Embroidery Designs in the Online World

I spent some time this morning browsing at my favorite online Mall for machine embroidery designs. This is something I love to do on quiet weekend mornings. It fills my mind with beautiful designs, project ideas and lots and lots of inspiration! Since I am also a digitizer, it helps me to know whether or not my own designs are keeping up with the trends.

I have noticed that a lot of designers offer free embroidery designs. For those who collect those free designs, it is always a wonderful moment when a new design is discovered. Some collectors even feel they have a right to them; as if the designer owes it to them. What is forgotten, by digitizer and collector alike, is that those freebies are actually meant to be samples of the designer's work!

When looking for embroidery designs, it is important to me to be able to tell the quality of the sets I am interested in. Free embroidery downloads offer me a chance to try out the quality of the digitizer's talent and style. If I have questions or concerns after test-stitching the sample, I can either ask the designer about them or I can decide to not buy the set. It's simple and easy. And, it is definitely better than buying a set without a sample and then being furious about the quality! Because of copyright concerns, downloaded digital content cannot be returned for refund. Why? Because everyone could complain about something, get a refund, and then continue to use the designs!

But, I digress.

As a digitizer, I try to provide a sample design with every set of embroidery designs that I release. Because my style and technique may change with every set, or with a type of design, I feel that it is important to give others a chance to see if they like my way of doing things before they make a purchase. I honestly don't put them out there for the collectors. I have other designs for them!

If you like the look of a designer's work, but they don't offer sample designs, why not take a moment to write to them? Explain that you are interested in their designs and you would like the opportunity to test their embroidery designs to see if they fit your requirements. Not many digitizers will tell you no, since we are a pretty generous gang. It definitely won't harm anything, and you just may find your next favorite designer!

If you make a project with a digitizer's free embroidery designs, be sure to send them a picture! Most of us don't have time to create a lot of projects from our designs and we always love to see what others can create with them. When I get pictures, I develop a warm glow in my belly that buoys me up for hours! Your words can also help us develop new designs and projects in the future. We love feedback!

Finally, if you stitch out a sample design and don't like it, you could also contact the designer to let them know why. While you are on the lookout for quality embroidery, we are constantly striving to create new, original designs of high quality. If we don't know what's wrong, we can't fix it for you.

For now, I'm off to get a few new free embroidery downloads so I can test some designs before purchasing the sets. Yes, we digitizers still have our own favorite designers!