First of all, Welcome and thank you so much for visiting!
Creating an account is very easy. Click on the 'My Account' link at the top right of the page. Then click the 'Create here to create your account' link.

First make sure you are entering your Username and Password correctly. Capitals don't matter but spaces and other special characters will cause an error.
If you forgot your Password enter your email address in the form provided on the Sign In page and your UserName and Password will be emailed to you immediately.
Important: If you are certain you have created an account but your email address is not located it means your account information has been deleted. This occurs if an email to the address you provided is returned as undeliverable for any reason. This is to make certain we are in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Please create your account again using the email address provided to you by your ISP.
If you still cannot sign the problem may be with a missing or corrupted cookie on your computer. Click here to learn how to solve the problem by deleting cookies. Don't worry. It's easy and harmless.

Shopping for machine embroidery designs is easy, fun and secure.
First sign in to your account or create an account by clicking the 'My Account' link at the top of the page.

Then begin shopping by making a selection from the design categories on the menu bar to the left,
OR
enter a keyword(s) into the search box located on every page.

Once you have opened a category or your search results are displayed you can browse thumbnail information of the designs. Click on a thumbnail to open the design's detail page.

The detail page has a larger picture of the design, some interesting information and the design's size, stitch count, colors and price.
Select your desired format and available options (if any) and click the 'Add this Item to Your Cart' button to place it in your shopping cart.

Because you are signed in you are already at the final step of the secure checkout process: 'Checkout: Step 2 of 2'. Here you can review your information and your purchases. You can also remove items if you want.
When you are finished shopping enter your credit card information and click the 'Place My Secure Order' button. Your information is instantly transmitted to Authorize.net for processing and is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.
Note: We do not store nor have access to your credit card information.

That's all there is to it!
You will see a confirmation page with all the details of your transaction and you will also receive an email confirming your purchase.

If you are unsure which format to order for your machine there are four things you can do.

1. Check your owner's manual.
2. Call your dealer.
3. Download our free designs in the offered formats and see which one is compatible with your system.
4. Visit the web site of your machine's manufacturer.
   This is often the quickest way to obtain a list of formats your machine can read.

We offer our designs in Brother (PES), Tajima (DST), Melo (EXP), Husqvarna/Viking (HUS), Janome (JEF), Pfaff (PCS) and Singer (XXX) formats.

At this time, the only way to convert a design to ART format is with Bernina software. We do not own that software and to be honest the demand for ART format is not large enough to justify the expenditure. We only receive about one request for the ART format a month.
However, if you own the Artista program you can convert a design yourself. Simply open a design in another format, a PES design for instance, and save it as an ART file.

Yes. Every design includes a thread chart or color change sheet. It is a pdf-formatted file so you will need the Adobe Reader, a free program, to open, read and print it. To see a sample in pdf format, click here.

Your designs will be shipped as an email attachment to the address you specify. In most cases it will be zipped folder.
There is no charge and designs are shipped worldwide.

Designs are shipped within 24 hours, excluding Sunday and US holidays. We process orders throughout the day but sometimes may have to wait for final credit card authorization.

Not at this time and here is why:
Digitizing software is constantly being upgraded and as we evaluate, purchase and gain experience with newer versions and new programs we revisit our designs to make certain they stitch out as efficiently as possible for you. In the business world it is called "quality control." To us it is just common sense: We want you to have the very best design possible.

You sure can. Here's how to pay for your designs by personal check or money order:
Shop for your designs, adding them to your cart as you normally would. When you are finished shopping and are on the page titled 'Checkout: Step 2 of 2', verify your information but don't enter your credit card information. Instead, print the page and send it along with your check or money order for the amount shown in the 'Order Total' box to:
   Windstar Embroidery Designs
   304 Beloit Road
   Marquette Heights, IL 61554-1259
Remember that your personal check must clear the bank before we can ship your designs to you.

Place an order online. It's really that simple. As soon as you place a design order you are automatically enrolled in our Customer Rewards program and are eligible for discounts based upon your previous design purchases. It's a great program! Read all about it here.

No, not at this time.

Yes, if time permits. Please contact us and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Your design order from us will arrive as attachments to an email sent to your email address.
The attachment(s) may be in a zipped folder and will be the design(s) in the format you specified and a pdf-formatted thread chart. You will need to save those files to your computer before you can view, print or work with them.
Click here to learn how to save email attachments to your computer.

Zipping is way to reduce the size of the 'package' being sent to you as an email attachment. Though the files inside a zipped folder are compressed, no data is lost or compromised.
I use WinZip to zip up design orders but all zipping programs add the .zip extension to the zipped file. For instance an order might arrive as 777PES.zip. That means it is design number 777, the Redwork Young Mother and Child, in PES format zipped up. That zipped folder or file will contain the design and the pdf-formatted thread chart or color change sheet.

All zipped folders or files need to be unzipped before you can view them, move them or do anything at all with them. Fortunately, unzipping is fast and easy.
If your operating system is Windows XP, click here.
If you have an unzipping program such as WinZip, click here.
If you don't have WinZip, click here to get a free evaluation version.

Unzipping Using Windows XP
Double click the zipped folder or file. A window (below) will open showing the files contained.


If your window looks different it's because I selected 'Thumbnails' from the 'View' menu.


Click on 'Extract all files'.


The friendly Extraction Wizard will open. Click 'Next'.


In the next window you select a destination for your unzipped files. In the image below the files will be extracted to the user's desktop. When you have decided upon a destination, click 'Next'.


The wizard will unzip your files and the window below will appear. All is well. Life is good.


Click 'Finish' and that's all there is to it! Your unzipped files are now in a folder ready for you.

Unzipping Using a Utility Program (WinZip)
Before we unzip the file, hover your mouse over it. You'll see exactly what files are within it as in the picture below.


Ok, enough playing around. We have work to do. Double click the zipped file and the screen below appears. When the 'Use Evaluation Version' button becomes active (and it will), click it.


If you have WinZip configured to use the WinZip Wizard the next window will look like the one below. I like the wizard better than WinZip Classic. Use whatever interface you like. The results are the same. Click 'Next'.


What do you want WinZip to do? Well, we want to unzip or install and that option is already selected for us, so click 'Next'.


Pretty easy and self-explanatory, isn't it? The WinZip Wizard takes you gently by the hand and walks you right through it. Select the folder where you want the unzipped files to live and click 'Unzip Now'.


Done! Next you will see a screen similar to the one below. Your files are unzipped and ready for you.

Every design order includes a color chart in pdf format. It contains a great deal of information about the design but the most important is the color change list. All you have to do is follow the color order as you embroider your design.
Here's how:

• Load the design into your machine and verify that the color changes it displays matches with the color chart.
• Thread your machine with the first color and begin stitching.
• When the machine stops for a color change, thread the next color and continue embroidering.
• Continue this process until the design is complete.

The code number of the thread in the color chart corresponds to the thread brand I specified when I digitized the design, usually Robison-Anton (RA) rayon or polyester embroidery thread. Of course you are free to use any thread you wish.
If you need to convert or compare the code numbers in the color chart to your brand of thread, check our machine embroidery thread charts.

Please don't. Our designs are digitized for optimal results. Resizing will likely produce a poor embroidery due to changes in density, fills, etc. If you wish to attempt resizing make a copy of the original design for experimentation and be sure to test stitch before embroidering the final piece. Please be aware we offer no support for any designs you tamper with.

This error occurs because you probably have not updated your embroidery software program to recognize the latest .PES format, version 6 for instance, and you are attempting to open a version 6 file with software that can only recognize up to versions 4 or 5.
Here are your options to avoid getting this error:
1. Upgrade your software.
2. Download our free design in all the available formats to see which one works best with your system.

This usually happens because the designs are still zipped up. Check to make sure your order is unzipped before opening it with your embroidery software or transferring it to your machine.

Sometimes the colors of a design on your machine's display screen look pretty weird when compared to the pictures displayed on the web site or to the pdf-formatted color chart included with your order. Here's why:
Every embroidery machine has a palette of colors to use and it varies considerably from machine to machine. When you load a design into your machine its little electronic brain looks at the colors in the design. Then it looks at the colors it has in its inventory and comes as close as it can to match them up. Sometimes the result is pretty close, sometimes it's way off. But your machine is proud of its work so don't be too hard on it. Pat it on the head, if you can figure out where the head is, and don't worry.
Ignore the colors on your display screen and follow thread colors on your color change sheet. Thread your machine with the first color on the sheet and begin stitching. When the machine stops for a color change, thread the next color and continue embroidering. Continue this process until the design is complete.

Click the 'My Account' link at the top right of every page. After you sign in your order history is immediately available to you. Click 'View Details' to see if an individual order has shipped.
If it has here are a few things to check:

1. Look in your junk mail folder for an email from Windstar Embroidery. If it is there please set your email filter to accept email from WindstarEmbroidery.com.
2. Make sure your mail box has sufficient free space. If your box is full your mail server may reject or delay the delivery of your order.
3. Does your email account accept messages with zipped attachments? Many free email (Hotmail, MSN) accounts won't reliably accept zipped attachments. If this is the case contact me.

If your order has not shipped, please be patient. Most orders are shipped within 24 hours, give or take a few hours and excluding Sunday and US holidays. If your order is going to require more than 48 hours to ship we will contact you. This has never happened.
If you have not received your order after 48 hours and you have not heard from us, contact us immediately.

Click the 'My Account' link at the top right of every page. Once you sign in your order history is immediately available to you. Then click 'View Details' to see the details of an individual order.

Due to the electronic nature of embroidery design files (software) there is no refund or exchange. Machine embroidery design files are also non-returnable.

Under no circumstances is the original or altered design file to be sold, traded or shared in any form. Buying, selling, trading, sharing or transferring copies of our design files is a violation of copyright law.
Windstar Embroidery (WindstarEmbroidery.com) retains the copyright to the original design files. This policy also applies to free designs.

When you purchase our embroidery designs you acquire the right to sew the designs out for personal use. You also have the right to embroidery a design on 50 units for profit or charity. To produce more than 50 units using any design a Commercial Use License is required. Please click the following link for more information: Copyright & Commercial Licensing Information.

Please click this link to read our privacy and security policy.
This link is also on the footer of every page in the site.

Please click this link to read our terms and conditions.

Yes, we do. Free designs are available to anyone on our email newsletter list.
We offer free designs for two reasons:

1. for you to stitch out to see the quality of the designs
2. for you to download in the various machine formats to see which format is compatible with your embroidery system

The link to the free designs page is on the footer of any page in the site.
Please back up your files. We do not offer replacements for free designs.

There is a link at the top right of every page that says 'My Account'. Click it and it will take you to the sign in page where you can sign out, update your account information and view your order history.
By the way, if you have items in your cart and cannot continue shopping signing out does not empty your cart. When you sign in again your cart contents will still be there so you won't have to start all over.