“Compositions”-Ken Parsons Designs-Machine Embroidery

I returned some days ago from the Original Quilting and Sewing Expo held at Kansas City, MO. The show was superb and I met lots of online friends. There were a lot of “lurkers” from the Martha Pullen board and I am so glad to now place a face to the names. My greatest joy was to see one of the final “Stitches” competition entries with my Tambour Lace designs in the Best use of embroidered lace category. As soon as I can, I will post some pictures. I did manage to bring home a “bad” virus which has left me with no voice but hopefully this weekend and no talking might help.

One of the most interesting software that I came across at the show was “Compositions” by Ken Parsons. Ken has been involved in the machine embroidery and fashion industry for quite a while now and it was an honor to meet him. A pleasant personality and quite a charmer, Ken showed me some of the aspects of his new software. The software is not a digitizing software rather I would term it as an editing software. It is project based which allows you to select from a wide range of preset options of fashion or home decor items…such as a table cloth, skirt, neckline etc etc and after entering the dimensions one can then bring in several designs to place prior to ever taking them to the embroidery machine. This lets one see beforehand what the finished project will look like and be able to determine the amount of thread, stabilizer etc  needed as well as placement of all the designs. One can read more about it at Ken’s website. The software will be launched after November 30, 2006. Ken’s website is: http://www.kenparsonsdesigns.com/software.html

What really interested me with the software was that now I can determine the setting of all my designs, making the outfit or the home decor item as fancy as a professionaly created item. No more is one limited to only embroidering on areas that are preset (by watching others) but rather one can go the distance in show casing one’s own individuality. I hear the software is not very terribly expensive….believe me I was shocked when I heard the price. It does promise to be a “must have” software.