Most responses to online clicks are automatic and are triggered immediately. There are many reasons you may not get them quickly or even at all but that’s all beyond my control.

The system requires that all accounts have a unique email. If your email is already in use, it means you already have an account.

DO NOT CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT WITH A DIFFERENT EMAIL! It won’t be connected to the previous account and any past orders won’t be there.

If you send me a Contact request, I generally answer as soon as I see it.

But I’m not always connected so the answer may not be immediate. Also, if you email me through replying on orders or newsletters, I may miss the message entirely. The contact form will come in highlighted in yellow and is easily visible.

If you don’t hear back from me within, say 24 hours, please resend your email. It may have dissolved in cyberspace.

Because I am a single person business, I don’t provide phone orders or phone support.

The modern way of doing business with digital products is online with downloads that are available immediately.

However, you can contact me and let me know what you want to order, with your phone number, city, state (so I know what time zone you’re in), and a good time to call you, my husband, Bill, will call you and take your order over the phone.

Please be aware that extra charges for shipping may apply if we can’t digitally send any designs. Also, you’ll need to be in charge of your backups; we won’t replace any items lost after you receive them. Only full sets, not singles, are available by phone. Special pricing may only apply online.

Any free items on the website are only free it downloaded.

Currently, the free collection is Candlewick Medallions. Add it to your cart, enter the coupon code, and check out. Note: It’s only free with the coupon code.

TIP: Only use one coupon per cart; most coupons are set up to not be combined. If you have more than1 coupon, place an order for each one.

If you’re brand new and have just signed up for the newsletter, you’ll need to create a shopping account. You can be newsletter subscriber without ever shopping, a shopper who isn’t a subscriber, or both.

The shopping cart requires a bit more information than the newsletter. Be sure to fill it out accurately. It’s rare that we ever need to call you but if we can’t get in contact with you by email, we may need to call.

The shop will send you an email to confirm your account. You must click the link in that email to activate your account.

Just like the newsletter system, creating a new account sends a confirmation email that you must click to activate your account.

Yes, I know, it’s a hassle; you only have to do it once. This is to make sure you are really you and that your email is a real, valid one not some fake email.

If you fail to activate your account within a reasonable period, it will be deleted.

The most common reason for this is that you haven’t checked the little box that says you agree to the terms and conditions.

Another common reason you can’t check out is that you don’t have a valid, activated shopper account. Even freebie downloads require a shop account.

First, subscribe to the newsletter by completing the signup form. A confirmation email will be sent to you. It’s normally sent immediately but it may take a while for you to get it depending on your ISP and other “things.” Check your spam/junk folder to make sure it didn’t go there.

Next, click the link in the email to confirm you want to subscribe. A second email is automatically sent with the coupon code.

I do not personally send these emails, the newsletter system does. If you don’t confirm, you won’t get the coupon or any newsletters.

Confirmations for the newsletter MUST be done via the email. You can’t do it on this web site.

Until you confirm, your email status is “pending” and you won’t receive any emails sent from the newsletter system.

If your forget to confirm or don’t get the confiration email, try subscribing again. Also see below about why you might not be getting emails.

Most products on this site are digital download. As soon as your order is complete, you’ll see a message to view your order. Click that and you can download immediately.

You”ll also get an email with your order information in case you want to download later.

You can download any past purchases by logging into your account on the Shop page and and viewing orders.

Any physical products are usually shipped by the next business day.

ALL DOWNLOADABLE PURCHASES SHOULB BE DOWNLOADED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

If you have an email system that requires new senders to validate themselves, you won’t. You should never use such an account when signing up for newsletters or shopping online. Create a free account with Google or another and use that for online things

One thing you can do to improve the chances of getting emails to add our “from” email address to your save sender’s list our contact address book. This tells your email client that emails coming from this email address from that point onward are from a trusted source and should be accepted. This is known as “whitelisting.”

Email addresses hosted at private domains tend to have much stricter security settings in place to protect the account, setting up whitelisting tells those security settings that emails coming from any of our sending IP addresses are safe to receive ongoing.

Absolutely!

Provided you are not a mass manufacturer, you can sew and sell. Generally, for our purposes, “mass production” is more than 50.

If you should need to sell more, please contact me.

You cannot sell the digital file either as is or editted.

Provided you are not a mass manufacturer, you can sew and sell. Generally, for our purposes, “mass production” is more than 50. If you should need to sell more, please contact me.

You cannot sell the digital file either as is or editted.

I get asked this question a lot!

Until not too long ago, I didn’t have a good answer because as a Mac user, I really didn’t like any Windows software and only used it if there was no other choice. Now I can tell you I really like the Embrilliance software.

And here’s why:

• You can get just parts you need when you’re ready to use them all the way from basic lettering and customizing up to a feature-rich digitizing program
• It works on BOTH Mac and Windows. If you happen to have both, you can install it on both (no extra purchases)
• It doesn’t require a dongle, just a serial number
• There are no arbitrary limits on the number of installs
• It has a wide user base and active groups on Facebook
• It’s economical, even if you buy all the modules it’s still about half (or less!) of what you’d pay for other popular digitizing programs
• The basic modules are easy to use and even the digitizing is easier than many other programs

I could probably come up with more reasons but that’s good for starters.

I’d recommend you NOT start out with some over-priced, over-featured software because it can just be overwhelming. I’d start with Embrilliance Essentials and Thumbnailer. (If you look in my shopping cart under software you can find full descriptions of each module.)

Then, as you gain experience and figure out how much you want to do in software, you can expand.

Too many people fork over $2K or more for software and then feel like they can’t switch because they haven’t learned the first one yet. (The worst reason ever! Buy something you WILL use even if it does mean getting something else.)

Also, it’s no longer a requirement to buy the software from your machine company. That was the case in the mid 1990s but now there are more choices and most programs can read and write any machine format.

>Check our shop for availability or download from Embrilliance. Free and demo versions are available.

There are two parts to learning to digitize:

Learning the theory and process of digitizing
Learning your software
I can teach you the former but unless you use the same software I do, likely not the second.

However, I can’t teach you to digitize by email or in a phone conversation. The best way to get started is to download and read Anatomy of a Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer and Become a Better Embroiderer.

This book explains a lot of what you need to know to understand what various settings and options mean in your software. Then, sit down and go through any tutorials you can find on your software.

If you happen to be a Generations user, you’re in luck because I have a very thorough course on that program that applies professional digitizing to that software.

It took 18 months to learn the software and write that course and it’s unlikely I’ll do that again because it was quite unprofitable.

If you’ve lost designs for any reason, simply log into your account and redownload.

As of 4/2017, somefree designs are no longer stored in your account and you will be unable to retrieve them again.

Make a backups a good practice. You’re unlikely to remember every place you acquired designs.

IMPORTANT: Be forewarned, too, that there are no guarantees you’ll be able to download past designs forever. While that is the plan, disasters can befall the shop history and at some point, old orders will be deleted to free up space.

If you are an AOL user having difficulties with this site, please read this article on AOL’s site: Learn what do to if you are not able to access secure websites using the AOL Desktop software.

Of course, if you’re actually having that problem, you probably can’t access this FAQ.

Cactus Punch was started by Lindee Goodall with the assistance of her husband Bill in their basement of their Cincinnati home in 1995. In 1997, we moved to Tucson and began adding staff.

At our height, we had 22 employees working with us and owned a building with an amazing classroom where many embroiderers attended our free, monthly embroidery club known as Extra Punch. I put up our first website in 1996 and was one of the first embroidery companies to do so.

Cactus Punch was sold to Viking Sewing Machines (VSM) in December 2004. In 2005, VSM itself was purchased and become SVP.

In August of 2006, VSM showed up and fired all employees but one and closed down the Tucson operation. Designs made after that point were not designed or digitized by any of the original artist digitizers from Cactus Punch.

After that, I don’t know what happened but I heard a lot in “interesting” things. Let’s just leave it there.

I had a 2 year non-compete and honestly I was so fried after the SVP debacle, I needed recovery time. In August of 2008 , I started Lindee G Embroidery. I make stuff I want to use.

I have no real staff so I wear almost all the hats like designing, digitizing, making samples, creating web content, managing the social media, making YouTube videos, teaching, and managing the website. Bill still assists me with test sews (but not on projects), shipping, accounting, and organizing the shows we do.

Cactus Punch CDs mastered before August 2006 use an installer program that will work with Windows XP and possibly some slightly newer ones and likely won’t work with current¬†Windows operating systems.

I’m not sure at what point Windows no longer will run the installer program. Technology can change a lot since that time and what was useful then may not work at all now.

Why did we use installers? It made it easier for non-techy embroiderers to install designs and it reduced the number of support questions. Embroiderers now are more accustomed to having a computer in their sewing room so we can skip the installer.

If you still have your old computer, back up all the designs onto something you can read on your new computer (CD, stick). Then just copy them onto your new computer.
When you upgrade to a new computer, you should back up all your data from the old one to transfer. CDs may seem like a good resource but they can become lost, damaged, or no longer work with more modern operating systems.

To access designs on these old CDs, install them on a computer still running an older OS. Once installed, copy the files to some other media and transfer them to your machine. Do make a backup!

A second method is to view them on a Mac. These CDs were “dual format” and you may even be able to see the “Mac side” on a Windows PC.

You won’t be able to run the installer in Mac OS, but there are folders of a few design formats on the Mac side that you may be able to use or convert.

I recommend against using the PCM files for conversion, as many of them will be split into two or more parts based on format restrictions. If there’s a DST or EXP, use that as your master even though it might not be prettily colored.

Also, keep in mind that conversion software generally only converts a design to a given format if the design is within the machine’s sewing capabilities. In other words, a design that’s available as a DST on the CD but not in your machine’s format may now work with your current machine. Use the DST to convert.

Viking Sewing Machines purchased Cactus Punch in December 2004 and they now own all the designs. You’ll need to contact them for any support issues (I don’t know who that is, if anyone). I cannot provide you with replacement files.

Essentials can convert but you have to open the file and then do a File > Save. CIM is faster, especially for bulk conversions.

Another downside of converting with Essentials is that it may not keep the same file. As of version 1.155, Essentials opens up stitch files as “untitled,” which means you’ll have to re-enter the design name when you save. Only BE files “remember” their file name.

Note: This could change in future versions and I have made this request. And if it does change, I may not remember to come back and update this comment.

So it depends… Do you routinely convert large batches of files or only a single one on an as-needed basis?

No. Embroidery formats are not some exotic form of image files so there’s no “conversion” for that. You need digitizing software to interpret an image into an embroidery format.

While there are “auto-digitizing” programs that will apply stitches to an imported image, the result is questionable except on the simplest, cleanest image.

Yes, Convert It Mac can open and convert from Bernina’s ART format.

Yes.

CIM can create a TIF file but it likely won’t be actual size. It uses preformatted sizes only.

I was told the reason for the preformatted sizes was to keep the images consistent for posting to a web shop. If you intend to do that, keep in mind you’ll still need some utility to convert the TIF files to a web-friendly format.

I think a better way to display an image of your embroidery design is to scan an actual sewout. A “3D” or rendered version doesn’t indicate whether the design has ever been test sewn or not.

A BX file is a specially created installer file for Embrilliance and Embroidery Works programs and usually contains a font set for use as a keyboard font in those programs.

BX font files need to be installed by dragging and dropping them onto an acceptable Embrilliance or Embroidery Works program. You cannot “open” or preview them on either Mac or Windows.

Once installed, the included font will appear on the font menu and you can select it and type similar to most any other program.

What makes them so cool?

• They make a huge array of fonts available for easy personalizing and monogramming without having to merge each character and align manually
• There are thousands of fonts available, many by reputable, professional digtizers who have manually and tested each character. (Some are autoconverted by amateurs and are of lower quality.)
• Embrilliance provides a FREE app for using BX fonts that can then be saved for ANY machine or brought into another program to combine with other designs.
• Using any of the paid versions of the supported apps you have maximum control, flexibility and creativity!

Technically, a BX file is an installer file to add a new font set to EmbroideryWorks and <a href=”http://tinyurl.com/embrilliance101″>Embrilliance</a> Essentials.

It’s not a stitchable embroidery design file so no, you can’t load it to your machine. And since it’s designed to install preformatted fonts into those programs, it won’t work with other programs.

To install them, just drag and drop the BX file onto the opened program and you’ll be able to immediately use the designs or fonts it contains.

For more info, please see:

• Why YOU Want BX Fonts, How they Work, & How to Install Them (YouTube video)
• How to install a BX Font in Embrilliance or EmbroideryWorks – Revised & Updated (YouTube video)
• BX Machine Embroidery Fonts (blog post)
• FAQs about Fonts (blog post)

I can really only make true, native, closest point fonts for Punto, which is what I use for digitizing. That’s where all my fonts start and many of the ones that are now BX’d are ones I’ve been using for years.

And, if I go through the PIA process of saving out each individual letter into it’s own little file, and then reimporting them into AlphaTricks, aligning and mapping, I can make a BX font that can be used as a keyboard font in Embrilliance and Embroidery Works programs.

Of course, doing that means I need to add a tie in and a tie out to each letter (which I would normally only do at the beginning and ending of words). These tie off stitches are less noticeable on larger letters and letters with thicker strokes.

Plus, these BX versions won’t be closest point; in other words, their connections won’t change based on the letters on either side of them to minimize jump lengths. Instead, all connections are fixed.

I’ve made my own fonts for years but if you didn’t use Punto (big $$$), they weren’t usable as a keyboard font in other programs. AlphaTricks lets me make them into easily usable keyboard fonts and Essentials lets you use them.

I don’t know what software you have but truly usable machine embroidery keyboard fonts where you can pick one from the font menu and assign it to characters you’re typing are special critters and generally have to be made specifically for that program.

And making one that can be closest point an entirely different–both in how it’s digitized and how the program handles the letters to reflow the stitches. That type of lettering is a more advanced option and requires an object as opposed to a stitch file. If you don’t know what that means, it doesn’t really matter and I’ll save that for another time.

Most embroidery apps that offer fonts require them to be made and installed in some special way. Embroidery fonts have no universal format like TrueType. And really, embroidery fonts aren’t fonts at all; they’re stitches that are grouped together to look like letters.

Some digitizing programs don’t really come with any built in fonts; they expect you to use their “TrueType Converter” to create any text on the fly. My experience with these utilities is that I spend way more time trying to correct them than it would take for me to digitize them properly in the first place. All fonts on my site are manually digitized.

BX fonts are easy to use once you understand how they work. Here’s some stuff to explain what they are, how they work‚Äîeven some YouTube videos so you don’t even have to read anything.

• Why YOU Want BX Fonts, How they Work, & How to Install Them (YouTube video)
• How to install a BX Font in Embrilliance or EmbroideryWorks – Revised & Updated (YouTube video)
• BX Machine Embroidery Fonts (blog post)
• FAQs about Fonts (blog post)

Because they’re too hard to use that way!

In the past, I’ve only made my alphabets available as BX fonts because they are so much easier to use as keyboard fonts rather than trying to manually combine multiple files together to form a word.

>Embrilliance Express is FREE and so easy to use AND it’s available for both Mac & Windows users.

However, I’ve had so many requests for this and the format that I’ve decided to make the DST version available. Since I do have to create the DST for the BXing process and most machines and programs can read this format, this is the only format I’m providing.

I believe every embroiderer should at least have a program (and know how to use it!) that will convert an embroidery design to their desired format.

DON’T KNOW WHAT BX FONTS ARE OR HOW TO USE THEM? CHECK THESE RESOURCES FIRST!

BX fonts are a special kind of format used by Embrilliance and Embroidery Works to make it easy to install fonts into appropriate apps and make it easy to design with fonts. Just type!

The alternative is that you have to import or merge in each character individually and align. That might be OK for 1-3 letters for a monogram but who wants to do that for, say, a cookie recipe on a tea towel?

Nevertheless, people keep asking for stitch file versions so I’ll be including them with new font releases.

Because of the number of files in the stitch file versions, I’ll only be providing DST. If you really want a stitch file version and your machine uses some other format, well, you’ll just have to convert them, which is way easier than trying to use them as stitch files!

To learn more about BX fonts, see:

• Why YOU Want BX Fonts, How they Work, & How to Install Them (YouTube video)
• How to install a BX Font in Embrilliance or EmbroideryWorks – Revised & Updated (YouTube video)
• BX Machine Embroidery Fonts (blog post)
• FAQs about Fonts (blog post)

Not unless specifically mentioned.

For example, the “HIS” and “HERS” towel designs shown in the this post, How to Get Perfect Monograms on Terry Cloth Towels, were adapted for terry cloth.

Generally speaking, designs digitized for direct embroidery are set up for “average” fabric and that typically means a smooth, stable fabric that’s too tightly or loosely woven, solid color, and usually pastel in color.

Does that mean it won’t work on anything else? No, it just means that the closer you can get your fabric to that state with backings, toppings, and other products (what you’d likely do anyway). the better result you’ll get.

It’s important to understand there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all design.

For example, you can’t stitch a redwork design on a plush terry cloth and expect the design to be clear and crisp./p>

Likewise, trying to stitch most lace designs directly on fabric instead of as a free-standing design, is likely going to cause trouble due to the extra structural stitches built in to support the design once the stabilizer is removed.

Getting good embroidery results requires matching the right design with the right kinds of fabrics and and stabilizers. To do that, you need to know how designs are constructed so you can be a good matchmaker.

The best place for that is my best selling ebook, Anatomy of a Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer & Become a Better Embroiderer.

Yes! If you have appropriate software with a good stitch processor (I recommend Embrilliance products) then you can resize designs.

Do keep in mind that you are changing the stitches in the design when you resize and there are no guarantees on the outcome. Definitely do the following:
Work only on a copy of the original design.
Test sew the design and compare it to sew-out of the original to see if any negative changes have occurred.
Some embroidery programs allow a wide range of scaling (plus or minus 200-250%) but that doesn’t mean you’ll have a successful result with every design at those extremes!

No company can predict how any program will resize a particular design. When I include resized versions, they are scaled from the original working file and often have had some tweaks done to the stitch attributes and types.

Some stitch types don’t scale well, most notably bean stitches and manually created cross stitches. This is why many of my redwork collections have designs in multiple sizes.

Note: Some programs will utterly destroy the stitches in a design just by opening it. In 2013 we found this to be the case with the Janome Digitizing software. In general, a digitizing program should be used to create new designs from scratch or edit designs made in that program using the original source file only.

If the format your machine uses is not listed it may be because the design is too large for most machines using that format.

Also, due to server space and the number of files needed for each and every design if all possible formats were offered, I’ve discontinued support for older formats and less popular formats.

Currently supported formats are:

• DST (Commercial)
• EXP (Commercial & Bernina)
• HUS (older Viking machines)
• JEF (Janome)
• PES (Brother, Baby Lock)
• VP3 (Viking, Pfaff)

If you typically use a format that isn’t listed, I recommend getting some embroidery conversion software. There are now programs for both Mac and Windows that convert and if you have any other embroidery software, it likely converts as well.

Most reasonably current embroidery software will read and write most home formats. Make sure you use an appropriate program for converting! Some programs will destroy a stitch file simply by opening it (Janome Digitizer is/was one.)

If you’re downloading designs from the internet, there’s no reason not to have some basic embroidery software on your computer.

If you’ll be converting designs to another unlisted format, I recommend downloading DST and PES.

DST because it’s the format I test sewed and is the “grandmother” from which all the other formats are descended, and PES because it is the first daughter and mother of all the other formats that have colors assigned.

>In other words, PES will be colored to resemble the actual stitch out where possible. However, if you convert from PES (as I do for all the other formats except EXP) you may lose programmed trim commands. If you convert directly from the DST, you won’t have pretty colors but if your format (and machine!) recognize special commands like trims, they should remain intact.

For you Bernina users, your machine DOES NOT use ART, it uses EXP (or PES if it’s very old). Machines that read VIP also read VP3, so download that.

All formats (as permitted by size) are included on CDs.

Note: Effective 9/2016, the new shop system now makes all supported formats available in your account even after ordering. The old shop required you to preselect your format.

In general, we do not email any designs available in the shop. They are stored in your account and you can log in and download them as needed.

However, I do encourage you to download and backup your purchases soon after purchase to avoid losing everything in case of a catastrophic event here on this site.

Probably not.

Most files on this site are either PDFs, which open in Acrobat Reader, or embroidery design files, which open in various embroidery programs. Many of these files are zipped and if your browser doesn’t automatically unzip for you, you’ll need to do that before trying to open them elsewhere.

Embroidery designs are not image files so you can’t open them in a graphics program.

Yes. Effective 9/2016 the old shop system was replaced with a newer, more modern app that allows you to download any supported format.

That means you can log into your account and download any other format. Keep in mind not every machine format is supported.

I’ve refined the formats I include to the just most popular formats. If a design is not included for your machine, it may be because

it’s not widely used at this point
it’s not available in one of the supported formats due to size, stitch count, or other format restrictions present when the design was originally released
PES and VP3 will include all the files and are colored to resemble the sewn design. DST and EXP will also contain all the files but do not retain colors.

You can always use a conversion program to convert to the format you need. Most machines these days will read a DST or EXP file, which is why it is recommended you download one of these formats.

As new formats come out, it can be a nightmare for designers to provide all designs in all formats so having a good conversion program is a must.

You are expected to know basic embroidery techniques.

Some full collections include project instructions and/or technique instructions.

Unless otherwise noted, individual designs generally do not include instructions. Instructions are added labor and the low cost of individual designs doesn’t cover that.

In this new shop (after 9/2016), you’ll see instructions listed as a separate downloadable item when they’re included. To get them, you’ll need to select them and download them; they won’t automatically download with a design.

If the design doesn’t come with instructions, check the product page to see if there is a related blog post. Sometimes I make a project after the collection is released and the instructions may be available elsewhere.

Occasionally, I will post a small project at a much lower price than normal and link to a blog post for instructions. Writing and photographing step-by-step instructions takes a significant amount of time and are factored into the cost of design.

If it’s a stitch file or the source file is not Punto, then possibly, but not likely. For example, depending on the design, I might be able to extract or delete elements but I can’t change any stitch attributes (stitch type, density, length, underlay, etc).

In other words, I can’t “fix” a bad design or one that’s not suited for your fabric or garment. I can only modify designs I digitized and have the source file for.

My experience is that it’s often easier to redigitize the design than trying to seriously rearrange elements. Even with a source file, some modifications can require considerable work.

Downloads go to the last location where you downloaded a file; often this is the downloads folder.

You can check your browser downloads window for recent files. If the file was downloaded in the past, the file name is most likely the product code plus the format extension with “.zip” on the end.

For example, the product code for Gingery Christmas is lg0002. If you downloaded the PES version, the file name is lg0002pes.zip.

Perform a search on your computer for that file name then move the file to a more permanent location.

I prefer to organize all my embroidery designs by company within an Embroidery Designs folder.

On my Mac, this is on a data volume; on Windows, it’s in My Documents. I create a folder for each company from whom I acquire designs. In that folder is a folder for each collection.

If you don’t navigate to the target location before downloading, then you should find where the file downloaded on your computer and move it to the folder where you store your designs so that you can easily find it again.

Some collections have larger versions of designs that aren’t available in all formats.

Designs may be “missing” in a particular format because it exceeds the format’s max size (height or width), it exceeds the max stitch count for a design, or exceeds the max number of colors permitted.

Depending on how the design was converted, designs may be split into design_a, design_b, etc to accommodate stitch count and color limitations.

ALL designs are included in the DST and EXP formats and usually in the PES and VP3 formats as well. You should be downloading in the newest format your machine supports.

For example, many Viking owners still download HUS when they have a model that supports VP3. VP3 has better support for “true thread colors” and it supports a much larger design size.

Sometimes a format may be “updated” to support larger sizes, more stitches, etc. For example, say at the time a particular design was released, your format had a stitch count limit of 100,000 stitches but an update now allows 200,000.

That won’t automatically update any designs converted with the old version in mind but you can then take one of the formats that is available and convert that for your machine.

Keeping up with all the machine updates and updating older design files to meet them is a lot of work. It means finding which files need to be remastered, remastering them and then replacing them on the server. Another reason why having easy to use software that lets you update files as you need to.

If you don’t know how to convert designs or have software to do so, you should learn. It’s not hard and will open up more designs for your use.

Also, many machines can read a DST file without any conversion. This is the format I use on my Baby Lock, Brother, Viking, and SWF machines.

REMINDER

All design product pages display basic details for the included designs. A collection may include 5 different formats but whether all of the designs are included in each format depends on design size, stitch count, and color count with size being the most important.

Review these details to see how many might not be included in your format. Refunds or reduced prices are not available just because a format is “missing” some files that quite possibly won’t even sew on your machine.

All your purchases are stored in your account. To access them, you need to log in.

Click LOG IN on the main main on the right sde

If you don’t see your order, the number one reason is that you used a different email. If you accidentally mistype your email address and you aren’t paying attention, you can create a new account.

ALL ORDERS ARE TIED TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS YOU USED WHEN YOU CHECKED OUT!

Although you can update your account if you get a new email, you cannot change a mistyped email to one you’ve already used. Email addresses are required to be unique for accounts.

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see your dashboard:

To access your orders, click on “orders” and you’ll see a list of your orders with the most recent one first. If you have a lot of orders, you may have multiple pages.

Click an order you want to view.

The order details page has links to all the items in an order. Click the format(s) you need plus an other “extras” such as color sequences, instructions, templates, etc. Files will be downloaded to your selected download location.

You’ll need to unzip files before using them.

Unless otherwise specified, ALL designs are downloadable. The main exception is bonus designs included with a physical product, which will be included in your package.

You’ll be able to download them immediately after your payment clears or, in the event of free designs immediately.

You’ll also be sent an email confirming your order that includes links to the products. The email is sent immediately but may take a few minutes to arrive in your inbox.

If you don’t receive the message, the primary reasons are:

• It went into your spam folder
• Your ISP is blocking emails from LindeeGEmbroidery.com
• You have a spam filter that requires the sender to authenticate so that the sender can be approved (not gonna happen!)
• You incorrectly typed your email address into your account info or did so intentionally

Designs purchased on this site are NOT sent on CD and they are NOT emailed to you.

If you didn’t download after purchase or need to redownload, visit the shop page , log in, and view your account history to find the order you wish to download.

The most common reason is that the design is too large for your sewing field.

Actual hoop size is larger than the sewing field, which is the size of the design you machine can actually stitch. Also, while designs and sewing fields are often given in inches, they are more accurately measured in millimeters.

I know that most embroiderers here in the States are used to measuring in inches but you should be aware of what your actual sewing field is in millimeters.

For example, we often call a design sized for 100mm square sewing fields as a “four by four” meaning 4″ x 4″. However, 100mm converted to inches is actually only 3.937″‚Äîplus, a 100mm sewing field may actually only sew a design that is smaller than 100x100mm.

Likewise, a 200mm x 300mm sewing field is often called 8 x 12 hoop when actually the metric values equate to 7.87 x 11.8″. If you go by inches, you may end up with a design too large for your machine.

For this reason, you’ll always see our designs measured first in millimeters followed by the converted value in inches in parentheses.

Actually, it’s a good idea not to completely max out your sewing field in either or both directions because you’ll have no room for fine-tuning your placement at the machine.

On the other hand, you’ll get the best hoop tension when the hoop is only slightly larger than your embroidery design.

While you can often preview images files on your desktop for a quick view of what they look like, you’ll need to get a special utility to do that with embroidery files.

I use Thumbnailer from Embrilliance on my Macintosh and Windows computers to see a thumbnail image of the design on the desktop.

Just download it, run it to set it up, and you’ll be able to preview most any stitch file format you have the way you can see an thumbnail image of JPGs and other files on your computer.

You don’t have to open any program or even open the file itself. Just preview it in Windows Explorer or Mac OS.

Check your version of Acrobat. If your version is 5 or less, you may not be able to read PDFs created from other or newer programs. You can download a the latest version here:http://get.adobe.com/reader/ At the time of this writing (02/2011) the current version is 10.1.1

Also, make sure that it’s actually a PDF file that you’re trying to open with Acrobat and not an embroidery file.

Most designs are downloaded from the shopping via your account. Simply log in, find the order and download if you aren’t downloading at the time of checking out.

For a few other freebies, you must register by filling in a form. In most cases, a thank-you form will appear with the link. You’ll then get an email message confirming your request.

You must click on the link in that email (don’t reply saying you agree–that won’t work!). Once you reply, you’ll get another email with the link. If you don’t get a reply, you may have entered your email incorrectly. You’d be surprised how many people miss-type their email address!

If you have already done this in the past, you should simply get the second email, which is the download link.

If you’re trying to download the designs from the Facebook page, this is a direct download, you won’t go to a page. The file is small and downloads quickly with all the formats. If the download button isn’t working, then try right-clicking on it. Facebook is weird and changes often causing things to break.

If you are experiencing problems, make sure you are using a current browser or try a more compliant browser like Firefox. IE is problematic.

The shopping cart requires a unique product code for every item in the shop. In most cases the product code is the same as the file name.

These names conform to the old DOS “eight dot three” file naming restrictions and are readable by all embroidery machines. Long file names are truncated on many sewing machines and not readable at all on others.

The product codes reveal key information about a design:

• The first few letters indicate the product series or type.
• The next 3 digits are the sequence number of the collection in that series.
• The remaining digits are the sequence number of the design in that particular collection.

You can change the file name if you like. Keep in mind that if you take a collection of 20 butterflies and name them Butterfly Yellow 1, Butterfly Pink 2, Butterfly Yellow 2, etc. at your machine you may see something like Butter~1, Butter~2, Butter~3, etc.

I use Thumbnailer from Embrilliance on my Macintosh and Windows computers to see a thumbnail image of the design on the desktop.

I get this question periodically and it really doesn’t tell me a lot about the problem.

What are you trying to download? Where are you downloading it (Facebook, blog page, shopping cart, etc.)? Did you actually purchase it on this website or was it purchased through a webinar special or other site?

Here are some things to try if you’re trying to download from the shop area:

• Have you created an account?
• Are you logged in to the shopping cart?
• Did you purchase the product and complete the payment process? (This must be done even when the item is free.)
• Did you get a “file not found” page? If so, try again. This is most often an indication that the server is busy.
• Are you sure it didn’t download and you just don’t know where it went?
• If you are trying to download a previous purchase, are you logged in and in “My Account?”
• Is the download button missing?
• If you’re using a coupon, are you using it on the right product and did you type it correctly (coupons are case sensitive)?

Occasionally we have received messages that the download buttons were missing from the page. With the new shopping cart system (after 9/2016) this can occur on older orders and we’ll need to manually reset them for you. The new system handles downloadable products differently than the old one.

I recommend always downloading the DST in addition to whatever other format you need so leave it checked. These files are small so it’s not like they’ll be eating up a lot of extra space on your hard drive.

If you’re experiencing problems with a recent order, please try:

• clear your browser cache
• quit and reload your browser
• try a different browser
• reboot your computer

Bernina’s ART format is proprietary. The only way to create it is with the Bernina software.

Modern Bernina machines do not read ART files, they read EXP. For that reason, ART is no longer provided on this site but is available on the CD version that we sell at shows.

Update: As of 6/2017 we are no longer including ART files on sets produced after that date. If you need ART files, you can download the free Bernina ArtLink V8 software. This can be used for opening other formats and saving to Art format. See their website for updates.

If you think you need to have ART because you are a Bernina owner, make sure that is true first. And if it is, I suggest you get the necessary software to create it.

Any ART formats provided on this site are converted versions only and will not behave like a design that was originally created in Bernina software.

Did you format your USB stick in your Janome? Did you copy the files to the correct folder?

Refer to your manual or ask your dealer to see how to prepare designs for your Janome to read.

All design downloads are zipped whether they are an individual design or a collection. You will need a program to unzip if your browser does not do that for you automatically.

ZIP formats can be read on both Macintosh and Windows. We do not provide EXE files for embroidery designs.

No embroidery machine (that I know of anyway), accepts a zipped format but most current models will read most other popular machine embroidery formats.

If you don’t know how to unzip, please see this video for a step-by-step how to: How to Unzip Embroidery Designs using Windows Explorer.

Files are zipped to speed the download process and to prevent file corruption. Additionally, the cart documentation even recommends zipping PDF files.

Some file formats are misread by some browsers and will open up a new window instead of downloading and basically look like garbage.

Also, zipping multiple files together makes sure all the necessary files are downloaded together.

If you don’t know how to unzip, please see this video for a step-by-step how to: How to Unzip Embroidery Designs using Windows Explorer.

Unzipping files is something you need to master if you are downloading files from the internet. Zipped files are easy to unzip on both Mac and Windows and with newer OS, you don’t even need any extra software. If you’re downloading files from the internet, it’s vital that you learn how to unzip.

In the past, programs such as WinZip were needed to unzip a file. Some browsers will automatically unzip (check your download settings in your browser) when you download.

If yours doesn’t and double-clicking the .zip file doesn’t automatically unzip or launch a program to do it, then you’ll need to do it more manually, which is easier than you think once you know the trick.

To see how to do it in Windows, watch this short YouTube video: How to Unzip Embroidery Designs using Windows Explorer.

Occasionally a file may become corrupted during downloading. If that’s the case, simply redownload the file and try again.

If you continue to have problems with purchased designs after you’ve watched the video and tried the process demonstrated, please use the Contact us form to send us an email with a complete description along with a copy of your invoice.

We absolutely will not email free designs.

Most of my applique collections include templates for precutting the fabric pieces. I include PDF for hand cutting, FCM for the Brother ScanNCut and SVG for use with other digital cutters.

FCM does not have a computer program associated with it. To see them, do one of the following:

• Upload the file to the Brother ScanNCut Canvas site (you’ll need to create a free account; you don’t have to have a ScanNCut)
• Copy the files to your USB stick and load them into your cutter

The applique templates are precisely made to match the associated embroidery design. If you resize the applique in any way, you’ll need to recreate your templates. You can do that in Embrilliance Essentials.

All computer files need a program to open them. Embroidery files are no different.

You need to have an embroidery program to open embroidery files; they simply cannot be opened with Acrobat or your graphics program.

Embrilliance Thumbnailer is an OS enhancement that will let you see an image of an embroidery design in Windows Explorer or Macinstosh Finder.

Thumbnailer doesn’t open the file or do anything else, it’s just a viewer but it is infinitely helpful in that regard–you can see a “3D stitched” image of the design. Since most embroidery machines can only read the first 8 characters of the file name, many embroidery designs have rather cryptic names.

Don’t expect every design to be colored to look like the finished design. This requires extra work by the designer and not every format will support “true” colors.

Embrilliance Essentials is a basic embroidery program that will let you open, convert, color, resize, mirror, rotate, and add lettering (among other things!) and it too works on both Mac and Windows.

While it’s not strictly necessary to be able to open a design on your computer if all you’re going to do is stitch it, it’s nice to be able to see what that design is before you send it to the machine.

Essentials is very affordable when compared to other similar programs and offers add-on modules as you need to do more tasks. I use (and love!) both of these programs.

First of all, thank you for getting a design from me!

Once you download your file, you’ll need to unzip it before transferring to the media your machine uses (diskette, USB stick, card or direct connect).

If you don’t know how to unzip files, I have a YouTube video here: How to Unzip Embroidery Designs using Windows Explorer

The next step is to either take classes on how to use your machine so you know how to transfer designs, read your manual, or search YouTube for an appropriate video.

I don’t sell machines and it’s not my job to support them so you’ll need to figure this out yourself. Besides, there are so many variations that it would be impossible for me to keep up with all of them.

The machines I use (Baby Lock Elissimo, Brother 990, SWF, and Viking SE) all work from a stick so it’s a simple drag and drop from my computer (even on my Mac) to the stick.

Most of the time I just use the DST format for all of them. I do have three machines that use a card and honestly I have NEVER embroidered on them because it’s just too much hassle to use a card (Pfaff 7570, Pfaff 2144, and an ancient Brother).

Some machines that use a stick (some Janome models) require the designs to be in a certain folder and not nested within more folders and the stick must be formatted for use on the machine.

Some machines, such as lower end models, must be connected to your computer for design transfer. Some machines that use a floppy disk (Viking Designer 1) must have a certain file structure that is best done with programs that can make the SHV format. (For Mac people, Convert It, Mac can do that.)

And there are still machines out there that require a card and those need a special reader/writer box.

Log into your account and see what files you may not have downloaded.

Not all design sets have instructions. For example, if you are downloading a FSL or appliqué set or design that isn’t part of project set, don’t expect to find instructions on how to stitch them. There are blog posts on my site about various embroidery techniques if you’re unfamiliar with stitching these kinds of designs.

When you download designs at Lindee G Embroidery, be sure to check for other available files such as color sequences, templates, instructions or design details.

The various formats listed ONLY contain designs. Items are separated to keep the downloads small and efficient and also to conserve space on the server by avoiding redundancy.

File names are short so that they can be read by the machine more easily. Another reason is so that every design in our catalog has a unique name. Refer to the the color sequences for more descriptive names and details about each design, such as size, stitch counts, colors, ett.

While the actual file name may not be descriptive, the color sequences will tell you things like whether the design is meant for free-standing lace of requires stitching on organza.

Well, if multiple designs are required to complete a project, you’ll know by reading the instructions and looking at the color sequences.

Color sequences are available with sets. For individual designs, refer to the design details pdf.

These files are NOT bundled in with your design format download. Instead, they are listed individually on your downloads page. Be sure to download them.

Embrilliance is embroidery software for Mac and Windows users.

It’s really a platform or integrated suite of programs from the free Express version all the way up to full on, richly featured digitizing software. You decide what you want, purchase a serial number for that module, and your program becomes “smarter.”

Note: Think of Microsoft Office. You can buy individual apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that are part of a suite of integrated programs. What’s different with Embrilliance is all the different modules are housed in one app. They just get “turned on” when you purchase the serial number.

Why pay for a complex, high-end, high-priced program especially when you’re just getting started? Begin with the basics, see what it is you like to do or need to do and then get that feature. How does it get any better than that?

A BX file is a specially created installer file for Embrilliance and Embroidery Works programs and usually contains a font set for use as a keyboard font in those programs.

BX font files need to be installed by dragging and dropping them onto an acceptable Embrilliance or Embroidery Works program. You cannot “open” or preview them on either Mac or Windows.

Once installed, the included font will appear on the font menu and you can select it and type similar to most any other program.

What makes them so cool?

• They make a huge array of fonts available for easy personalizing and monogramming without having to merge each character and align manually
• There are thousands of fonts available, many by reputable, professional digtizers who have manually and tested each character. (Some are autoconverted by amateurs and are of lower quality.)
• Embrilliance provides a FREE app for using BX fonts that can then be saved for ANY machine or brought into another program to combine with other designs.
• Using any of the paid versions of the supported apps you have maximum control, flexibility and creativity!

Technically, a BX file is an installer file to add a new font set to EmbroideryWorks and <a href=”http://tinyurl.com/embrilliance101″>Embrilliance</a> Essentials.

It’s not a stitchable embroidery design file so no, you can’t load it to your machine. And since it’s designed to install preformatted fonts into those programs, it won’t work with other programs.

To install them, just drag and drop the BX file onto the opened program and you’ll be able to immediately use the designs or fonts it contains.

For more info, please see:

• Why YOU Want BX Fonts, How they Work, & How to Install Them (YouTube video)
• How to install a BX Font in Embrilliance or EmbroideryWorks – Revised & Updated (YouTube video)
• BX Machine Embroidery Fonts (blog post)
• FAQs about Fonts (blog post)

And, if I go through the PIA process of saving out each individual letter into it’s own little file, and then reimporting them into AlphaTricks, aligning and mapping, I can make a BX font that can be used as a keyboard font in Embrilliance and Embroidery Works programs.

Of course, doing that means I need to add a tie in and a tie out to each letter (which I would normally only do at the beginning and ending of words). These tie off stitches are less noticeable on larger letters and letters with thicker strokes.

Plus, these BX versions won’t be closest point; in other words, their connections won’t change based on the letters on either side of them to minimize jump lengths. Instead, all connections are fixed.

I’ve made my own fonts for years but if you didn’t use Punto (big $$$), they weren’t usable as a keyboard font in other programs. AlphaTricks lets me make them into easily usable keyboard fonts and Essentials lets you use them.

I don’t know what software you have but truly usable machine embroidery keyboard fonts where you can pick one from the font menu and assign it to characters you’re typing are special critters and generally have to be made specifically for that program.

And making one that can be closest point an entirely different, both in how it’s digitized and how the program handles the letters to reflow the stitches. That type of lettering is a more advanced option and requires an object as opposed to a stitch file. If you don’t know what that means, it doesn’t really matter and I’ll save that for another time.

Most embroidery apps that offer fonts require them to be made and installed in some special way. Embroidery fonts have no universal format like TrueType. And really, embroidery fonts aren’t fonts at all‚Äîthey’re stitches that are grouped together to look like letters.

Some digitizing programs don’t really come with any built in fonts; they expect you to use their “TrueType Converter” to create any text on the fly. My experience with these utilities is that I spend way more time trying to correct them than it would take for me to digitize them properly in the first place. All fonts on my site are manually digitized.

BX fonts are easy to use once you understand how they work. Here’s some stuff to explain what they are, how they work‚Äîeven some YouTube videos so you don’t even have to read anything.

• Why YOU Want BX Fonts, How they Work, & How to Install Them (YouTube video)
• How to install a BX Font in Embrilliance or EmbroideryWorks – Revised & Updated (YouTube video)
• BX Machine Embroidery Fonts (blog post)
• FAQs about Fonts (blog post)

In the past, I’ve only made my alphabets available as BX fonts because they are so much easier to use as keyboard fonts rather than trying to manually combine multiple files together to form a word.

Embrilliance Express is FREE and so easy to use AND it’s available for both Mac & Windows users.

However, I’ve had so many requests for this and the format that I’ve decided to make the DST version available. Since I do have to create the DST for the BXing process and most machines and programs can read this format, this is the only format I’m providing.

I believe every embroiderer should at least have a program (and know how to use it!) that will convert an embroidery design to their desired format.

I get asked this question a lot!

Until not too long ago, I didn’t have a good answer because as a Mac user, I really didn’t like any Windows software and only used it if there was no other choice. Now I can tell you I really like the Embrilliance software.

And here’s why:

• You can get just parts you need when you’re ready to use them all the way from basic lettering and customizing up to a feature-rich digitizing program
• It works on BOTH Mac and Windows. If you happen to have both, you can install it on both (no extra purchases)
• It doesn’t require a dongle, just a serial number
• There are no arbitrary limits on the number of installs
• It has a wide user base and active groups on Facebook
• It’s economical, even if you buy all the modules it’s still about half (or less!) of what you’d pay for other popular digitizing programs
• The basic modules are easy to use and even the digitizing is easier than many other programs

I could probably come up with more reasons but that’s good for starters.

I’d recommend you NOT start out with some over-priced, over-featured software because it can just be overwhelming. I’d start with Embrilliance Essentials and Thumbnailer. (If you look in my shopping cart under software you can find full descriptions of each module.)

Then, as you gain experience and figure out how much you want to do in software, you can expand.

Too many people fork over $2K or more for software and then feel like they can’t switch because they haven’t learned the first one yet. (The worst reason ever! Buy something you WILL use even if it does mean getting something else.)

Also, it’s no longer a requirement to buy the software from your machine company. That was the case in the mid 1990s but now there are more choices and most programs can read and write any machine format.

Check our shop for availability or download from Embrilliance. Free and demo versions are available.

Embrilliance Express is the free version of Embrilliance that lets you install and use BX fonts, which are “keyboard” fonts that load right onto a fonts menu via a simple drag and drop install process.

This gives you the ability to simply type in your text and choose from any of your installed fonts. The program also provides tools for manipulating your text and saving it out in a format your machine can read.

To get it, simply go to the downloads page on the <a href=”http://tinyurl.com/embrilliance101″>Embrilliance website</a> and download current version of Embrilliance for your computer (Mac or Windows).

Until you purchase a serial number, the program will run in “express” mode.

You might think that because it’s limited to just installing and using BX fonts, it doesn’t do much. However, giving you access to the HUGE range of BX fonts now available and being able to use them as a keyboard font instead of having to merge in and align each letter is INCREDIBLE. And Express is FREE!

Of course, once you start using it, you’ll want to do more and that’s when you can purchase serial numbers to unlock the various other features in the program.

If you have other embroidery software, use Express to create your text and then save in whatever format you use. Open/import that design into your other software and then combine with other designs.

I’ve written multiple blog posts on using various Embrilliance modules. You can find them by simply entering “Embrilliance” in the search box at the top right of any page.

I also have a growing playlist of Embrilliance tutorials on YouTube.

If you need technical assistance with any of the modules, the two best places are:

• Embrilliance Contact page – submit a help ticket
• Brilliant Embrilliance Facebook group

I do not provide free support for Embrilliance or any other software.

Some people have trouble downloading the birds. There are some helpful hints on the Notes page (click on the More dropdown near the top of the page under the banner).

Most people can get them to download by either control- or right-clicking the download button.

No, I don’t email freebies. Sorry.

Lately there has been a proliferation of friend requests and since this happens to be a great way for hackers and degenerates to access your page, if I can’t see enough information about you or recognize you as someone I know, then I may accept immediately or at all.

Hackers have taken over many of my friends’ pages and I routinely get requests from those hacked pages. I’ve learned that if I wait a while, then those often get resolved and I don’t have to spend my time figuring out if they’re legit.

I definitely won’t friend you if there’s no picture, I don’t recognize your name, and there are no interests that link you to common ones I have. I also won’t accept you as a friend if you’re male (no matter how good looking you are), only have pics of yourself, your only friends are women, you list yourself as widowed or divorced, and I don’t know you.

If you want to follow me and I haven’t friended you, Contact me or just like my Lindee G Embroidery page.

No, at least not for free. The mini collection is a Facebook exclusive and is a thank you for liking my page.

You can purchase the designs here: Fanciful Birds (lgs039).

Note: If the link doesn’t work in the new shop, try using the product search for the product sku (lgs039).

When designs are digitized in Generations, there will be either an MNG or a GEN format.

GEN is a native format that is opened through File > Open. MNG is the building block format and must be installed in the Building Block folder as per the included instructions.

A few collections that list GEN as a format have a few designs not digitized in Generations for various reasons. These will be included as DST files.

If you have Generations, you should always pick that format and then add whatever machine format you may use.

I digitized in Generations during the writing of the Learn to Digitize with Generations course so that I could learn the software and demonstrate it as a viable product.

Building Block collections are always digitized in Generations. A few other collections during that time frame were also done in Generations but most collections are done in Punto, a high end professional program I’ve used since the early 90’s.

Since most designs for Generations are provided as MNG (building block format), they are only available as collections and are not sold individually.

Digitizing in Generations was done as a courtesy to a vendor partner who no longer sells or supports this software.

WILL YOU BE UPDATING YOUR LEARN GENERATIONS COURSE FOR THE LATEST VERSION OF GENERATIONS?

Contact Generations for support on their product and Windows.

All I know about Generations is covered in my extensive and very thorough course, Learn Generations.

I haven’t used Generations in years because the two companies I worked with quit selling it and moved on to newer, more modern software.

For support with Generations at this point, you need to contact the company.

Note: Learn Generations is targeted for owners of Generations software. It includes extensive QuickTime videos which are no longer supported by Windows 10 but will run on earlier versions of Windows. There are no plans to update this course.

The videos included with the Learn to Digitize with Generations course require Apple QuickTime, which is a free download from Apple’s website. (This is covered with the materials that come in Unit 1.)

Download and install QuickTime. If you double-click the videos, Windows Media Player may try to run the video. In that case, you’ll need to launch QuickTime and then open and run (or drag and drop the video onto the QuickTime icon) to play them.

Also, the videos will probably play better on your computer than they will off the CD or the DVD if you bought the full course. The videos have been tested and do work; however, we cannot provide Windows technical support.

• Download QuickTime for Windows
• QuickTime Support

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Windows 10 no longer supports Apple QuickTime therefore the videos will not run on this OS. Generations is old software and has been superseded by newer and better programs. There are no plans to update the videos for the course.

No.

You must either already own Generations or purchase it from another source; we do not sell or provide support for Generations software.

Did you click the link in the confirmation email? If you did, then you should get another email (usually within a few minutes) with the code.

I see quite a few people who signed up but did not click the confirmation link (possibly because they didn’t receive it).

If you aren’t getting the thank-you email, call your provider to unblock Aweber and Lindee G Embroidery.

Also, you must click the confirmation link, not reply back with “subscribe,” which only comes to me and I’ll delete it. You have to confirm the opt-in yourself.

You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at anytime by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the end of the newsletter.

Your subscription is totally managed by you. You can subscribe anytime and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Getting too much mail? Did you get rid of your embroidery machine? Then opting out of the newsletter is easy. There’s a link in every single newsletter that will let you unsubscribe.

Unsubbing from the newsletter doesn’t remove your shopping cart account so if you do need to re-download any of your designs, you’ll still have access.

The most common reasons you may not get an email reply back from me are:/p>

• You entered an invalid email address
• I replied but the message was either blocked by your provider or went into your junk folder
• I never saw the email

I do answer emails that I get. And there have been times I’ve gone to extreme efforts to get that email to someone because they’ve entered an invalid email in the Contact Us form and/or they have an invalid email in their shopping cart account.

If you are attaching a question onto a free download order in the comments section, I won’t see it. If you aren’t getting a password when you request a new one, those emails don’t come from “me.”

They are automatically generated from the shopping cart. So you when you email me and say, “Why haven’t you sent me my password!” I’m not even aware that you’ve requested one.

Some people don’t get my replies because they have not white listed me in their email accounts. Some people have their email set up to block attachments so any emails where I have files attached are not getting through. Some people get the message but it is in their junk or spam folders and don’t look there.

And, I’m not sitting here 24 hours a day waiting for emails to come in. Don’t email me right before a sale deadline with a problem and expect an answer right away. That’s late at night my time.

Any designs you purchased are “tied” to the account you used when you ordered. If you get a new email, update your account with the new one instead of creating a new account.

If you create a new account instead, the two accounts CANNOT be merged together and your old account cannot be changed because the system does not allow duplicate emails.

If your new account has no purchased products, I can delete that account and set your old one your new email.

Sometimes this happens when the email is entered incorrectly when the account is set up. I’ve seen “gmail.coim”, “gmial.com”, “comcastnet” etc. These are not valid emails so if you try to login and you type your email correctly, there will be no match.

Also, with invalid emails, you will not get any confirmations from the shopping cart and we cannot contact you if there is a problem. The best thing to do in this case is to set up an account with a correct email.

People have emailed me their log in information and I can successfully log into their account. Since that’s the case, that indicates someting is wrong on YOUR computer and unfortunately, I can’t help you there.

According to tech support, common things blocking a successful login include:

• A browser issue with cookies, security settings, or auto-complete
• Browser Helper Objects (BHO) that have been installed that interfere with Zen Cart’s (the shopping cart system) cookies and session
• A password manager that has stored the wrong credentials
• A computer virus of some sort
• In rare cases, a BHO from an antivirus / internet security product (some are a little overaggressive with blocking private information such as email addresses or blocking / scrubbing cookies)

Possible solutions:

• Try clearing your cache
• Try a different browser
• Try a different computer
• Check your internet security settings

The best thing to do if you can’t log in and you KNOW your password and email are correct is to request a new password. The password is sent automatically and instantly. I don’t personally send these out and I don’t know anyone’s password.

If you aren’t receiving it, check your junk folder. Another reason you may not be receiving it is if your email provider is blocking it. That’s likely to occur if you have a filter set up to block any emails that aren’t approved. Sorry, but I’m not sending a request to your spam blocker to allow me to send you email.

See: I requested a new password but I never got it. If you still can’t log in, you can contact me and I’ll manually reset the password for you and email it to you. I recommend you try it out immediately and then CHANGE THE PASSWORD to something you can remember.

It may take me a while to do this since I don’t work 24/7/365 (close, though) and I need to be at my computer to do it; I can’t do it from my cell phone.

I always verify that the login works and if you can’t log in after that, well, it’s your computer. If you want to order a product in the future, we can send you a PayPal invoice and email the item.

Free designs are NOT emailed; you’ll just need to figure out the problem on your computer to get those.

It’s easy! Simply fill in your name and email in the signup form (in the footer on the lower right).

Shortly afterwards, you’ll get an email asking you to confirm the subscription. Just click the confirmation link in the email and you should get a second email to thank you for signing up.

As a bonus thank you, there’s a coupon code for a free design collection.

You will need to create another account in the shopping cart to get it. Signing up for the email doesn’t create a shopping cart account.

In February 2017, the newsletter system was moved to a new provider and the “from” was changed from LindeeG@comcast.net (created when the list was first initiated and I didn’t have a business email with Lindee G Embroidery) to LindeeG@LindeeGEmbroidery.com. Although all active email accounts were moved from the old system, your email system (app and/or provider) may be blocking these emails since they are coming from a new source. If you haven’t received any email since early January and you want to, just resubscribe.

There are 7 primary reasons why you don’t receive emails:

1. You incorrectly typed your email address.
2. Your spam filter is blocking our email.
3. The email went into your spam or junk folder.
4. Your IP is blocking email from the email manager program we use.
5. Your mailbox is full.
6. You, your spouse, or someone else unsubscribed you.
7. Your email requires the sender to verify their address by filling in a form.

When you sign up via the form on this site, you should get a confirmation email within a few minutes.

If an hour goes by, then you need to start checking things. Start with your spam folder. You can also try filling in the form again.

I periodically go through the database and clean up bad emails and purge addresses that are repeatedly bouncing. If I see an address that is obviously wrong, I can correct it (like g-mail com or gmial.com instead of gmail.com).

Other things to know:

• If you sign up in the shopping cart, that system is not currently tied into the free design alerts email. They are two different systems.
• To avoid bombarding you with duplicate emails, the only emails sent from the shopping cart are for purchased or downloaded products.
• If you use an email account that requires the sender to fill in a form and be verified, you will NEVER get emails of this nature.
• Likewise, if you send a request through the contact form that requires me to verify that I’m a real person, you may never get a reply.

The shopping cart has its own database. Signing up for the free designs newsletter does not automatically create an account in the shop system. If you’ve never downloaded anything from the cart, you’ll need to set up an account.

Or if you last purchased something before September 2010, that was in the old cart system and you’ll need to create a new account.

The shopping cart has its own database. Signing up for the free designs newsletter does not automatically create an account in the shop system.

If you’ve never downloaded anything from the cart, you’ll need to set up an account. Or if you last purchased something before September 2010, that was in the old cart system and you’ll need to create a new account.

The emails you get as newsletters and updates come from an email responder system. If you download any freebies or purchase any products, you get automated notices concerning your transactions from the shopping cart system.

Although the cart sign-up may have asked you to sign-up for a newsletter, I still need to get your permission to send you newsletters from the newsletter system. (Such is the way with anti-SPAM laws.)

There are a few other reasons the cart may not recognize your email and I’ve listed them out separately below.

There are two ways you are getting emails from Lindee G Embroidery:

1. You filled in a form somewhere one of my sites to get something, in which case you’re automatically added to the newsletter email list.
2. You created a shopping cart account, which at this time doesn’t automatically add you to the newsletter email list but only permits the shopping cart to send you confirmations and the like on products you’ve ordered.

When you register your Anatomy of a Design ebook via the link in the book, you’ll be taken to a page for the book’s designs and get a follow-up series of emails to keep you on track.

You also get emails if you’ve made a purchase on this site or signed up as a member. Signing up as a “member” or the newsletter list requires a confirmation from you. Notice that these are all things you do (or someone with your email does). In other words, I don’t add anyone myself.

The newsletter will notify you of free designs, new products, new events, and other standard newsletter stuff. Sometimes the newsletter will just link you to new articles on the site, sometimes it will include the tips. It just depends on how much time I have to layout the newsletter!

If you filled in the newsletter sign up form, the confirmation email is sent out immediately.

You may not get it immediately depending on your ISP and your email provider. If you don’t get one in a reasonable amount of time, try signing up again.

If you have one of those email systems that requires the sender to be approved by you, you will never get the email.

If it says you are already registered, wait a bit. If you still don’t get a message, the request will time out in 12 hours and you can try again. It is not possible for me to delete anyone who has been sent a confirm message until they are confirmed.

If you still don’t get on, you’ll need to contact your ISP and see if they are blocking Aweber and emails from Lindee G Embroidery.

Also, check your spam folder and then review the 4 most likely reasons for not getting emails (I’m sorry but I can’t fix them for you) and register again. Also, it might be that your request did not get processed (try again).

The 4 most common reasons for not receiving confirmation emails:

• You mistyped your email address
• The confirmation went to your SPAM folder
• Your ISP blocked the email (call your provider to unblock Aweber and emails from Lindee G Embroidery.)
• You’re using an email service that requires new senders to confirm themselves.

Using an auto-responder system like this, I will not get this message. You should not use a system like this for lists. Set up a separate email account with Google Gmail or something for all your subscriptions.

Your email is your business so if you change it or want to use a different email for either your shopping cart account or the newsletter, you can update it at any time.

• For the shop, just log in and update your email. Be sure it’s correct though or you won’t be able to log in!
• For the newsletter, the easiest way is to click the update subscriber info link in the newsletter. Once again, check your typing to make sure it’s correct.

By the way, if you’ve accidentally created two shopping cart accounts with different emails, you won’t be able to set them to the same email.

All shopping cart accounts must have their own unique email.

If you have an email system that prevents unconfirmed emails from arriving, you won’t. For example I often get emails like the one below that are sent from someone who has registered either with the email newsletter system or the shopping cart but has not white listed those emails:

I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.

To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.

If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.

Click the link below to fill out the request:

>https://webmail.pas.earthlink.net/wam/addme?a………

And guess what? I don’t click these links to confirm them.

If you have such an email system, it is your responsibility to manage it correctly. I suggest you set up a gmail account for your on-line business and not filter it if it is too hard for you to manage another system.

There’s no reason you can’t.

BUT…All the exercises and screen shots are based on Generations so if you’re trying to learn to digitize while you’re trying to learn a digitizing program, it might be pretty overwhelming.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This course comes with extensive videos in QuickTime format. Windows 10 no longer provides support for QuickTime and the videos will not run on Windows OS greater than 8. There are currently no plans to update this course.

No.

You must either already own Generations or purchase it from another source; we do not sell or provide support for Generations software.

There are several short videos embedded in my PDF e-book, The Anatomy of a Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer and Become a Better Embroiderer. These videos require Apple QuickTime to be installed and operational on your computer. The videos won’t play on a mobile device.

If you’ve downloaded and installed Apple QuickTime (free on the Apple website for Windows users and should come on a Mac), then make sure it works by playing a video. If so, then it is installed properly.

If not, check Apple’s website for troubleshooting techniques. Or, if you have a Mac, schedule an appointment at the genius bar.

I can tell you that the videos do work on up to Windows 8 (I haven’t test 10) and it works on my Macs. Unfortunately, I can’t troubleshoot your computer; there are just too many variables.

• Download QuickTime for Windows
• QuickTime Support

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Windows 10 has discontinued support for QuickTime. The few short embedded videos in the ebook will not work on Windows 10. These videos are not vital to the book’s content and are just “virtual sewout” video captures. I’m looking into possible solutions.

That depends… Where did you order it from?

DIGITAL DOWNLOADS FROM LINDEE G EMBROIDERY

Most orders placed from our shopping cart are instant downloads. Once you download it, it will be somewhere on your computer.

Downloadable items are not emailed. The shop will email you a confirmation and to get your designs, simply log in and download them.

Downloads are available immediately after paying. If your order included a product that needs to be shipped, your downloadables may not be immediately available and may require attention from the shop admins.

PHYSICAL PRODUCTS FROM LINDEE G EMBROIDERY

Products that must be shipped are often shipped the same day. There may be delays if we are traveling or over holidays.

If you downloaded the zipped version instead of the PDF, you’ll need to unzip it first. There are apps for your iPad that will do that.

Please note that the embedded QuickTime videos will not run on a mobile device.

Yes, we do.

Most products are available in a packaged version (multi-format CD in a slimline DVD case) for retail sales at wholesale pricing if you qualify.

Please contact us for further information.

Yes, we do.

Most products are available in a packaged version (multi-format CD in a slimline DVD case) for retail sales at wholesale pricing if you qualify.

Please contact us for further information.

Possibly.

Teaching is not just the time involved in front of the audience. It involves many, many hours of preparation plus travel and any extra time and expenses incurred for that travel.

If I think it’s worth my while, then yes.

A good way to take classes with me is through Craftsy. Check out my Craftsy page to see all the classes I teach along with others I recommend.

Possibly but you must be will to pay private lesson rates!

Teaching is not just the time involved in front of the audience. It involves many, many hours of preparation plus travel and any extra time and expenses incurred for that travel.

If I think it’s worth my while, then yes.

A good way to take classes with me is through Craftsy. Check out my Craftsy page to see all the classes I teach along with others I recommend

No. As a solo-preneur, I focus on what I do best (plus what I have to do). I sure do miss all my amazing artists I had at Cactus Punch!

Yes.

I charge an hourly rate and require a credit card up front unless you are a confirmed client. I am not cheap and I don’t work for free. I also do not provide quotes.

I track my time carefully and I work as efficiently as I can. You can improve that efficiency by providing high quality artwork.

Once the design is digitized, I will send you a rendered (“3D”) version of the design for you to review. Once you OK that, I will test sew it.

Once test sewn, I’ll send you a scan of the sew-out. When that is approved, I’ll charge your credit card and send you the files.

Unless you specify otherwise, you’ll get a PDF worksheet for the design and a DST file. Any other tasks (converting, coloring, etc.) will be charged by the time taken. The same hourly rate applies to the entire project, no matter the task.

Learn more about custom digitizing.

The primary reasons coupon codes may not work are:

• The coupon was applied to the wrong product. Some coupons are product specific and if you try to use it with a different product, nothing will happen.
• Most coupons are set up so that they can’t be applied on an already discounted product.
• Some coupons don’t play well with others. If you have two coupons to use, you may need to do two separate checkouts.
• Coupon codes must be typed in EXACTLY! They are case sensitve and character sensitive. In other words, “Welcome Back” is NOT the same as “welcomeback” – you must match every letter. Try copy and paste.
• The coupon has expired.

After recent software upgrades to the most current versions of php on the back end, a handful of people have reported that the checkout process never completes (“spinning icon”).

This is beyond my control but not beyond yours. Quit your browser and reopen or try a different browser.

No.

I assume when you’re asking about an equal or lower price, you mean the original or regular price since there isn’t any price lower than free…

Oh, whenever I feel like it!

Hey, I’m pretty much a one-woman shop here and there’s lots of stuff to do! I do try to post a new one each month but it might not make it up on the first of the month.

And that’s a good reason to sign up for the newsletter–email you and let you know when a new freebie is available!

Because this site is my income and it doesn’t run for free!

I pay for hosting and for newsletter services. I had to buy my embroidery machine, software, and computer. I pay retail for my supplies (stabilizers, thread, fabrics, etc.).

It takes a lot of time to create new designs, prepare them for sale, and upload them to the shop. I deserve to be paid for my services.

Yes, I enjoy what I do but this isn’t my hobby, this is my business.

These were free at one point but have expired.

Things don’t magically reshuffle in the shopping cart; I have to manually move them. And I usually feel like I have more urgent things to do since I’m pretty much a one person shop.

Also, a few freebies are seasonal repeats and it’s just easier to keep them in the freebies section. There are always new visitors who haven’t downloaded these yet.

No.

That’s extra labor and cost for me. They’re only free if you can download them.

Because it’s only fair I know who’s downloading my designs.

In the previous two shopping carts I used, all downloadables were stored in your account so you could redownload later.

With this one, only purchased files are stored. You can skip the checkout process for freebies but no invoice is generated because you didn’t pay anything. And that means no product information is stored either.

If you’re using a coupon code to purchase a product that reduces the item to zero, that item will be stored for future retrieval.

Only products that display the “free download” button won’t be stored. Back them up! I won’t resend them!

When you’re ready to check out, you’ll see a small field called “coupon” just to the left of a button named “SAVE.”

Enter your coupon code here, or better yet, copy and paste it straight out of the email.

Then click the Save button to apply it. You’ll see that the coupon amount has been applied and your order total is recalculated.

Continue along with the checkout process.

Passwords are sent automatically by the shopping cart system, not by me personally.

These emails get generated immediately but you may not receive them for several reasons. They are small files and should be received in minutes but your provider may delay them for various reasons.

Please check to see that you do get emails from the shopping cart such as order confirmations. (Newsletters DO NOT come from the shopping cart, they come from an entirely different system).

If you don’t get emails from the cart, then you won’t get password requests either. (Curiously, I’ve noticed that a high proportion of those who report this problem have email addresses at bellsouth.net)

Reasons for bouncing/not receiving include

• you have not “white listed” the shopping cart email address (if you don’t know how to do that, ask Google)
• your mail box is too full
• they are going into a spam/junk folder

If you are not getting purchase confirmations, account setup confirmations, or new passwords check the following:

• You entered your email address correctly when setting up your account
• You have white listed the shopping cart email address
• Your mail box is not too full
• The emails are not going into your spam folder
• Your ISP is not delivering it in a timely manner or is blocking it as spam
• The server that hosts the shopping cart system has reached it’s email limit for the day (request a new one the next)

I cannot access your password; this is for your security and I cannot reset it.

If you continue to have problems, contact your internet or email provider.

As a last resort, I can manually rest the paassword and it to you. You can then log into your account and set it as desired.

Please allow me time to do this. I can’t do it from my iPhone and I don’t work 24/7/365 and I’m the only one who can do it.

The most common reasons for this are:

• Your order history is long enough that it now comprises another page. Check for a scroll button to see if there are more pages.
• You paid with PayPal without logging into the shopping cart first and your PayPal email is different than your shopping cart account email.
• You mistyped your email and created a new account.

In the case of the lattertwo, congratulations, you now have another account in the shopping cart and your new order is attached to that one and not your previous one. You’ll need to remember this in case you want to download previous purchases from the other account.

If you purchased an item and used Paypal and you weren’t logged in, then Paypal created an account for you using your Paypal information. Log in with that email (you’ll probably have to request a new password) to access those orders.

And, no, it’s not possible for me to merge your accounts.

For your own security, I do not have access to the passwords.

If you haven’t accessed your account since before mid September 2016, you’ll need to create a new password. The old shopping cart was migrated into a new system and for security reasons, none of the old passwords migrated. You’ll need to create a new one.

Be aware that the new cart requires a much more secure password than the old one. You may be aware of many security breaches of major companies. No one is immune so security measures are becoming more stringent.

Most people are able to create a password that meets the stricter requirements of the new shop. If you are unable to do so, contact me and I will have the system generate one for you.

Once you’re able to log into your account with that password, you may be able to create one that you prefer (it still must meet the shop’s security requirements) or simply let your browser remember your login for you.

I do not personally have control over how the password system works. The reason it’s so particular is because of the global increase in hacking.

If you requested a new password and you’re not getting it, review these reasons for not getting emails from the system: Why don’t I get emails after signing up?

Other common reasons:

• You’ve never set up a shopping cart account. Go here to set up an account.
• You entered your email differently than when you initially set up your account.

If you have had any trouble logging into the shopping cart and you have set up an account, the problem is most likely with your browser cache. I have been able to successfully login with shoppers’ logins when they have sent them to me after having problems. Clearing the browser cache should solve the problem.

Here is an explanation of what a browser cache is:

Web caching is the caching of web documents (e.g., HTML pages, images) to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag. A web cache stores copies of documents passing through it; subsequent requests may be satisfied from the cache if certain conditions are met.

If you are having trouble logging in, it is possible that your cache is storing your old information and that it is using it to attempt logon in favor of your new sign-in information, if you have changed your username or password, for example.

Here are some instructions on how to clear your cache.

Hopefully this will solve this problem. The browser makers should really address this, it seems to me.

Hacking websites is becoming more incessant. It’s no longer just the big corporations getting hacked!

Recent stats show that 40% of sites that hackers target are small businesses because they are generally less secure and thus easy prey. I’m doing my best to prevent that and part of that requires you to do your part by creating a secure password. This shop system requires a complex password; I didn’t arbitrarily set it up that way.

I realize there’s a balance between ease of use and providing adequate security so hopefully I won’t have to go to those measures.

In these days of identity theft, security is becoming more and more important. I’m doing my part and you have to do yours.

You may think just your account is no big deal (we don’t store any credit card info) but that entry could gain them access into the entire system and wreak all sorts of havoc, possibly deleting your entire purchase history. Do you have backups of all your online purchases?

Plus, they’ll have access to your email and whatever other data you have in there, which could eventually track them to credit card information.

Security is important for all us. Gone are the days when we could leave our doors and windows unlocked and have no worries that anything would go amiss.

Please contact me with the name of the design or collection you’re trying to download along with the format.

This can mean the file is not on the server or has the wrong name. I can generally fix it quickly when I have access to my computer.

You don’t need a PayPal account in order to purchase designs from our cart. Paypal is simply our payment processor and you can pay with a credit card, debit card or PayPal.

To pay with other than PayPal, just continue through the checkout process until you come to the PayPal page, then click on Don’t have a Paypal Account? and pay with your credit or debit card. (You can do this even if you do have a Paypal account!)

Want to see it in a video? How to Checkout without Paypal at LindeeGEmbroidery

First of all, the shopping cart is on a secure server.

The only people who can see that information are usually you and me. You, because you created the account and have the password, me, because I am the shopping cart administrator. If you share your password and login, then others can view it as well.

The phone number is useful because some of you have invalid emails and occasionally we need to contact you about an order problem.

Addresses are necessary when a product must be shipped. If you provide inaccurate information, you will not get your product! Believe it or not, one customer ordered a tension gauge and did not provide her address!

Besides, it’s really fun for me to see what cities and countries are represented.

For the most part, nothing is done with that information; it just stays in the shopping cart.

I occasionally mail invitations to shoppers who are not newsletter subscribers, but that’s it. It is NEVER EVER shared or sold to others.

Yes, we sell wholesale to qualified retailers. Wholesale prices are 50% of SRP and certain minimums are required. All orders must be prepaid with a credit card.

Most design sets are available on CD and packaged attractively in a slimline DVD case. The CDs are all multi-format and contain all common machine embroidery formats that support the design size. (ART, CSD, EXP, DST, HUS, JEF, PCM, PCS, PES, SEW, SHV, VIP, VP3, XXX) plus any support files such as templates, pattern, and instructions.

Note: ART is not a machine format and has been discontinued on sets produced after 6/2017. Our designs aren’t produced in Bernina software and any ART formats are simply conversions.

All CDs are produced on demand, we do not carry stock. Most orders can be shipped within 24 hours.

Other products (thread, accessories, etc.) may or not be available at full 50% wholesale or at all.

The site is not set up for wholesale ordering. Please use the contact form to send us an email, what your interests are and a phone number to get in touch. We can provide you with a digital catalog of current products.