And the Winners Are -...

38 NOVEMBER 2009 --- stitches.com

And the Winners Are …You voted, and the results are in for the Stitches GoldensNeedle Awards for embroidery and digitizing. By Nicole Rollender, Jill Malcolm and Matt George

This year, Stitches is happy to host the second-annual sGolden Needle Awards for excellence in embroideryand digitizing. We asked embroiderers and digitizers

to enter their best corporate and fashion designs that displayeither their technical or artistic abilities.

We received nearly 100 entries for the embroidery and digitizing categories. All of the embroidery designs were evaluated by a group of industry veterans who visited ASI in late June and chose the embroidery winners: Stitches Editorial Advisory Board smembers Ginny Fineberg, owner of Sandpiper Embroidery; Jimmy Lamb of Sawgrass Technologies; and Ed Levy, owner of Digitize4U.

We sent the digitizing entries to Stitches Editorial Advisory Board member Jerilee sAuclair, owner of Black Eagle Designs; Darlene Dando, owner of All Quality Stitches; and Janet Valdez, owner of illustrated apparel. The judges received each digitizingentry via disk and ran the designs in their shops. They rated the designs on a scale of one to 10 and each entry was judged in the following categories: overall sewing quality including thread breaks; proper use of underlay; proper punching and registration; use of pathing, trims and color changes; and artistic merit, including overall artistic design and overall artistic appeal.

After being reviewed by our judges, all the top-rated digitizing designs were voted on by Stitches readers – we received more than 6,000 votes for our digitizing nominees. sAll judging and voting was blind.

TOP TIPS TO STAY PROFITABLE

Besides technical and artistic mer-its, our embroidery judges looked atwhether each entry was marketablewhen selecting the embroidery win-ners. Here are some of their best tipsfor creating designs that sell in anyeconomy.

1. Watch your stitch count. “Priceis paramount now – everyone’s con-scious of price,” says Ginny Fineberg,owner of Sandpiper Embroidery. “Wehave to get better and better at usingfewer stitches, but still create designsthat make an impact. You can com-bine embroidery with appliqué, heatpress, or screen or garment printing.You can also use lighter fills under-neath the design, or position a designat the top center of a shirt, rather thana full-front embroidered imprint.”

2. Don’t be a one-trick decorator.Diversifying the types of decorationtechniques you off er customers iskey. “A client who has ordered embroi-dery might move to screen printing tosave money,” says Ed Levy, owner ofDigitize4U. “Off er diff erent imprintingtechniques at diff erent price points toreally stay competitive.”

3. Uniqueness always sells. “Yourclient wants her logo to be a headturner, so whether you’re an embroi-derer or digitizer, keep these two tipsin mind: Select vibrant colors and usefill patterns to achieve texture and3-D eff ects,” says Jimmy Lamb ofSawgrass Technologies.

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DESIGN OF THE YEAR, ARTISTIC, CORPORATEErich Campbell, Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730), Albuquerque, NM

The mission: Create a jacket back that makes an impact. The challenge? Keep the stitch count low. Erich Campbell, e-commerce manager for Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730), created a very marketable jacket back with a low stitch count for the Albuquerque International Bal-loon Fiesta. “The Fiesta gave me a theme, title, the off i-cial type style and a final price I had to meet,” Campbell says. “I managed to cover the entire required 8-inch-square jacket-back area and maintain the levels of color and quality requested of me using 33,854 stitches. I also fit the styling of previous Balloon Fiesta logos so the brand would be consistent.”

The Balloon Fiesta is one of Albuquerque’s biggest tourist attractions, and because this piece was being marketed to resort guests and other visitors to the area, Campbell focused on evoking the spirit of the event and the state of New Mexico as only a native can. “Our shop is close to the Balloon Fiesta Park, so when the balloons go up, our skies fill with them,” Campbell says. “Not only can we really capture what a balloon looks like in stitches, but we also know how much we can take away from a design before it stops looking like a bal-loon, which was important for this low-stitch project.”

Campbell’s careful use of reds, oranges and yellows, as well as contour stitching, made the cen-tral balloon design pop with color and natural shading. “I use these colors when we’re doing resort wear,” he says. “People gravitate to these colors when they’re purchas-ing New Mexico tourist items.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This is a very big lookwith a low stitch count,”Fineberg says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“The use of light-density stitches was a creative way to create ajacket-back design with a lowerstitch count,” Levy says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“This is a good example of how to reduce stitch count to make a large design aff ordable,” Lamb says. “The lower stitch count gives it a nice, almost 3-D texture that enhances the design.”

EMBROIDERY AWARDSStitches Editors’ Pick, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Vantage Apparel(asi/93390), and an ASI Decorator Membership (one year), sponsored by ASIWinner: Emily Cheney, TSC Embroidery

DESIGN OF THE YEARArtistic, Corporate, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Madeira Co.Winner: Erich Campbell, Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730)

Artistic, Fashion, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Madeira Co. Winner: Emily Cheney, TSC Embroidery

Technical, Corporate, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by BrotherInternational Inc.Winner: Valerie Rodd, Trademarks Embroidery (asi/91755)

Technical, Fashion, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Brother International Inc.Winner: Krissi Dane, EmbroiderMe

Best Use of Stock Design, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Gildan Winner: Jane Swanzy, Swan Threads

Best Multimedia Design, Corporate, $250 prize pack, sponsored by Hilos IrisWinner: Susan Urbach, Embroidered Pelican

Best Multimedia Design, Fashion, $250 prize pack, sponsored by EnMartWinner: Erich Campbell, Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730)

Best Single-Color Design, $250 gift certificate, sponsored by Broder Bros. Co.(asi/42090)Winner: Barbara Stuemer, TexDesign

Accessories, Fashion and Home, ASI Decorator Membership (one year), sponsored by ASIWinner, Fashion: John Horne, Stitch DesignersWinner, Home: Roderick Fierro, Volant Fine Art

Stitches Golden Needle Awards 2009 Winners

Invoking the Southwest’s spirit,

Erich Campbell and his team at Black Duck Inc.

recreated an awe-inspiring

scene from the Albuquerque International

Balloon Fiesta.

EMBROIDERY AWARDS



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, ARTISTIC, FASHIONEmily Cheney, TSC Embroidery, Seattle

Using 15 colors and 215,000 stitches, Emily Cheney of TSC Embroidery created a flower burst design that dazzles in its color vibrancy and use of geometric shapes. “We looked for artwork that we could really showcase well with embroidery,” Cheney says. “We picked this design because we felt the simple geometric shapes and abundance of linear patterns would translate well as satin stitches.”

Cheney ran a couple of sewouts with diff erent color schemes and thread types before she chose the final look. “The final design we ran was the best, and it’s similar to some of the other full-back work we produce,” Cheney says. “It uses really basic techniques in a way that resonates with the eye.”

Cheney sewed out this design on a khaki short-sleeve shirt to illustrate what an impact a full-back design can make; however, it would also work as framed artwork. “I do a lot of illustration in my spare time where I enjoy working in rectangular spaces, and this piece has a great composition that would work very well as a framed piece,” Cheney says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“The flowers in the vase really popped out atme – this shows a very eff ective use of color.Overall this is a well-done piece, in embroi-dery and digitizing,” Lamb says. “This isn’ta company logo, but if you combined the design with a resort name or company name,it would be very eff ective.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“The color choices, the vibrancy of the whole design, made it jump off the gar-ment,” Levy says. “This design is also diverse – it can work for multiple appli-cations, such as going on a garment back or being used as framed art.”

A color feast for the eye, Emily Cheney’s design uses bold

hues, shading and density to the fullest potential.

EMBROIDERY STITCHES EDITORS’

PICK



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, TECHNICAL, CORPORATEValarie Rodd, Trademarks Embroidery (asi/91755), Houston

Trade shows are an excellent place for deco-rators to showcase what they can do, as well as give away embroidered accessories and

apparel to potential clients. For an ASI Show last year, Trade-marks Embroidery (asi/91755) Digitizer Valarie Rodd and her team were charged with the task of coming up with a design that featured her com-pany name embroidered on a stand-out giveaway item for the show. “We decided to decorate a hat because they’re relatively inexpensive. We planned to create a few ver-sions of the design to embroi-der on hats that we’d give

away at our trade show booth,” says Rodd, who spent four-and-a-half hours digitizing the 11-color design. “The owners of our com-pany have a lot of Texas pride, and most of our logos incorporate the red, white and blue of the state flag, so I used those colors for the design, as well as an armadillo, which is a common symbol for Texas.”

The design process went smoothly despite the high stitch count: 20,978. “We created this design mainly for the show, but the own-ers ended up liking it so much that they put it on some of our flyers and brochures,” Rodd says. “It was a fun project to work on – some-thing diff erent from the regular work we do – and I had the freedom you don’t always get working on specific projects for clients.”

away att our t

JUDGE’S TAKE“It’s neat when you can create a design with an image inside letters – you’re making a big statement,” Lamb says. “A viewer is forced to stop and read the hat, which accomplishes the mission of an imprinted accessory.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“For a design with so much complexity, theregistration and quality are superb,” Levysays. “The more elements you introduceinto a shape, especially on a hat, the morechances you have for mis-registration. This isa very high-quality sewout. I also like how thedesigner took advantage of the full front ofthe cap, from edge to edge.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This is a real high-end look,” Fineberg says. “And, the digitizing is superb.”

Using familiar Texas icons, digitizer ValarieRodd was able tocreate a memorablecorporate trade showgiveaway. Concept by Todd Longneckerand artwork by Eduardo Loera.



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, TECHNICAL, FASHIONKrissi Dane, EmbroiderMe, Green Cove Springs, FL

Creating a realistic fish design is a real chal-lenge, but Krissi Dane of EmbroiderMe was ready for it. When a charter boat captain client asked her to create embroidered artwork of the state of Florida and Florida gamefish, Dane went to work. She created two designs, one with onshore fish and another with off shore fish over a map of Florida. The 63,884-stitch design was embroidered on a microfiber Columbia jacket, a tote bag and a vinyl boat seat cushion.

Because vinyl tends to stretch and mark easily, Dane took extra precautions to ensure a flawless finished piece. “I didn’t hoop the vinyl very tightly because of the stretching, and I wrapped the hoop with cutaway back-ing so it wouldn’t leave marks on the vinyl,” says Dane, who spent four hours drawing the design freehand and then digitizing it. “I also used a poly-nylon thread on the cushion so the colors wouldn’t fade from the sun or washing.”

Dane hit on a great product idea with this project. “The client really liked the design and suggested we market the idea to other states, with each individual state as the map and whatever fish are common in that state,” Dane says. “We’re working on that right now, mostly for the boating and fishing com-munity, which is my biggest market here in Florida.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This is a very eye-catching design and has been placed on the right garment for this application,” Lamb says. “This type of designworks really well in the name-drop category – you create game fish designs and then reuse the image with diff erent location names, such as Cabo, San Lucas or Key West.”

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JUDGE’S TAKE“This design was beauti-fully digitized and sewn,”Fineberg says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“When you’re working with a fish or animal design, a realistic look is key – and that really shows here,” Levy says. “This piece has a real retail feel to it.”

This highly detaileddesign for a charter boat captain in Florida shows

its versatility, as it works on a jacket back, tote bag and

vinyl boat seat cushion.



BEST USE OF STOCK DESIGN

Jane Swanzy, Swan Threads, Houston

One of Jane Swanzy’s more whimsical cli-ents wanted her jeans to match her colorful jewelry. So Swanzy, owner of Swan Threads, got really creative: She embroidered a flam-boyant, jewel-toned, 102,690-stitch peacock

stock design down the outer legs of her client’s jeans, from below the knee to the bottom hem.

“Decorators sometimes think that a ‘custom’ design has to be from scratch,” Swanzy says. “But they can use stock designs to cre-ate a really diff erent look, depend-ing how they embroider it on a garment. And, besides making a higher profit on the item, you can be creative without having to rein-vent the wheel.”

The Paisley Peacock design (Embroidery Library, D5757) had just hit the market when Swanzy scooped it up, so her client would

be one of the first to sport the striking design. “The trick is that you need to seek out the customers who’ll pay a little extra to have you do these fun custom projects, because they know they’re not going to see the same design coming down the street on anyone else,” Swanzy says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“The design place-ment involved a lot of work – that was tricky,” Lamb says. “The decorator really got creative with her loca-tion, plus she grabbed the stock design as soon as it was avail-able. She did it ahead of the competition.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“The location of this design – thebottom quarter of the jeans – addeda high level of creativity,” Levy says.“This work shows how you can turnordinary jeans into fashion jeans.”

JUDGE’S TAKECustom projects for individual clients are a great way to break up the monotony of left-chest-logo orders and command more dollars for the work performed. “This is a really fun application and it’s a great conversation starter to have a discussion about embroidery,” Fineberg says.Using her client’s jewelry as

her inspiration, Jane Swanzycreated these show-stoppingjeans with a stock design.



BEST MULTIMEDIA DESIGN, CORPORATESusan Urbach, Embroidered Pelican, Oldsmar, FL

Jackpot! Susan Urbach created this bowling-shirt-inspired look for a client who was par-ticipating in a Las Vegas poker tournament. The bold design features a card-and-dice twill appliqué piece with embroidered detailing for an overall eff ect that’s clean and fun. “My client, the owner of CCM Photobooks, was so excited to receive the shirt,” says Urbach, owner of Embroidered Pelican. “The whole idea was to make the 33,040-stitch design big and bold – which appliqué certainly lends itself to – and you save yourself a lot of stitches using appliqué and embroidery together.”

Urbach has created similar designs on the full backs of bowling shirts for a variety of clients. “Corporations and other organiza-tions run casino nights as fundraisers, and this design is the kind of cost-eff ective look you can create for the dealers and volunteers working the event,” she says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“The appliqué enhanced the embroidery design, so it was an eff ective use of the two techniques – it doesn’t look like it was used just to get the stitch count down,” Lamb says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“Appliqué is a great way to get a ‘big look,’ but with fewer stitches,” Fineberg says. “This is a good, commercial look.”

A Vegas poker tournament was the inspiration for

this design that combines appliqué with embroidery.



BEST MULTIMEDIA DESIGN, FASHIONErich Campbell, Black Duck Inc. (asi/140730), Albuquerque, NM

When New Mexico-based art gallery Oso Art decided to hold an event to showcase local artist Newbern Taylor and his work, Black Duck Inc.’s (asi/140730) production team, headed up by E-commerce Manager Erich Campbell, worked to make the art wearable. “The gallery wanted to have prizes for the showing at the gallery, and a member of our design team decided to hand-quilt some of Taylor’s artwork to go on the back of some denim jackets we had in stock,” Campbell says.

Campbell and his crew had designed shirts for the gallery’s “Optimistic Deadbeat” line, and these quilted pieces were a continu-ation of that eff ort specifically for the gallery event. The print was created on an automatic press, and then hand quilted on a home sew-ing machine. The wings were then embroi-dered on a water-soluble backing and aff ixed to the dragonfly bodies using an embroidery machine. Each dragonfly is approximately 7,500 stitches and the logo on the front is 8,914 stitches, hitting a grand total of 39,000 embroidered stitches.

The result was a high-end garment with pure artistic detailing made even more inter-esting through the use of multimedia tech-niques. “Because this particular design had dragonflies, I thought this was the perfect place to use free-standing lace in a design,” Campbell says. “Dragonfly wings are incred-ible, especially in Newbern’s work. They have a lot of visual impact.”

The addition of the multimedia detailing and the innovative handling of the artist’s original work produced a high-quality gar-ment with high marketability. “The jacket, and other items like it, are premium priced and positioned in a unique artist’s apparel line,” Campbell says. “It’s definitely a boutique kind of apparel, and something you can sell fairly heavily with the multimedia work.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“The 3-D embroidereddragonflies were aninteresting fashiontouch,” Fineberg says.

JUDGE’S TAKE“This work shows how you can create a uniqueproduct, which is based on an artist’s work, thatcan be sold in a higher-end boutique,” Lambsays. “This jacket is trendy and would be wornby someone who wants to make a statementabout who he or she is. For this type of apparel,you can command a high price point – you’renot selling apparel; you’re selling art.”

Using original artwork from artist Newbern Taylor, ErichCampbell and his productionteam created a unique fashion garment for the artistic community.



BEST SINGLE-COLOR DESIGNBarbara Stuemer, TexDesign, Tornesch, SH (Germany)

A personal piece of artwork – in this case, a family crest – can be a goldmine of opportu-nity for a decorator. Barbara Stuemer, owner of TexDesign in Germany, digitized a client’s family shield, and then used the same basic designs – with tweaks, some fairly compli-cated – to decorate diff erent types of fabrics and items. “I originally digitized the artwork for terry, woven and piqué polo fabrics,” Stu-emer says. “I altered the original artwork’s size for each project and instead of single-color design as I embroidered on this bag, the shield features four colors.”

Then, the client requested that Stuemer create a single-color variation of the design for a pillowcase embellishment. “The pro-cess of digitizing the artwork as a single-color design wasn’t an easy one and took several days,” she says. Using approximately 53,000 stitches, the total digitizing time for the design was around 14 hours, with test stitching.

For the messenger bag design, “I added parts of the crest design and added them as embellishments to other parts of the bag,” Stuemer says. “Tree decorations on the shield are embroidered on the sides, bottom and back of the bag.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This piece has a lot of attention to detail,” Lamb says. “The decorator also took an asymmetrical approach to positioning the crest. It gives the bag a very retail feel.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“Incorporating elements from a main design and using them on other areas of an item helps to tie the whole piece together and increases saleability,” Levy says. “More isn’t always better, but in this case, more locations increased the perceived value.”

Using a client’sfamily crestdesign and adding her own specialtouches, BarbaraStuemer created this personaland fashionablemessenger bag.



ACCESSORIES, FASHIONJohn Horne, Stitch Designers, Louisville, KY

John Horne and his team at Stitch Designers are used to getting unique projects, so when a couple from Louisville approached them to commission an original piece for the Queen of England, they got right down to business. The idea for the design centered around the royal silks worn by the Queen’s jockeys for racing events. Having experience producing quality products for the horse-racing indus-try was undoubtedly helpful for Horne and his crew.

The artwork came directly from a book supplied by the couple, and a pattern was made for the appliqué. The appliqué was then digitized and the final pattern cut from shantung silk. “Shantung silk was the selected fabric because it was requested by the cou-ple, and it also is a stylish fabric that is plen-tiful in many colors,” Horne says. The final product was expensive and time-consuming, as the first design wasn’t approved. “We had to change a column stitch into a fill in some areas to make the design look more like the picture in the book,” Horne says. The eff ort was well worth it, as proven by the Queen’s reaction. “She received the purse and said it was ‘smashing,’” Horne says.

Horne has produced items similar to this one in the past for racing events, but this project in particular was a special and memo-rable one. The final end-product is best suited for clients with an unlimited budget. “When you’re doing mass-production projects or even short runs in embroidery, you’re trying not to put more stitches in the design than you have to because it costs more,” Horne says. “But for this project cost wasn’t an issue – the client wanted the project to look the best it could be.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This bag is very impressive as a total package,” Lamb says. “What the dec-orator did was to complete the job successfully. They were presented with a real challenge, and did a very good job meeting that challenge.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“This shantung silk bag really shows the versatility of embellishing, that it can be anything from a low-budget corporate logo design to an ultra-high-end prod-uct like this one,” Levy says. “You don’t always have to think quantity when creating designs for people.”

This “smashing” bag made exclusively for the Queenof England features the royal silks worn by the Queen’s jockeys.



ACCESSORIES, HOMERoderick Fierro, Volant Fine Art, San Antonio

The Volant Fine Art gallery in San Antonio fosters an environment of creativity and free-dom of expression in its designers’ art, but something was missing. “One of the things lacking in our collection was smaller items that people who are visiting San Antonio could easily take home with them,” Digitizer Roderick Fierro says. At first, Volant started to run digitized versions of gallery artwork as embroidered pieces. Then, the larger pieces of embroidered art were cut up into smaller square pieces and made into drink coasters. In time, the gallery did runs especially for coaster production, with each coaster in a set displaying a diff erent embroidered image.

There are a number of diff erent coaster sets available from Volant depending on the season, and even the types of tourists and convention attendees expected to be pres-ent at a particular time of year. This coaster set was inspired by photographs taken during an African safari. The pictures themselves are on display in the gallery. “Aside from the coasters being smaller items and a diff erent price point, they give customers the feeling that they are buying a piece of art because the artwork used for the coasters is a part of the gallery,” Fierro says. “Some of the people who come to the gallery can’t aff ord a $300 or $400 piece of artwork.”

Another perk for customers is the unique nature of the coasters. Each one is handmade, including the cases. “Each coaster depicts a complete image that can be viewed on its own,” Fierro says. “You aren’t going to see half an elephant or part of a picture.” The unique representations of African wildlife silhouettes on the grassland plains vary from coaster to coaster, a memorable touch that resonates with Volant’s customers.

JUDGE’S TAKE“When you look at these coasters, itgives you a sense of being in Africa;you see a story,” Levy says. “These arevery marketable and very unique. Youcould take this same concept and useit for diff erent applications.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“I loved this work,” Lamb says. “The coasters were simple as far as the actual embroidery, but the images, the colors and the shadows made me feel the heat of Africa. This set is a great conversation piece, and could be sold at a zoo or by an environmental nonprofit. We need to think beyond the garment.”

These embroidered coastersinspired by the Botswana

sunset on the grasslands andAfrican wildlife make a uniquegift for conference attendees

and tourists in San Antonio, TX.



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, ARTISTIC, CORPORATEReene Mock, The Cocoon Room, Homer City, PA

DIGITIZING AWARD S

JUDGE’S TAKE“This design was very nicely done, andthe stitches were wonderfully artistic,”Dando says. “The shadowing for thefacial hair was very good.”

DIGITIZING AWARDSStitches Editors’ Pick, TwillStitch Pro (retail value $799) from Stahls’ ID Direct,and ASI Decorator Membership (one year), sponsored by ASIWinner: Michael Allsup and Aijaz Ahmed, Quality Punch

DESIGN OF THE YEARArtistic, Corporate, $250 prize pack, sponsored by American Embroidery SupplyWinner: Reene Mock, The Cocoon Room

Artistic, Fashion, 12-month subscription to Wilcom ConceptShare, and SoloPlan valued at $264, sponsored by WilcomWinner: Dar Jones, TSC Embroidery

Technical, Corporate and Fashion, 12-month subscription to Wilcom Con-ceptShare, and Solo Plan valued at $264, sponsored by WilcomWinner, Corporate: June Voetberg, Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601)Winner, Fashion: Dar Jones, TSC Embroidery

Best Single-Color Design, ASI Decorator Membership (one year), sponsoredby ASIWinner: Michael Allsup and Naveed Zeeshan, Quality Punch

Best Home Accessories Design, ASI Decorator Membership (one year),sponsored by ASIWinner: Michael Allsup and Aijaz Ahmed, Quality Punch

Stitches Golden Needle Awards 2009 Winners

A poster from the Jimmy Stewart Museum showing Jimmy Stewart in his cowboy outfit inspired Reene Mock to create this technically and artistically sound design.

For her client, the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, PA, Reene Mock, owner of The Cocoon Room, translated an image of Jimmy Stewart dressed in his cowboy outfit into embroidered art. “I do all of the embroidery work for the museum,” Mock says.

Mock used a digital photo of the over-sized poster of Jimmy Stewart as the basis of her artwork. The detailed poster made for an easier time digitizing the 20,000-stitch design. Mock employed special shadowing techniques, in particular with the subject’s facial hair, to really highlight the detail of the original, making for a technically and artisti-cally sound image.

“This design was embroidered on many items that are now being sold at the museum, including T-shirts and sweatshirts,” says Mock, who spent eight hours digitizing this design. “This piece is one of the more popular designs, and they sell quite a few of them.”



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, ARTISTIC, FASHION

DESIGN OF THE YEAR, TECHNICAL, FASHIONDar Jones, TSC Embroidery, Seattle

JUDGE’S TAKE“I absolutely love this design – it hangs very well, and is very soft and pliable,” Auclair says. “It’s excellent all the way around.”

This detailed, textured design shows how meticulously a digitizer

can render a scene in thread.

Evoking a scene of comfort and home, Dar Jones created a meticulously detailed still life with this 167,000-stitch design. “We selected the image for its sentimental value, and also to showcase our directional stitching technique, which is something we’re really working on right now,” says Jones, a digitizer with TSC Embroidery. The use of directional stitching was the deciding factor in selecting the subject matter and how the design was laid out to show the texture and dimension inherent in the artwork. “Dimension is often lacking in embroidery, and you can use direc-tional stitching to make the artwork look more alive,” Jones says.



DESIGN OF THE YEAR, TECHNICAL, CORPORATEJune Voetberg, Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601), Overland, KS

June Voetberg of Staples Promotional Prod-ucts (asi/120601) didn’t have to look too far for inspiration for this iconic image celebrat-ing the American farmer. “I live in a very agri-cultural community, and some of our biggest customers are in the farming profession,” Voetberg says. “Our art department formu-lated the design that speaks to the local envi-ronment as well as the patriotic movement occurring nationally, and those two factors influenced the design and appeal for me.”

The design, which has 11 colors and nearly 100,000 stitches, was made for a client’s jacket back. The technical preciseness of the design, which took eight hours to digitize and three hours to sew out, shows virtually zero thread breaks, properly uses underlay and has excellent punch execution for use on a jacket.

Voetberg was very careful to ensure that the artwork appear as realistic as possible when sewed out, especially the eagle. “I took my cues from the artwork, but I did add a little bit of my own touches, such as using metallic thread in the fireworks for added sparkle,” Voetberg says. “The way I designed and produced this item is so that it can be used and worn.”

JUDGE’S TAKE“The color sequence was great – it had an excellent flow that added to the overall artistic appeal of the design,” Auclair says. “This digi-tizer is experienced and accomplished.”

Midwestern landscapes inspired June Voetberg tocreate this design celebratingAmerican farmers.



BEST SINGLE-COLOR DESIGNMichael Allsup and Naveed Zeeshan, Quality Punch, Torrance, CA

With classic rock-and-roll styling and a little bit of Elvis’ flamboyance, this 59,554-stitch design was originally made for a customer as single-color shirt-back artwork. As with most corporate logo orders, the Quality Punch digi-tizing team focused on two main areas: cover as much detail as possible while making the finished product production-friendly. “To duplicate the artwork closely, we decided to work with satin and run stitches,” says Senior Digitizer Naveed Zeeshan. “At the same time, we wanted to keep it at an optimal stitch count and with as few trims as possible.”

This type of corporate order is typical for Quality Punch, and while adherence to client wishes and the original artwork is upheld, the digitizing team remains creative and artistic in their approach. To best serve its custom-ers, Quality Punch off ers continual art train-ing to help ensure the best interpretation of client art into stitches. “We give every design our best eff ort, and sometimes we come up with award winners,” Zeeshan says.

JUDGE’S TAKEThe “Rock Fabulous” design eff ort-lessly combines pleasing artistic appeal with minimal breaks in the thread path. “The design is light because of the use of running stitches; however, considering the amount of detail and its location on the shirt back, the digitizer chose a proper method,” Valdez says.

Applying focused techniques and quality design aesthetics,

Quality Punch digitizers createda design that “rocks fabulous.”



BEST HOME ACCESSORIES DESIGNMichael Allsup and Aijaz Ahmed, Quality Punch, Torrance, CA

Photographs will never look the same way again. By converting photo files into embroi-dered files, the team at Quality Punch is start-ing to develop a new technique they call pic-ture digitizing – and it’s already causing quite a stir. “Up until now it was almost impossible to digitize from photographs and get a real-life look,” says Aijaz Ahmed, picture digitizing expert and head digitizer at Quality Punch. “The stitches were very dense and not so pro-duction-friendly.”

For this reason, Quality Punch started to develop a better punching method that gives clients a finished file that’s nearly a duplicate of their photograph, with an easy product run. “With ‘Child’s Face,’ I was intrigued as to how this photograph would look digi-tized, and I was thrilled with the results,” Ahmed says. “Everyone at Quality Punch has given me their favorite photograph to be converted.”

The biggest challenge facing the Quality Punch team when they photo-digitize is get-ting the correct thread colors. “A photograph is made up of millions of shades, whereas in embroidery we’re limited to solid-color thread,” Ahmed says. After numerous trial sewouts, the colors on this piece were finalized and the designers’ focus went to perfecting the most important part of the picture: the eyes. “We know that the duplication of the eyes must be exact or the image will be lost,” Ahmed says. “Once the sewout was finalized, we thought this type of embroidery would look perfect when framed.”

Promotion of picture digitizing is under way, with emphasis on the technique as a new, unique concept and an alternative to conven-tional corporate logos. “It has the advantage of a lower stitch count, easier production run and great pricing,” Ahmed says. “This item makes a

great gift.” .NICOLE ROLLENDER is Stitches editor, JILL MALCOM is an editorial intern for Stitches and Matt George is a Stitches staff writer. Con-tact: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

JUDGE’S TAKE“This image frames well,” Auclair says. “It also uses an interesting ‘cornelli lace’ approach.”

Using an innovative style of picture digitizing, Quality Punch lets clients seetheir favorite photographs in a new light.

DIGITIZING STITCHES EDITORS’

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