Machines Easily Arranged!
Pete, just be prepared to spend a few bucks on the machines. Fred has a couple of wonderful machines there. Most of the newer embroidery machines will sew as well. Just stay away from the real cheap ones, they don't do well and just lead to frustration. Am thinking of the little Brother Disney machine that Walmart sells. Babylock makes a machine called the Elure, which uses a memory card and the Elure Plus which has a USB connection. A lot of features for a good value, plus it has a 5 x 7 hoop, which is a good size.
With a good quality machine, you can concentrate on your project and not whether the machine will be giving your grief. A good used machine can be had from a reputable dealer, that way should there be problems, they'll be there to help you.
The logos you see are digitized. If you can run say Adobe Illustrator or other design program you can digitize a logo and designs. You scan it in or use a photo. Then you trace the design and fill in the areas with various thread colors and patterns. From there, it is saved to a floppy disc, specialized card (you can see that type of card in my machine's photo) or USB port. I use a program called Embird which allows you buy the modules you need. From using your type fonts to make lettering, to doing cross stitch designs, you can add what you want. Plus the program is reasonably priced compared to the 2-3K for the Viking, Pfaff, Babylock programs. Those are great, but pricey.
For the quilters here, there are even special quilt design programs for embroidery machines that allow custom topstiching patterns, and the patterns are endless.
