OML Embroidery

Lots of people say that there is not enough time in the day for embroidery!  I fall into that category as well, there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day!  I have 10 million projects that I want to do, and I have ideas in my head that I need to do!  So many ideas, so little time.  On the bright side in my life, I do get to do embroidery all day – we create and embroider patches, so my day is filled with embroidery!  And I absolutely love it!  Some days, I really just want to sit and digitize all day.  I “work watch” movies and TV and listen to music while I digitize,  and I do find it relaxing as long as there are no time frames for my work to be completed.

So how do you fit in time for embroidery every day?  Here are a few ideas to make a bit of time to add in some embroidery time:

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY.   A little learning each day adds up in the end.  I do this every day – whether I learn something new about the program, a new way of doing things, a new process or using a new thread or style properly.  Something little each day adds up to good working knowledge in the end.

SET SOME QUIET TIME:  I know this is hard for everyone, including me, but I try and set a few minutes each day for some quiet time to give my brain a rest.  During this quiet time, I usually turn to embroidery digitizing.  Start off small  with even 20 minutes and work up from there.   You may not be able to finish a whole design, but you can at least work on it.

LEARNING IS IMPORTANT:  to make good use of your time and learn your embroidery program – if you get a feel for what you are doing then you will have much less frustration in general working with embroidery.  I do suggest that people know the program before they start working on a project.

KNOW YOUR PROGRAM:  no matter what software you are using, get to know the program as much as possible before starting a project.  I get a good feel for a new embroidery program, and then take a learn- as-I-go approach to it.  I know most of the tools, and if i want to do something and I can’t figure it out, instead of trying a whole bunch of things I will always look it up on the Help guide and find the right way the first time.  This saves a ton of frustration and makes learning happy.

SET GOALS:  I set personal goals for myself every day – the things that I want to accomplish in the day – and that always includes a bit of learning time – whether on Embird, Tajima DG15 Photoshop or any other program that I use.  They don’t have to be huge goals, but something simple and workable.  If you don’t have enough time to finish a whole project, set the goal to get one part of it done, and the next day another part until your design is finished.

So remember, you are never too old to learn something new!  Go for it – set yourself out a bit of time each day and start tackling that embroidery to-do list and feel accomplished.

HAPPY DIGITIZING!