage sale involved in a lawsuit with Disney. I would not recommend wearing such a garment to a Disney theme park.

Joanne, thanks for the warning. I was aware from reading this group that copying those designs was not a terrific idea. I apparently gave the wrong impression. My DD is thinking about creating *original artwork* portraying the personality of each member of the family, and I want to digitize them and make shirts for each of us. The questions later about Disney designs was off the track. I would love to be able (legally) to find Disney designs for the XL5000...

Thanks I'm looking into that. I have e-mailed them with a couple of questions.

BEI Design wrote:>

*phew* Oh, that's all right then. I was worried how we would all chip in to make your bail. ;-)

" Be very careful about Disney® designs. Disney is one of the most AR

Last year I did 29 T-shirts for my Almost daughters family trip to Disney World in Fl. The whole family was photographed at the park by the park staff and one of the cruise ship brochures has their picture in it. There were no questions and no problems for any of the 29 family members some of whom, wore their shirts every day. The park staff loved them. I used several Brother cards and picked a different design for each member according to their personality. It has been over 18 months and no copyright police so far even with Dana telling them it was me that did it. Dana said there were all kinds of home done items there with many being worn by Europeans. Some like mine had the copyright info on them most did not. Most of the copyright stories we hear are way overblown. Many of the people who were sued a couple of years back have actually gone on to have their cases overturned on technicalities and the one big case from l999 ended up being over turned and the digitizer who prosecuted had to pay all their expenses and court cost plus damages. It is a really grey area now, and getting muddier all the time. The really big companies like Disney do not like the negative publicity they receive for this type of thing and have not pursued it in many years unless their character are used in a lurid and lascivious way according to the latest from the legal dept. My son worked on the electrics for the 'Italian Job' ride and wore Disney Character shirts I had done him, the only comment was that they thought his stuff was better than the things they sold in the park stores. Not sure what Celine Dion thought of the ones I did him for her Vegas Stage work a couple of years ago.

By the way he said the ride is a hoot. Apparently you go about 60 mph in an Austin Mini type car. And more trivia---Celine Dions stage is on an angle to make her look taller and slimmer....BUT it also made her long hair fall forward into her face so she had it cut short.

Believe me, "SoLean" Dion does not need to look thinner....LOL