Machine embroidery is a term that can be used to describe two different actions. The first is using a sewing machine to "manually" create (either freehand or with built-in stitches) a design on a piece of fabric or other similar item. The second is to use a specially designed embroidery or sewing-embroidery machine to automatically create a design from a pre-made pattern that is input into the machine. Most embroidery machines used by professionals and hobbyists today are driven by computers that read digitized embroidery files created by special software.

With the advent of computerized machine embroidery, the main use of manual machine embroidery is in fiber art and quilting projects. While some still use this type of embroidery to embellish garments, with the ease and decreasing cost of computerized embroidery machine, it is rapidly falling out of favor. Many quilters and fabric artists now use a free machine embroidery process often called "thread drawing" (or thread painting) to create embellishments on items, or to create examples of textile art.

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See also:

• Arts: Crafts: Quilting: Crazy Quilts (24)
• Business: Consumer Goods and Services: Clothing: Services: Embroidery and Screen Printing: Embroidery (77)
• Shopping: Clothing: Custom: Embroidery (55)

• Sew in Love
  sew-in-love.blogspot.com
  An embroidery student shares her projects.
• The Embroidery Site
  embroidery.org.uk
  Showcases the embroidery work of Janet Holehouse, based in Manchester, England.
• Celtic Cross Stitch
  mycelticcrossstitch.com
  Celtic cross stitch basic introduction to patterns, designs and instructions