Oh Brother, Part I

Some of those amazing DREAM

machine features!

            Hello, y’all!  (That's an appropriate Nashville salutation.)  Some of our staff experienced that firsthand walking through the airport in Nashville on our trip to the Brother B2B conference a couple of weeks ago.   What were our thoughts about going?  Exciting!   Just like all of you, we were excited to find out what the deal is on THE Dream machine.  Believe it or not, dealers don’t know either.  It’s all very hush, hush.  I even tried to get something, ANYTHING, out of one of the presenters when she visited our store and nada.  Nothing.  It wasn’t happening.  So you can imagine how we felt about this trip with Brother unveiling their new Dream machine, as well an assortment of midlines in which a few TOL features have been incorporated into the machine and user interface.   

 

"Stay Awake" juice!

The Brother B2B conference was held over a period of 4 days with a multitude of  breakout sessions designed to provide the dealers with pertinent and exciting info on new machines and software.  First things first…a couple of people on our staff found it necessary to get started with a cup of Joe in the late morning hours.  Waking up at 2:30 a.m. to catch an early flight and gaining an hour in the day lends itself to an afternoon slump.  Some of us had to take preventative measures so we could keep our energy level up prior to an afternoon/early evening registration session.

Kathy is holding the large 9.5"X14" frame to illustrate

the size, and Heather is displaying our finished project

from the DREAM machine session.

To illustrate the "super-sized"

hoop--a hand comparison.

        

    

      

Moving on to Day 2.  It was exciting to find that our first breakout session was a demo project which highlighted the awesome features of the new Dream machine!  The first visual as we sat down was the hoop size.  One word for it—WOW!  The massive 9.5” X 14” was really impressive.  To illustrate the size, Kathy’s hand gives a size comparison in the hoop, and Kathy and Heather show they can easily fit both of their heads within the perimeter of the hoop.  Speaking of the hoop, this particular attendee was really impressed with the “gripper” sections around the hoop which are rubber areas designed for easier fabric hooping.

The DREAM machine's style is

familiar for Brother owners so it

definitely makes for an easy-to-use and

easy-to-learn machine upgrade.

Brother's Stability Plus

frame

           

      Next, we turned on THE Dream machine!  If you’re a current Brother machine owner, it’s a comfortable, familiar design.   Look at this beauty J .  It’s glowing.  The front label lists some of its highlighted features.  The 10.1” hi-def screen size is impressive along with its faster processing speed.  We’ve already talked about that gigantic hoop, so we’re moving on to the scanner—almost 2X as fast!   It’s a beautifully designed machine and notice that last software option on the screen…My Design Center.  The features in My Design Center were pretty impressive. 

Our class project

on the DREAM

machine

Our class project

as it was stitching out.

        We moved right along in the breakout session creating a custom design with stippling.  Here’s a pic of our design on the screen along with another one as our design is being stitched out.  It was super easy, super quick, and our sample will be on display next to THE Dream machine when it arrives in our store. 

       We experimented with the scanner and found the user interface in My Design Center very intuitive and very easy to use.  The Scanimation features were particularly impressive with designs, line drawings, and stippling.   The Brother website has a nice You Tube video highlighting the stippling and scanimation feature shown below: 

Hmmm…that sample in the vid looks pretty familiar, huh?!?!  ;)  .  To describe all the features for this awesome machine would be an incredibly long blog post, so I just narrowed down a few that we utilized and discussed while we were there:  That super large 9.5"X14" hoop, 10.1" screen, Stability Plus frame, JPEG to Stitch data, the ability to draw on the screen and convert to stitch data, and the Scanimation feature. Definitely impressive! Be sure to stop in when THE Dream machine arrives in our store, ask for a demo, and play around with “dreamy” machine.  If Brother can dream it, so can you!

           

     We’ll finish up this post today with plenty of inspiration pics that were displayed from this Breakout Session on THE Dream machine.  Click on any pic for a larger image.

This frame was used for

scanning images.

During class, we learned how to use the stipple

fill feature and "erase" it from the centered,

embroidery design.



Sample closeup.  What beautiful embroidery and stippling!



These three pics show variations of the same design with the default and changes as noted.

 

Playing around with some shapes and the

fill feature.

Border or no border--the decision is yours!

Stippling sample with wider and narrower

stitches.

Scanned and embroidered designs.

Various display samples using the same design.





Same overall look,

different effects.

 It was great to see the same embroidery design stitched several times with various effects applied to the same, overall design as seen in the remaining pics.

That's all for now!  Stay tuned for Oh Brother, Part II.  In the meantime, Happy Sewing from your friends at Pocono Sew and Vac!