How to get embroider-able text

I love to embroider. I do it too small and all non-traditional like but I love it. I have been looking for a way to get text so I can embroider some nice quotes to hang up. Of course there is always cross stitch letters, I have a book of those, but I'm not incredibly keen on how they look. I have ridiculous handwriting so that is out of the question. Well anyway -- I was screwing around in Word today and I figured out how to get the kind of text that I was wanting and I thought I'd share how I got there! Here's my result, before embroidering it of course. (I haven't even picked colors or anything yet!)



It's super easy really, I almost feel silly for sharing. I wanted hollow text because I like how it looks but it would also be what you needed if you were going to satin stitch. The really nice part about using word is you can use almost any font on there and get it to work. (print, cursive really the options are endless!) Also it already auto-spaces the letters and lets you write anything you want!

You go into the format drop-down menu and click font -- that will bring up this window:



In the window you pick outline, just like is shown in the screen capture and then hit ok. And voila! You can mess around with font types after that has been set.

Because I am thinking about making this rather large I changed the page format to long ways. (printer paper is roughly 8 inches x 11 inches and I was wanting to go larger than 8, although now I'm re-thinking that.) To change page format go into the file drop-down and select page setup this window will pop up:



All you have to do is select the other orientation. (it is already selected in the image)



Oh I suppose I should also mention size just in case you don't know there are bars on the side that tell you how big it is going to print. (you can slide the arrows at the top to adjust how wide the words go, or what words end up on which line.)

And that's it, you can print it out and use a light box to transfer it on to your fabric with a water soluble pen. Now I just have to decide what I am embroidering on and with what color! (I think a just a solid colored fabric that will stay in the hoop for hanging on the wall . . .maybe in orange. . .I'm really into orange right now.)

Well that's all for today, I have to pull my bread from the bread machine, it's beeping at me. (I'm rather excited it's a new gluten-free recipe from scratch, I hope it is yummy!)