Every designer/digitizer is different & so is the quality of their work. Most offer free samples so you can try their designs before purchasing. I have downloaded a lot of free things that did not stitch out good or did not have a very professional looking quality about them. Therefore I wouldn't purchase from that source. Lots of people play around with the decorative fills rather than the smoother satin stitch fills. I don't care for the little circles, zigzags, waves, scallops & etc. It takes longer to stitch, uses more thread & has a homemade appearance/look to me. You can't tell if you are downloading this or if is used in what you purchase until you sew it out.

Namebrand companies are good & I believe are tested thoroughly before being marketed. Individuals don't have to go through those same channels. Some designs you see CHEAP are brandname work, copied & resold....Cheaper but illegal. If you see a design pkg, of say Pooh, too cheap to sound true, somebody else is profiting off the origional manufactor. Same goes for alphabets. Brother, Pfaff, Singer, Cactus Punch & etc have alphabets that are being copied & resold. Some people may make their own CDs from fonts on their computer too & sell them. I guess that is legal.

Thank you so much for all your information on both of my posts - very helpful!! I really appreciate it.

You can't go wrong with the machine manufacturer and well known sewing sites for free designs. As Joan said, it can be a hit and miss proposition for some free designs from independent designers. You learn by stitching out designs as test runs as to who is and is not a good digitizer or designer.

I would use the designs on your machine for now to learn and practice machine embroidery (there is a lot of material to cover concerning fabric, stabilizers, and needles combinations with what thread to use) and then build to the downloaded and purchased designs.

Hi!
You can try our free of charge designs at www.cross-stitch-patterns.us
Dima Shapkov.

Here is a link that might be useful: Machine Embroidery Designs