Today I'm sharing an EQStitch Tutorial for those that have EQStitch, an add-on software program for EQ7 users. This is also the 2nd part to the previous tutorial where we created a witches hat that will be combined with text in this tutorial.
First, I want to ask if you complete this tutorial and have any feedback I hope you will email me 
or leave a comment. I will happily incorporate feedback into this tutorial, hoping to make it clearer in content and easier to follow. But please let me know specifically which steps you have problems with and any particulars that can help me make appropriate changes.
EQStitch is easy to use and you can use most fonts that you have on your computer (but not all make for good machine embroidery designs and some can't be digitized within various embroidery software packages). The functionality in EQStitch is quite robust, so I want to encourage all EQ users that enjoy machine embroidery to play and create. Possibilities are endless.
EQStitch comes with an online Help, Lessons and Video Tutorials that I highly recommend you take advantage of. For text, here are a few resources that help you learn how to digitized text for machine embroidery:
Help Page "5 Tips on using the Text Tool
Help Page "How do I use text in my design"
Lesson 5, for EQStitch, Using the Text Tool
Tutorial video, for EQStitch, 14 Use the Text Tool
For purposes of the tutorial, which I'm sharing with you today, we will focus on learning the "basics" of creating text, as well as how to combine a text design with the witches hat design, created in part 1 of this seasonal tutorial. We'll also learn a few tips on sizing your design for a particular project.
There are endless possibilities for how you can layout text in machine embroidery using EQStitch:
More advanced EQStitch users can use the Text Tool (and other tools) to create text on curved lines, vertical text, straight line, monograms and more.
In addition to being quite flexible for how you want to layout your
text in EQStitch, there are also many other ways you can use text to create a
unique design:
-
different size text and
different fonts
-
different colors
-
designs based on wingdings
-
freehand drawing of text
-
trace an image of a signature,
or other handwriting
-
shaded fonts
The possibilities are endless and can be great fun to add text to your
designs, create quilt labels, WordArt, Inspirational Quotes, Monograms, Names,
Machine Applique’ Text, Banners, and so much more.
While not every font can be digitized (e.g. not all wingdings work), or
work for a specific project. For
example, a fine line font may look cute when designing, but gets lost when
stitched on terry cloth or some knits.
Thus, I encourage you to do a test stitch out first of the font you are
considering and next your actual project.
Overtime, you’ll form your own opinion on your favorite fonts for
machine embroidery and what type of materials each font works best with.
Machine
embroidery digitizing software will allow you to edit your text message, during
the design process, but each software package can have a different approach
when designing text. EQStitch treats the
font as a patch, which can be filled with stitching, or even applique’ and once
you convert your text to a patch, you can not edit your text message, but you
can edit the shape of each letter, Edge and Fill Settings, Color and more. Plus, the ability to save your designs to a
custom library makes EQStitch very easy for using previously created designs,
as well as combining designs.
Once you have your text message ready, EQStitch is quite easy to use to
edit the shape as you digitize ( (e.g move the nodes of a patch to alter the
the shape, the angle, etc.).
I hope you’ll follow along with me, and use this tutorial to ultimately
add text to the witches hat we previously created in part one of this
tutorial. While, we are going to do some
basic text digitizing, we’ll build on this exercise with future tutorials that
I plan to share. Of course, as always,
I’d appreciate your feedback on this tutorial as I’d be happy to make changes
to make it easier to use, as well as feedback on how you would like help with
text that I will try to incorporate into future tutorials. As such, feel free to leave a comment on this
blog post or email me directly.
I also hope this tutorial will inspire you to have fun and create with
EQStitch, as the possibilities are endless.
Now, let’s begin with part 2 of this seasonal tutorial for the Witches
Hat with text.
STEP 1: Restore Default Settings
Open EQStitch
Reset your EQStitch
settings to default settings, to ensure we are using the same settings in our software:
Cancel any prompts that
may ask you to create a new file, or open an existing file.
Click FILE >
PREFERENCES>RESTORE and click the RESTORE DEFAULT SETTINGS button. This will result in prompting you to close
and restart EQStitch. Click OK to
confirm.
STEP 2: Open Project File for
the Witches Hat with Text Tutorial
Open EQStitch: Double click the
EQStitch icon on your desktop. The Tip
of the Day box will appear, but click CLOSE, as appropriate.
In the Project Helper box, click OPEN AN EXISTING PROJECT and click the
name of the project for Part 1 of this tutorial (LESSON WITCHES HAT). Click OK.
STEP 3: Define your Drawing Board and Hoop parameters
On
the top toolbar, click the WORK ON STITCHING button. 
Click STITCHING>NEW
DESIGN>EMBROIDERY. You will see three
tabs along the bottom of the screen:
Tracing Image tab is for creating designs traced from an image (e.g.
clipart, photo, scan of your drawing, etc).
The Artwork tab is where the drawing of your design will occur. You will
select thread color and stitch properties on the Stitch tab.
On
the top menu bar, click on STITCHING=>DRAWINGBOARD AND HOOP SETUP. Or on the Precision Bar, click the last button on the right, which is
for More Drawing Board Options. 
In the General options,
the Hoop Size box will allow you to select the brand of embroidery machine and
hoop size you will use for your machine and hoops. If your hoop size is not included in one of
the Standard Hoop Size options, you can define your hoop size using the Custom
Hoop Size option. For oval hoops, you’ll
simply need to define an area that can be stitched within your hoop size. To verify, you can print the design and then
place the printout inside of your actual hoop that you plan to use.
Note: The hoop size you select will become the area
you can use to draw your design in using EQStitch. It helps you to size your design to the
actual hoop size you may wish to stitch it out in. But as you save files to a
Custom Library, for future use, you will once again be able to quickly adjust
the size of your design for your hoop size.
Just remember that it is always best to set your hoop size at the beginning of any
project vs after digitizing it, as changing a hoop size can change the size of
your design (and may need to manually make changes to the size again).
After you make your selection,
click OK. While these selections vary,
based on your machine and hoops that you may have, for this exercise, here are
my settings that which I will use to start this exercise (I'll intentionally change them later, as part of this exercise so you can also learn the implications of making a change during your design process).
WARNING: Changing your hoop size after you have
created your design can change the size of your design. Also, items that may be copied to your
clipboard are erased when you change your hoop size, so it is best to make
these changes at the start of your project. There are steps you can take to
ensure this does not cause a problem with how you may wish to stitch out a
design, but it is best to initially setup your Drawing Board and Hoop Setup
options before you begin creating your design in EQStitch.
While on the Drawing Board
and Hoop Setup, click on EMBROIDERY EDGE SETTINGS and select RUN STITCH for the
Edge Style. Set Edge Length to 2.5 vs
the 3.0 default.
While still on the Drawing
Board and Hoop Setup, click on the EMBROIDERY FILL SETTINGS and select BRICK
WALL for the Fill Settings.
Click OK.
STEP 4: Prepare for Text
Click on the Artwork Tab on the bottom.
First,
we will need to enable the Text tool
on the Drawing Tools menu, as our software has been restored to default
settings, which do not include certain tools.
Click the CUSTOMIZE
button
at the bottom of the Drawing Tools menu and then click ADD/REMOVE and a
menu box will appear.
Click the TEXT tool, to check it.
Click anywhere on the ARTWORK tab to close the menu box. You now have the text tool on your Drawing
tool menu.
STEP 5 Create Text
On the Artwork Tab
Click
on the Text tool
Click in the upper left area of your Artwork table and using the click,
hold, drag and release with your left mouse draw a box.
Use your mouse to grab the nodes of this box to enlarge, as appropriate. Click, hold and drag various nodes, until
your text box covers the majority of the area that will fit within your
hoop. This creates the canvas for typing
text in EQStitch. You can create a
unique box for each font that you may want to use, but in this tutorial we will
use the same font for the entire text.
Click twice inside the box to get into typing mode. A flashing vertical line indicates you are in
typing mode. If this vertical line
should disappear, click inside the typing box again.
While inside of this box
you can change any of the text options that you wish (e.g. font, size,
etc.). If you exit the edit mode, by
being active inside of this box, simply click the text tool bar and double
click inside of the box to get back to the mode to edit your text. You can also edit this mode and change the
size of the box by clicking outside of the box, then clicking the pick tool and
then clicking on the box. You can now
grab the box and drag corners or sides to change the size, as appropriate.
The text
menu bar will appear:
Select
the Arial Font and set the size to 18.0mms.
Type the words “I will trick-o-treat for fabric” or “Happy Halloween”
or any text you wish to use or your Witches Hat project.
As long
as you are in text mode, you will continue to see a flashing bar where ever
your mouse is, inside of the text box.
STEP 6 Convert Text to Patch
Once
you have completed typing and formatting your text, you need to return to
“select” mode so that you can “convert to patches”. Click the outline of the text box to get into
“select mode”. The flashing bar inside
of the text box will no longer be visible.
Click the convert to patch button
Now you can edit each
letter individually or drag a box around a word and edit it. The text box will now disappear.
STEP 7 Format Text for Stitching
Click on the STITCH tab.
The text is now ready to
set the color.
Click the Set Thread tool
along the right of the screen. The Thread Color
palette will display.
Click on a black thread in the Thread Color palette.
Click the Spray Can Tool
Use your mouse to set the color for the text fill and text outline for
your entire text, changing everything to stitch in black.
You
may need to use the zoom tools
to zoom in, zoom out, refresh and/or fit to screen as you set the
thread color.
STEP 8 Simulate Stitching and make Final Edits
Click
the Simulate Stitching tool
Click the play sewing
forward button (arrow point righted) to watch your text stitch out online.
This is a good time to make any changes you feel appropriate.
save to sketchbook button
STEP 9 – Save to Library
Click LIBRARIES >
STITCHING LIBRARY > SKETCHBOOK
Click on the text and
click the SAVE button, located at the bottom of the Stitching Libraries menu
box.
Click on the MY LIBRARY
button. Scroll down to the library you
created in Part 1 of this Tutorial, the “Tutorials” and click on the SEASONAL –
FALL library to open it.
Click PASTE to add your
text to this library.
Click the SAVE LIBRARY
button and CLOSE.
Click
your SAVE button
your design file, as a backup step. Your text is now in your Custom Library,
where you can later use it on future projects, as you wish.
STEP 10 – Combine Witches Hat
and Text
On the ARTWORK tab, click STITCHING > NEW DESIGN > EMBROIDERY
Click VIEW SKETCHBOOK
and the Project Sketchbook will appear.
Click on the STITCHINGS and the text for the witches hat. Click EDIT
The text will now appear on your ARTWORK tab.
Use
the Pick Tool
to draw a box around all of your text (left mouse, click, hold, drag
and release).
Click EDIT, COPY to copy the text.
view sketchbook edit the withes hat paste
format, as appropriate.
Click COPY and click CLOSE.
On the Artwork Tab, use the Pick tool to click, hold, drag a box around
all of the text.
Use your Pick Tool to draw a box around
parts of the text to move them around to how you want them to appear.
Click your SAVE button
to backup you design.
Click on the STITCH tab.
Click the SORT THREADS button. 
Use your Simulate Stitching to verify how your design will stitch out,
before you send it to your machine. You
may need to reset your thread colors, to ensure you used the same black in both
of the designs that you combined.
Click Simulate Stitching > play sewing forward and watch how your
design stitches out. If the Simulate Stitching does not stitch out the way you
want, you can go back and edit, or repeat this tutorial from the beginning, but
it should reflect a good sample stitch out that simply needs to be tested on
your project. Depending on the material
you are stitching it out on, you may need to make changes to the underlay, or
you may personally want to tweak the design to make it your own.
Step 11 – Finalize the Size of
your Design for your project
This is a step that can be applied to any EQStitch project, before you
format your design to stitch out on your machine. As design sizes can change when you change
hoop sizes, when you pull a copy of a design from a Library, or combine
designs, it can be worthwhile to confirm what overall size your design will
stitch out, as well as what the text size of a given letter will stitch out (to
ensure it is legible on your project).
For the current Witches Hat and Text, I want to stitch out an overall
design that is approximately 4.5x4.5 and
text to be approximately 1”.
Using the ruler, I realized that I should be using a larger hoop for my
design, as it was filling the 100mm hoop and would only provide me a 3.75”
x 3.75” stitch out. I went back to my Artwork Tab
>Stitching>Drawing Board and Hoop Setup
The hoop options for my machine are:
small hoop: 72x50mm (2.8”x 1.9”)
medium hoop: 100x130mm
(3.9”x5.1”)
large hoop: 145x255 (5.7”x 9.6”)
mega hoop: 150 x 400mm (5.9” x 15.74”)
Jumbo hoop: 260x400 (10.2”
x 15.74”
As the project that I want to create, using this design, will best be
suited for my Large hoop, I change my
custom hoop settings accordingly. I now
need to use the Ruler tool and Pick tool to change the size of my design to
meet my project objectives of stitching out a design approximately 4.5” x 4.5”
And I want each text letter to be at least .50”, or more.
To check your text
size, click the RULER tool
and using your mouse (click, hold, drag) you can measure the size of
any letter, the overall width and height of your text, etc. And, you can do this for your overall
design.
If you want to make
changes to the size of your text or overall design, you would then use your
PICK tool
to draw a box around the item you want to change. You can then click on the nodes of that box
to reduce or enlarge your design as you wish.
Using the Ruler Tool, Pick Tool and Zoom tools I was able to fit my
design into a hoop that would support my project size, getting a design that
will stitch out ~4.5”x4.5” and letters will be about .6”.
Step 12 – Create Design File for
Your Embroidery Machine
To send to your machine:
Click STITCHING > EXPORT STITCHING FILE
A box will appear prompting you for
information as to where you may want to write this design file, as well as the
name and machine file format. If you are
not sure, this is where you may need to pull out your embroidery machine
manual. My personal steps are to save
this design file in two places:
1)
first
copy I place in the same workgroup that I have for this project on my computer,
should I want to make further design changes in the future, incorporate it with
other designs, or to simply use it again.
My file path is: c:\documents\My
EQStitch\Tutorial Exercises\
2)
USB
which I can insert into my embroidery machine.
Once the export of your file has been
completed, an EQStitch pop menu will appear and you simply need to click OK.
Of
course, remember to SAVE your EQStitch project file before you exit.
Again, you need to provide the SAVE IN
option the file path where you want to write your file, the FILE NAME, as well
as the SAVE AS TYPE that your embroidery machine will need to stitch out the
design. Then click the SAVE option.
The default path for saving projects in EQStitch and EQ7 is the same.
It should be \My EQ7\PJ7 \ Witches Hat and Text.
You could stitch this design out for a variety of projects, but I’m
thinking of using it on a bag, shirt, and maybe a mugrug. If you go thru this tutorial and have
feedback, please email me or leave a comment.
Of course, I’d also enjoy seeing photos if you stitch this out on your
machine.
Happy Digitizing with EQStitch!
You may also want to check out my list of favorite tutorials for EQ software, as there many sources for excellent tutorials that are a great way to plan and learn.
If you are an EQStitch user, I hope you will follow along with my new series of EQStitch tutorials and have fun, Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have any questions or feedback.
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