This is Beverley Potter’s embroidery story. Thanks for sharing with us, Beverley!

If you have an embroidery story that you would like to share, email it to me at sue@omlembroidery.com.

It all started several years ago in 1998 after my dad passed away. It was sad losing my dad but he had left me a little sum of money which I didn’t want to waste and have something to remember him by.  I already had an ordinary sewing machine and made clothes for my two daughters and loved the idea of being able to embellish and personalize them more. At the time I was living in England and there was to be a big event in a city near me, a grand expo with all types of glorious sewing equipment, fabrics and notions. It was at this show that I made my purchase of my first embroidery machine a Brother Super Galaxy 2000 which I thought was marvelous. Technology was not so advanced as it is now but to me it was magic. I was able to purchase a couple of different cards with designs on and it came with software PE Designs 2, for the computer which was a 3.11 windows machine which seemed at the time so fast and capable. 

I dabbled a bit trying to do my own simple designs, to a little degree of success, but I used mainly designs on the pre purchased cards.

In 2000 after a year of complex problems we decided to leave England and start a new in France, which was an extreme adventure, living for 12 months in a small caravan then into a bigger building in a barn for three years until our completely renovated longere was finished.  

Everything went on hold, most of our belongings in storage for that time, so, when eventually I managed to get my embroidery machine unpacked and tried to start using it, technology had advanced, computer operating systems changed and unable to use the design software and new software to expensive to purchase I used it very little, unable to get the card reader to connect and communicate no way of transferring designs the machine, it became redundant and only used the sewing machine part when clothes needed mending.  

Fast forward to 2012 when we moved yet again this time to central France, this time our belongings were in storage for a shorter period of time.  By Christmas of 2012 our first granddaughter was born and I had the urge to start making things for her. Taking another look at my old machine sat in the corner not being used to its full advantage. We once again looked into the possibility of getting software to work, updating the software, I was able to get PE Designs 8, solved the problem of getting the designs on to the card reader and designs on to the machine.   The advancement of technology and perhaps the knowledge by the manufactures that there were people out there with perfectly good older models but unable to use them, helped getting the machine back into working order. I was able to produce some lovely items for my granddaughter with some beautiful designs purchased over the internet, being able to download with such ease. but not really got into designing my own designs.  After a couple of years, a couple of things broke on my machine my husband was able to repair and get working but eventually it became harder to get the pieces I needed for that machine to work,  after the speed controller went and a couple of other electronical pieces my embroidery adventure came to an end.

 I had become resigned to the fact that embroidery passion was over as there was no way I could afford a new machine,  But in Jan 2018 I was blessed, lucky to see an advert for a Innovis 4000d for sale in the south of France about a 2 hour drive, It was at a VERY VERY good price. The sewing machine worked but the owner had had a problem with the embroidery unit there was an error which came up and was unable to use the embroidery part of it. I asked several questions over the phone about the problem but the owner wasn’t to clear on the exact problem. She had been told by a local repair agent it would cast more than a new machine to repair and had convinced to her to purchase another newer model which she did. My husband and I took a chance and decided to go look at it even if we couldn’t get the embroidery part working the sewing machine side of it would be better than the other old sewing machine I have. Three hours later we were looking at the machine tried the sewing part good but as the language was in French didn’t fully understand the message showing when plugging in the embroidery unit and the owner didn’t want us to change the language over to English ( we would have put it back to French afterwards), she just wanted rid of it, it was taking up too much space!!. 

We parted with our 200€ and took it away. Another 4 hrs. later in the comfort of our home, Language changed and screwdrivers out my husband dismantled the embroidery arm cleaned it out of fluff and where there was a sensor stuck down, he freed it and its been working perfectly ever since.  Except for operator error of course.

Now I have pe designs 10 software and trying to learn how to digitize and so thankful that I found the OML embroidery university facebook page and the brilliant Videos on You tube. Trying to devote more time to it. As ever, life has its way of turning things upside down and in turmoil, Now entering in to another difficult period, another potential move either back to England, or to another part of France, separation from my husband with hopefully a swift and painless divorce, freedom from mental emotional abuse.  I hope to be able to continue with learning the process of digitizing and be able to be self-sufficient in the future.  I am enjoying being part of the OML family and have to admit I am AN OML video addict watching every video as and when I get the opportunity.   Sue and Don are such an inspiration and just love their   presentations