Bunnycup Embroidery

Long Time - No See

2011-03-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since we have done a blog update, mostly because I was not sure if anyone actually followed or read the blog or if it was getting any interest. If any of you are interested in seeing the blog continued, please let us know by posting a comment.

In the mean time, here is a sneak peek of one of our upcoming sets - a follow on set to our popular and recently released Raggedy Bears series!

Whats On the Drawing Board

2010-01-26T02:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Australia Day to all our Aussie customers. Australia Day marks the last day of the school holidays and we are very excited to have Bailey going into Grade 2 this year. After 7 long hot weeks, she is excited too to go back to school, start her 'work' and see her friends. I am personally just looking forward to a new true routine starting up. Last year was such a turbulent year for us that it will be a relief to find a new routine.

Today I just wanted to also give you a bit of sneak peek of our wonderful new set coming up later in the week. We have lots of wonderful new sets in the line up and I look forward to bringing you lots of new sneak peeks in the coming weeks!

Design Sharing - It's Piracy

2010-01-05T20:03:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to discus a very contentious issue with digitizers and that is design sharing. Design sharing or giving the designs you have paid for to friends, family, groups etc is illegal and is a form of piracy which is a federal offence.

It is all too often that someone will forward to thier friends the download links that they purchase and accidently hit reply instead of forward. From a digitizers perspective - this is just heart breaking. I can not talk for other digitizers but only myself.

I run Bunnycup Embroidery and digitize designs on my own. Bunnycup Embroidery is not a multi-national huge company but a privately owned business. In doing so, I pay very significant prices for artwork licensing and other business costs, these costs in total run into the hundred's of thousands of dollars a year. Not only that, but as it is a privately owned at home business, I personally sacrifice a great deal including family time, weekends, night times and any personal time to create this business.

By sharing designs, Bunnycup Embroidery is effectively robbed of a sale. This results in less income to cover the very significant business costs and makes my personal time in growing the business worthless. In the long run it will also result in price increases as sales are reduced.

Please bear this in mind when you offer to share designs and remember it is illegal. It breaks my heart when I find out (and I find out all too often) that people are illegally sharing our designs or even illegally reselling them. It also breaks my heart to have to post about situations like this. Design sharing is not fair, and offence, basically stealing and if serious enough be aware that we will take legal action.

A Long Time Between Posts

2009-11-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time between my blog posts. What a difficult year it has been. My dear Dad, William (Bill) Muir passed away on 26 September after losing his short battle with glioblastoma (brain tumor of the worst type). It has been such an emotional year and as a result I have not kept up with all I should including my posts. Life is slowly gaining a new sort of normal now so hopefully I will get back to working on the things that have put aside for this year.

I am looking forward to a whole new and hopefully uneventful and quiet year. An uneventful and quiet year hopefully will bring lots of fabulous new designs and new inspiration.

I would like to also take a moment to thank the embroidery world for all it's tremendous support this year during dad's illness. We received so many loving and kind emails and prayers that touched both Dad and myself. In today's ever increasing angry world, that kind and loving support meant the world to us and really helped develop an aspect on the fact that there is still a wonderful community of amazing people out there. So thank you - your support means more than I can ever express in words and gave me a revitalised appreciation of the nature of mankind.

So hopefully in the coming weeks I will start to update this blog on a more frequent basis with some interesting tips and chat on embroidery!

Whats On the Drawing Board

2009-09-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have not had a lot to post about lately - time is taken up significantly with family illness, work and family so today I thought I would just post a new sneak peek of whats on the drawing board. This week I am working away on Greek Alphabets and a Cute Croc set. So for now - just a quick sneak peek of what's coming up this week!!! Enjoy.

Autumn Whimsy's

2009-07-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

Life still continues to be crazy here and my blog updates are still too far apart. Dad is still holding in there but has a lot of ups and downs with his tumors and of course with school underway, there is always a lot of distractions. However, we continue to work madly away in the mean time on new releases. I just need to now divert more energy to administrative things like keeping our blog and gallery up to date!

Anyhow - my concentration lately has been on those wonderful upcoming holidays such as Thanksgiving, Halloween and my favourite season - Autumn (even though it is Winter here in Australia!!!). I just wanted to take a moment to give you a sneak peek of one of the sets I am working on - Swirly Autumn. I am having so much fun with this set - so I hope you enjoy the preview! And of course my thanks to Olivia for the absolutely inspiring artwork!

A Long Awaited Update

2009-07-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

It seems like forever since I have blogged and I apologize. With my father having taken ill, some things have slipped. The good news is that his treatment has been effective and we know we have some more time with him though he has new spots of brain cancer starting up. So my blogging could still be patchy.

In the mean time, I just wanted to post a sneak peek of our upcoming sets! I have two sets in progress at the moment, My Pet and Cuddly Kittens.

Also, I just wanted to add a tip! Be sure to keep your machines serviced regularly - it is amazing how well they run after a service. I just had my Janome 11000 serviced for the first time since I got it about 4 years ago.... I had noticed it getting louder and not as smooth. I have tended not to get my machine serviced as I can not live without it for a week, but it is now working brilliantly..... Personally, I think it actually calls for me to get a second machine so that I can afford to get them serviced more regularly given thier use.... That's what I am telling myself anyway.

For those of you in the US, have a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

Sneak Peek

2009-03-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

It is a very busy time for us personally at the moment with lots happening from my daughters birthday, to family illnesses, to some very, very minor surgery for me this week and topped off by an instore presentation coming up this Saturday so I have slowed down a bit the last few days with the digitizing and will also be a bit slow until this coming Sunday. So I just wanted to take a moment to post up a sneak peek of what I am in the process of working on until it is released (I do hope to get it up in the next day or so).

Needless to say, I am itching to get back to normal routine again as I have been so motivated the last months to digitize. But in the mean time, enjoy the sneak peek and I do hope to have it released in the next 1 - 2 days!

Creative or Not?

2009-03-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

I am just sitting here pondering the comments many people give me that I must be so creative to do what I do. I just wanted to take a moment to credit my wonderful illustrators Penny Johnson, Marisa Straccia, Olivia Kneibler, Angela Brown and the many other miscellaneous illustrators that I license artwork from. They are the truly creative ones who dream up concepts and make what we at Bunnycup special. Without their creativity and vivid imaginations, Bunnycup embroidery would be just another embroidery website but it is their talents that make Bunnycup designs stand out.

As for me being creative, I have to say that I personally would describe myself more as technical. I was a Chartered Accountant in my prior life (auditor and compliance specialist) if that can help paint a picture. Digitizing is a technical process of creating a data file from artwork though I suppose some reflection of creativity is seen in the way a design is digitized and the different stitch types and effects.

Anyhow, this post is just to say thank you to my wonderful illustrators who so tirelessly create wonderful illustration after wonderful illustration and terrific concepts. Without you, Bunnycup would not be what it is. So thank you.

Corrupted Downloads

2009-03-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

This week I would like to talk a bit about corrupted downloads. When downloading files, it is possible that the file gets corrupted in the download process and some information is 'scrambled'. What can result with embroidery designs is variety of problems but include:

- outlines being significant misplaced
- objects being misaligned in the design
- stitches being misplaced
- a file that will not open or unzip.

Often, because of a lack of education in respect to corrupted downloads, the customer blames the design and digitizer because a section of the design or outline is misplaced. Where, if the customer simply redownloaded the design, the issue is likely to rectify itself (and that the problem lies in the download not the actual digitized file).

If you have a design that is doing something you do not expect, it is recommended that you redownload the design again as redownloading will correct a corrupted download (unless you have the misfortune of getting two corrupted downloads in a row).

I also recommend opening the design in an embroidery software before stitching it out such as http://www.embird.com . A program such as embird will display the design on your computer before stitching it on a project and you will see if anything looks odd or it will tell you if the file is unreadable. In which case you can download the design again and see if something has gone awry before any heartache occurs on the machine.

Please also note that your internet connection plays role in the likelihood of a corrupted download. Dial up connections are often slower in downloading and as a result, increases the risk of corrupted or scrambled data. High speed connections, although not infallible, reduce the likelihood of corrupted downloads.

Sneak Peek

2009-02-09T02:02:00.000-08:00

I have again been remiss in neglecting my blog. The last weeks have passed very quickly with getting our little girl Bailey settled into Grade One at her new school. She has been doing a great job settling in though seems to be getting very tired at night. I have otherwise been very much motivated by digitizing the last couple of months and been very much tail down and digitizing like crazy to the detriment of updating my blog and gallery. I got my gallery updated last week (with many thanks to those customers who have contributed to the gallery) and this week I am back to updating my blog. Hopefully now everything is up to date, I can now motivate myself better to keep abreast of the more administrative side of things. Today, I just wanted to share with you an update on life in general and a sneak peek of our next set coming up called Baby Bluebird which is based on artwork exclusively licensed from the very talented Olivia from http://www.oliviaandco.com/

If you have not visited Olivia's website, be sure to do so. She has the most wonderful artwork for scrapbooking and I am very privledged to have exclusive licensing rights to her more recent work. Olivia's website has also undergone a face lift in the last weeks and is now looking absolutely wonderful so be sure to have a look!

Its A New Year

2009-01-15T15:26:00.001-08:00

A new year has sprung and I have been personally overwhelmed for the start of it with everyone home on the summer holidays. So I do apologise for a slow start to the blog this year and lack of posts. School starts up again in about 10 days so I should be able to finally find my new routine for a new year.

I have been very motivated with the start of the new year and all the possibilities ahead for new and wonderful sets and building up Bunnycup. Hopefully this year will see the implementation of our members section of our website which has been in the making for about 3 years now.

In the mean time, I wanted to post a quick sneak peek of this weeks upcoming release - a wonderful Easter Applique set great for boys and girls. I do promise to post more fun blog entries more regularly once the kids are back to school and routine starts again!

Merry Christmas To All

2008-12-23T02:07:00.000-08:00

It is time to say Merry Christmas to my many customers and get the stockings hung here. In just 4 hours, Christmas Eve is upon us here in Brisbane, Australia and we always start Christmas off on Christmas Eve with a church service followed by Christmas Eve dinner at my parents place. Our daughter is struggling to go to sleep with excitement.

I can not help but sit back and wonder where all of December went - each year it seems to go in the blink of an eye, though it is little wonder it speeds by with school Christmas events, the end of our school year and the commencement of the long summer holidays, Christmas preparations, Quentin also going on holidays, Christmas shopping - all on top of running an international business - it is exhausting looking back on the last month. But I am also excited to see a new year approaching with which I hold much motivation.

Anyhow, I would like to just take this moment to thank you all for your support over the last year, and to wish you all the merriest of Christmases. I am blessed to be able to run Bunnycup Embroidery and do something I love so very dearly and it is made possible by my wonderful customers and followers. So with this thought, I breathe a contented sigh and sign off for a couple of festive family days. Love to all, and merry Christmas.

When Something Goes Wrong

2008-12-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

Embroidery is such a complex hobby and with it so many things can wrong. There are so many inputs that go into stitching a design, from the embroidery design itself, the download process, the embroiderers knowledge of computers and embroidery and embroidery machines, the software an embroiderer may use, the machine itself, the computer mechanics of a machine, the thread, the material, the hoop, stabilizer, stabilization technique, tension, bobbin thread, needle etc. There is a seemingly endless number of inputs into stitching a design resulting in a lot of different areas where something can go wrong.

We get emails every day where someone has a problem with their stitching of an embroidery design. Almost always, it is nothing to do with the embroidery design, rather something in the computer or stitching environment to which we have no control or influence over. So I would like to take a moment to explain some of the most common problems encountered by customers:

1) Corrupted Downloads – This is probably the most common problem we encounter. When a customer downloads their designs, the data is copied over from our server to the customer’s computer. From time to time that data may get corrupted or scrambled in the transfer process. What can result is variable, but it can be as minor as an outline or part of the design being misplaced in the file to being as significant as the file not opening. The solution is to simply redownload the designs from your download link email to your computer.

2) Files are not unzipped before opening – Digitizers compress the files to be able to be downloaded more easily. This reduces the file size of the download which can minimize download corruptions and reduces the time it takes to download the actual file. To be able to read the files, you must unzip the zip file so that the files inside the zip file are no longer compressed. If you do not know how to do this, do not be afraid to email as we do have written instructions on how to download and unzip files.

3) Machine Process Hang – Embroidery machines have computerized mechanisms in them. They are similar to computers and from time to time a process in the machine may hang. Again, this can do very peculiar things to a design such as misplace sections of the design and stitch out sections in places they should not. The solution to this is to turn off your machine for a good 30 seconds and restart the machine.

4) Can not open a file – if you can not open a file either on your machine or on your computer, there are a number of reasons why which include opening the wrong format for your machine or software, your machine or software is not updated with its recent updates meaning it can not read the version of design, you do not have an embroidery software on your computer, your file is corrupted, your machine or software may not have started up correctly or has a hung process (restart your machine or software). The things to check here is that your file is unzipped and in a compatible format to your machine or software, that you have an embroidery software (if you wish to open them on your computer), turn off and restart your computer or machine and to make sure your software and machine have been updated for the most recent services packs and to check that the version of software is compatible with the version of the design.

5) Outlines are off – There are two common reasons for this – one is a corrupted download as described above and the second is the stabilization process the embroider uses. Stabilization process and the effects of on outlines is addressed on the Bunnycup Embroidery Tips page at http://www.bunnycup.com/tips.aspx

Another reason outlines can be off in designs is that the outlines do not consider the push and pull of the design or the design is poorly digitized. At Bunnycup Embroidery, we test every single design at least once, if not more before release. We do not release the design if we can not stitch it out with the outlines being correctly in place. So we can assure you if an outline is off, it is not in the digitized file but will be a result of probably a corrupted download or insufficient stabilization.

6) Stitching Environment – When stitching a design, I personally call the machine, the hoop, fabric, tension, needle, and the area directly surrounding the machine the stitching environment. This environment can directly affect how a design stitches out. Plenty of different things can go amiss in this area from a bump in the machine hoop, to tension not being set correctly, to the machine needing to rethreaded among many other things. If a design does not stitch out how you expect it and you know it is not stabilization things to check are that there is nothing obstructing the hoop, change the needle, clean out your bobbin cage, rethread the machine including the bobbin and the hoop is closed and secured properly.

There are a multitude of things that can wrong and we have only listed some of the most commonly occurring ones. It is important to remember that the digitizer has no control over each of these factors and almost always, if the digitizer is professional and experienced and performed adequate quality control procedures such as testing the design before release, that the problem is not in the design itself or something the digitizer has control over. We take great pride in our work and want our customers to have the most perfect and detailed design and want our customers to have a wonderful experience with our designs. We like to help our customers through these problems, but being impatient, frustrated or blaming the design and digitizer is not necessarily going to help you fix the problem that you are encountering and is not necessarily fair to the digitizer who probably produced a perfect design but can not control all the inputs into your embroidery. Also remember that a digitizer is not sitting with you and can not see what is happening so be patient, explain what is happening clearly and concisely. The digitizer will have to ask questions to understand what is happening and pinpoint your issue and is doing so using your eyes and words. Often, the digitizer may not be able to identify your problem and you may have to take the problem to your dealer who can see what is happening and identify it and assist you in your issue. So be patient, and help the digitizer help you.

Sneak Peek - Christmas Applique

2008-12-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Oh dear! The last month has been so very busy with trying to complete the last of our christmas sets, getting our own personal Christmas preparations ready before our long Summer school holidays start that I have not updated the blog in awhile. I promise to bring lots more new posts to the blog in the the new year once routine settles back down again.

In the mean time, here is a sneak peek of what is coming up this week! Christmas Applique is the full size applique version of our Christmas Minis Three set. Once this last Christmas set is out I will start putting our minds to Valentines and Spring themes!

If I do not get back to the blog before Christmas - but I hope I do, Merry Christmas to one and to all!

A Ginger Christmas

2008-11-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

I have started working away on a new set that I incredibly inspired by. As many of you know, I just love Gingerbreads or "Man-mans" as my children (aged 5 and 2) call them. Marisa has created a brand new set of darling gingerbread illustrations for me to work on so I thought I would post an extra early sneak peek of the set I am working away on.

Sneak Peek

2008-11-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks here, firstly starting with our daughter getting a post strep syndrome that inflammed her kidneys which was then followed by my husband Quentin having to travel to the US. So new releases at Bunnycup Embroidery have slowed down somewhat while we jump the most recent hurdles. I am slowly getting back into routine this week and have a sneak peek of our next release for you! Still sticking with Christmas Themes, this set is based on the artwork of Angela and is a sweet yet simple applique ornaments set.

PED Software and "No Sewing Data Message"

2008-10-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

We often get a lot of emails from PED users and the occurance of a "no sewing data" message. So we would like to address this problem here and provide the reasons why this message occurs. There are a number of reasons why we are aware the PED software gives this message:

1) An unrecognisable file is being opened (ie not a PES file)
2) The file being opened has not been unzipped
3) The file being opened has been corrupted in download. The fix to this is to simply redownload and unzip your designs again.
4) The design is too large (ie more than a supported hoop) or there are too many stitches in the design.
5) Your software has not been updated for the most recent update to the software.

I would like to just address point 5) here and explain it in greater detail. PES works on a number of different versions. Currently there are 6 different versions of the PES software and this is likely to increase in size as Brother develops thier machines and PES files. If your software is not updated, it will not recognise later released versions of PES than that current at the time of purchase. Digitizers tend to update their own digitizing software on an ongoing basis as it is important to us to keep our software up to do date with the latest and greatest options and to keep up with all the new formats. As a result, our softwares will also save in the more recent versions of softwares. Consequently, it is also important that customers update the software and hardware that they use so that the software and hardware they are using keeps up to date.

We have recently updated our primary digitizing software with a recent release that came out. As a result, our software is saving PES in version 6 but many customers have not updated thier PED software and as a result many customers get the "no sewing data". Those customers who have downloaded the update from the brother update have had 100% success in resolving this.

You can download the software update at the Brother website at http://www.brother-usa.com/downloads/default.aspx?ProductGroupID=3 and just select the software type to be taken to a page to download the most recent service pack. Instructions on how to perform the actual update should be included in the download file.

Welcome To The Bunnycup Embroidery Blog

2008-10-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Hi

My name is Ashlea and I am the owner of Bunnycup Embroidery . After many a request, I thought it was time to start my own blog to let those of you who are interested a little more about us, Bunnycup Embroidery and all other sorts of interesting things. I will post tidbits about me, our family, previews for Bunnycup Embroidery and other fun bits and pieces.

Today - I am itching to tell 10 things about me that you probably would not know:

1) I am a trained Chartered Accountant who specialised in Auditing and Compliance Management. Embroidery became a hobby when I had my first daughter and I was blessed to be able to build Bunnycup Embroidery to the business it is today.

2) The name Bunnycup was conceived by my husband years ago who nicknamed me Bunnycup - a mixture of a Bunny Rabbit and Buttercup. Not really sure why - but it is just one of those silly things.

3) I had never even sewed until I had my daughter in 2003. I still do not sew much but love embroidery as it allows even the worst sewer (aka me) be creative.

4) I still do not really sew - time has become limited between two children, two dogs and Bunnycup. But I hope one day to take proper lessons to be able to sew better. I can sew quilts - but they do not require much more than straight edges!

Enough of sewing - here are some fun general things about me now:

5) My favourite foods are macadamia nuts, avocado and mushrooms.

6) I love to read - I am currently reading a book called Without Warning.

7) I love horror movies (well not vampires or monster style movies - more murder movies). I am not sure why - but I think I like the thrill of getting scared once in awhile. Funny though - I am scared of the dark and do not like to be home alone - I get a bit jumpy.

8) I love all things cute. Be it cute and childish artwork, adorable stationary, golden retreiver puppies - it does not matter. I just love cute.

9) I hate crowds and pushy people. I avoid crowded places like the plague. I am too polite and not good a pushing so I tend to stay away from anywhere that is crowded.

10) I love learning........ I love to learn about other people, places, interesting tidbits. But at the same time my memory is not great (especially since I have had my two children) - so sometimes I have to keep on learning in hope one day it all sticks.

Well that is it for today and my introduction - but I will be back soon with more.

From My Heart To Yours
Ashlea