Sue E. Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Originally posted by lbuvens Where in the CQ Manual is there anything about using Autosketch? It is not in the CQ Manual. There is another manual, the Pattern Manual, which discusses digitizing. This is on the S&D Stitches website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuvens Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Thanks!! I will check it out. Linda in Louisiana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherylUribe Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 My mind is reeling from this wonderful discussion! Great job Tina with expressing yourself and explaining the CQ training. This will help me a lot when explaining CQ to customers. After seeing you in action with the CQ I fully trust and respect your knowledge of the unit. I also understand where your coming from with the other issue's you've described as well! As far as everyone else's comments and issue's I see where you are all coming from! Not having a CQ myself, this discussion has given me great insight. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and opinions. My brother in law is a pretty intelligent engineer and has designed some pretty sophisticated equipment. Computerized wind turbine's that generate power, textile computer printers, earthquake emergency switches for gas lines and much more, you get the picture... Anyway, he has attended quilt shows with me and has investigated all of the machines and computerized systems. In his opinion, by far APQS has the BEST machine's and CompuQuilter the BEST computerized system. I'll take his word for it. It also never fails when demonstrating machines at quilt shows the engineer's, mechanics etc. always stop by fascinated with our "Tools" and always compliment the wonderful workmanship of our APQS machines compared to others. Okay, I won't go off topic here we're talking CQ. I'll finish by saying that if APQS has chosen CQ to be their computerized system it must be the best. They would not settle! Thank you everyone! One other thing, I know that there are more CQ designs in the works with pretty prominent designers. I know when they are introduced, you will be very happy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 As far as my thoughts on this discussion, I usually don't say much but I do have to put my 2 cents in;) The Compuquilter has by far exceeded my expectations of what I was looking for... And I have only just scratched the surface of what it can do because I simply do not have the time to spend on it. Between children and a job I struggle to even spend a few hours with it every few days. But I do know that when I finally get the time to spend with it (In About 30 years!!!!!LOL) I am going to enjoy every minute of it. Oh and by the way I get to meet Deb Geisler in September... here in Portland and I am so excited she has some beautiful patterns and I have never had any problem with them....Maybe she will have a deal package??? Hint Hint!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azblondie Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Thanks for all the information from everyone. Being a pretty new (06-06) CQ owner. I have been really playing with my CQ motif's yesterday, and it took me from 10a to 3:30p to advance to the next (2nd) row. I was a bit frustrated. But it was a bunch of picking a design, lots of detail to the quilt and tracing every design to make sure it would fit. Now that all has been confirmed for size etc, in 1 hour I almost finished the quilt. It is a learning curve which I have to do or I will not be the best I can be. I want to thank Tina for all your help and patience with me and my questions. I too had the idea that we paid enough for the machine to have been given at the very least $500 worth of designs which should have been included with the purchase. But now that I have been working with my CQ...I want to reinterate this thought to a coupon good for $500 worth of designs. I would not know what designs I would need to buy at the initial purchase. E2E, motifs etc. Which designs or type of designs will best benefit my needs. Thanks for listening, and I truly DO already love my CQ. Tina did you get the SID done? Talk to ya soon. Have a great trip. Thanks again for all the great info ya'll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darlene Epp Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Originally posted by azquiltdiva I too had the idea that we paid enough for the machine to have been given at the very least $500 worth of designs which should have been included with the purchase. But now that I have been working with my CQ...I want to reinterate this thought to a coupon good for $500 worth of designs. The problem with a coupon is that APQS is not the owner of the designs. All patterns must be purchased from the designer, and APQS can't just buy them and stock pile them, like with actual paper patterns. Coupons would create a bookkeeping nightmare. Yes, it would be great if some of the good designer's patterns were included with the machine, but I can tell you from years of experience teaching, and running a mail order business, that you would still want to choose the designs. Your taste is not my taste is not your customer's taste. APQS used to include 10 patterns with the purchase of a new machine. Complaints. So, they had Golden Threads pick out the patterns. Complaints. No matter which patterns they included there were complaints. So now you get to pick your own, and you pay for them. It's just easier, less hassle, less bookkeeping. The CQ system costs less than the competition. Don't think that Statler includes all of those patterns for free. They have to pay the designer for them, and that cost is passed on to the consumer. I think a good idea would be to work with the designers and see if we can get THEM to include a coupon with each new system that's sold. That would get you started using their patterns, and you'd go back for more. But, that decision is up to the designers. I know that once I get my patterns digitized, I WILL be offering a coupon with each system sold. In this age of digitizing, encryption, e-mail, computers, it's getting more and more difficult for designers to maintain control of their own product. I've thought a lot of about how you'd handle this if you handed your design files over to someone else to sell. There has to be a very BIG trust factor in order for that to happen. I'm sure there are no designers out there that would just hand their files to APQS or any other company to sell for them, or to include with the machines because they would have NO idea if they were getting paid for them or not. So for now, you need to order from each individual designer if you want digitized patterns. If you want paper patterns, you can buy most any designer from most any distributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted July 30, 2006 Report Share Posted July 30, 2006 It has been said that alot of designers are going to Statler. Well, we are currently in the middle of digitizing patterns for Judy Allen, among others for CQ. They will also be able to be used with Statler, but our primary focus is CQ. John & I will also be digitizing my own designs for CQ (as soon as we get caught up with the other designs we need to concentrate on to get them loaded up on the new website.) So the short story is that we are trying to recruit designers to have us digitize for both systems. In addition, we are offering designers the opportunity to have their designs digitized for embroidery formats, for those that want 'quilt' designs, but don't have a longarm yet. Jessica Digi-Tech ~Digitizing & Pattern Printing - www.digitechpatterns.com Diversified Designs ~ Quilting, Embroidery & Screenprinting - www.jessicaschick.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted July 30, 2006 Report Share Posted July 30, 2006 For the most part I totally agree with Tina, as far as price of training being included, etc. But I do think that many CQ users would even agree to buy a manual that went into more detail about digitizing. I think they would also pay for additional training on CQ & that while as sales people everyone only has so much time to get a customer interested so many times 'bait' is put out there to catch interesest. It's kind of a no win situation on the sales end because if you say that it is difficult you will scare off some customers & if you don't say it takes more than a little effort you will tick off others. The bottom line is that I think that it is also upto a customer to say right up front that they don't want to be told, just what the sales staff thinks they want to hear. When going into a big purchase I always tell the sales person that don't give me any bs about how easy something is if it isn't & don't tell me that it will do things that it won't. I would rather know if there are some issues right up front. Before I bought my CQ I went & spent a whole day on it working in the program & my own programs so I knew very well what some of the issues might be & it also gave me time to think about how to work with those things before making the investment. I wanted to know that CQ would do most of the things that I wanted it to do & enough that I would be ok if it couldn't do the other things that I had in mind. There are a improvements that I think would be a huge benefit & make people a lot happier. 1) Not everything in the current manual is correct, or perhaps just not all there - we had to do some experimenting to get everything to work the way we wanted it to.- Not a huge deal for us, but if we didn't already have the computer knowledge & digitizing knowledge & went into it, I would've be really concerned. 2)An optional manual / class on-site for those customers who really think that they will be getting into digitizing their own designs. I don't think it should be included for free, because seriously, as more & more designs become available from professional digitizers, there will be more CQ'rs that will be just as happy to purchase designs. We have been digitizing for years for embroidery & I can tell you that if I can find a design that is a stock design that will work for under $25 I will buy it, because time is worth money & many people who think they want to digitize don't realize how long it really takes to do a really good design & have it stitch out properly on a variety of fabrics with a variety of threads & document all that info, as well as layout info - Let me tell you far more than 45 minutes - so anything under $45 is a steal if it's a well done design. Anyway, some people would like the extra training to be available. I'm sure Tina is running Herself ragged already trying to keep up with trainging demands & She's right even business people have families & we deserve to spend time with them also - Tina - This one's for you: I use to have workers who came to pick up/drop off supplies so that they could do sewing at home for a previous business & one day (6:30am) with no one else home - I came out of the shower to find 3 ladies standing in my kitchen (acrossed the hall from the bathroom mind you) waiting for me. They had let themselves in & were waiting for me to help them out. No appointment, no call & no consideration for closed doors apparently. That's when I started locking the doors before I went to get ready for the day & within a month I had a separate studio built so that I wouldn't be working right out of my house:o 3) Autosketch is not as user friendly as it could be & I know that it is inexpensive compared to other programs, but customers who are interested should know that there more user friendly & compatible programs out there to digitize in - however there is a price to be paid for them. We use a better (for us) program that we are use to, so that we can go faster & get better digitizing results. Ideally, CQ would take a note from some of the embroidery programs out there as far as ease of use & a few other little tweaks that would really benefit the quilters involved. 4) An optional design reader - like Statler has so that it will remember a stitched design. But again, as an option so that the base price would stay relative to where it's at. I bet they would sell a ton of readers. APQS machines are so superior to anything else out there, if they offered a reader for CQ how could anyone else compete! Anyway, overall, I still like CQ better than anything else out there & I'm sure as with everything - demand will drive mprovements & remembering that there are only so many hours in the day for any of us...so maybe these improvements are in the works & just need a little more time. I would love to be able to offer more training on CQ & for digitizing. Maybe once we have all of our ducks in a row that will be possible. It's just not practical right now - again...only so many hours in a day. Tina, remember there are many of us who totally sympathize with you & the demands of your career. Saying "no", "not now" is completely ok. You need to have a life also. Jessica www.digitechpatterns.com ~ Digi-Tech Pattern Digitizing & Printing www.jessicaschick.com ~Custom Quilting, Embroidery & Screenprinting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APQS Posted July 30, 2006 Report Share Posted July 30, 2006 Hi Mary I just read your post about tracing out the design without stitching to make sure it was in the right place before actually stitching it. Thats one way to do it, but a more visual and quicker way would be to use Boundaries. You can plot as many or as few points to bring up the outline of the block and then resize the motif to fit. Its really reassuring to see on the screen how it will stitch out. Sue in Australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APQS Posted July 31, 2006 Report Share Posted July 31, 2006 Hi Jess I read all your comments with interest and am excited to hear there is someone else designing patterns for CQ - when will yours be available? Regarding the manual and corrections and improvements to the CQ system, I and the Aussie ladies have had some great ideas which we have passed on to Stan and some of those he has already implemented and others he is working on. He strongly encourages anyone who thinks they have an improvement to the manual or the system to contact him and detail their thoughts - as the users we know what we want and as the designer he can work on ways to give us what we want. I am sure he would appreciate you emailling him privately with your suggestions. What is the design reader - is it hardware you can buy and Stan would write software for or just software? You mentioned that Autosketch is not the best drawing program for us. Which one do you use and can you tell us the benefits. Also would you mind saying which drawing tool you prefer arc, fitted curve. The polyline sketch is my favourite on the tablet PC. I enjoyed reading about your "visitors" when you got out of the shower - unbelievable! Thanks for posting I found your message very interesting - Now off to check out your website. Best wishes Sue in Australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted August 2, 2006 Report Share Posted August 2, 2006 Sue, Our site is up now, but we expect to have the first designs available by the beginning of next week -hopefully. They will be loaded up as fast as we can get them approved (for the other designers) & as soon as I get my own done. So the site will be rapidly growing over the next couple of months. A reader, is just a generic term for the component of a machine that recognizes what you are doing & records it (like Statler being able to remember what you've just sewn out). I really like that idea. The only thing is that you better be sure that you've sewn really accurately, or what you put in, is what you get out. So actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I would personally be more comfortable with digitizing from the computer, then I can make sure I'm dead on. Although, I wonder if Statler's reader allows you to make edits once it has recorded what you've sewn. That would be good. We use a combination of software programs that come from both the drafting & graphics world, mainly because we are more comfortable with the programs that we've been using for a decade & are more compatible with our embroidery digitizing program. I like the AutoCad software better than Autosketch, but for most CQ users Autosketch will do what you want it to do for occassional digitizing. It's just not the most user friendly program & it feels really clunky to me & when we are using it all day long & want to be able to digitize as fast as possible while maintaining quality, we just like the other combination of programs better. Personally, we like Adobe products, but everyone has their own program preferences, depending on how much time, money, skill is involved. So I should've been more careful with my statement about Autosketch. It is probably just fine for 90% of users. Those who will occassionally digitize a design because they can't find or don't have access to exactly what they want, or they want to tweak an existing design. But it's just not a practical program what we are doing & what we've been use to. I am trying to get use to using it more often, just because if someone has an issue with something, I want to be able to talk in the same language of command names that they are use to, so that the communication is easier, so maybe I will find features that I haven't explored yet & will find that I like better for some tasks, just not the case so far. My favorite tool is the equivelent of a fitted curve. Although, I love our align & distribute commands when it comes to making layouts & getting designs symetrical & aligned properly, pre-CQ program. Thanks for your interest. I will email you when we load up & have our first designs ready for download. Jessica www.digitechpatterns.com ~ Digitizing & Pattern Printing for Computerized Quilting & Embroidery www.jessicaschick.com ~ Custom Quilting, Embroidery & Screenprinting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APQS Posted August 2, 2006 Report Share Posted August 2, 2006 Thanks for answering my questions so well, can't wait to see the designs on your site. Sue in Australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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