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2026 CALENDAR:
Schedule of Webinars!  Balboa’s Secrets! Techniques that will make your designs standout!, with Homework to make sense of it all!

Introduction to 2026:  January 27, 2026,  9:30 AM Pacific Time: An overview of the Process of Digitizing. This year we will start with our Warm Up. The things you absolutely have to know and understand in order to Digitize or Edit.  Your basic stitches and what you need to know, your underlays, and your pathing, from there we will discuss what is next.  We will take the Classes that have given you the most and add Classes you would like to see, and create our Schedule for 2026.
HOMEWORK:  Review this Class, come back with any questions we may have missed, and any subjects in Digitizing and Editing that you need extra help in.

February 3, 2026:  Class #1, 9:30 AM Pacific Time: It Starts with a Stitch:   We begin with the Stitch, then move to the Running Stitch, Then to the Column or Satin Stitch and then the Fill. Learn where to use them and when. Learn how to Construct them. AND learn their’ Properties, the things They will do and won’t let you do, as well as the Variations, the things these Stitches do that you can change.  Master this first group of stitches of the Basics, the Running Stitch, and progress to the Column or Satin Stitch, then the Fill or Tatami. An absolute must if you want to take your Digitizing to the next level.  You will be surprised how much more there is to learn about each of our 3 Basic groups of stitches!
HOMEWORK: Review your class, and then your Homework, use the Balboa techniques to create the objects you saw in Class, or simply take that same object, watch it run, and see that the result is exactly what you were told it would be.  Use length and density and even layering to control the objects in your design. Lessons on the Length of the Stitch, the Density of the stitches, and the texture and patterns you can add with each of the groups of stitches. Control puckering, rolling, and push-pull by digitizing a Design with techniques that do just that

February 17, 2026:  Class #2 , 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Our Prettiest stitch, the Column Stitch. We have Mastered the Running Stitch, and in this Class we are progressing to the Column or Satin Stitch, our most beautiful stitch, but the hardest to control.  In this Class we will show how the Column stitch is used throughout the design, looking at the role the Column or Satin Stitch plays and how it is constructed.  What you can vary and what you cannot.  How to control it and how to make it sing!  This Class will give you the confidence to use Your Column Stitch to bring out the best in your designs.  Master this group of stitches and move on to the Fill or Tatami. These Basics are an absolute must if you want to take your Digitizing to the next level.  You will be surprised how much there is to learn about each of our 3 Basic groups of stitches!
HOMEWORK: Review your class, and then your Homework, use the Balboa techniques to create the objects you saw in Class, or simply take that same object, watch it run, and see that the result is exactly what you were told it would be.  Use length and density and even layering to control the objects in your design. Lessons on the Length of the Stitch, the Density of the stitches, and the texture and patterns you can add with each of the groups of stitches, and invaluable lessons on Control puckering, rolling, and push-pull by digitizing a Design with techniques that do just that

MARCH 3, 2026:  Class #3  9:30 AM Pacific Time: Our most versatile group of Stitches, the Fill: In this Class we will show how the Fill stitch is used throughout the design, looking at the role the Fill or Tatami Stitch plays and how it is constructed.  What you can vary or change: the length, the density and the needle penetrations, as well as its’ properties.  The things you cannot change, how to live with them and make them an asset and not a threat.  Finally in this class you will solve the mystery of Push-Pull.  You do NOT correct it.  You simply do not create it!
HOMEWORK: Valuable Lessons in the Length of the Stitch, the Density of the stitches, and the texture and pattern formed by the needle penetrations, creating the Fill or Tatami Stitch, this group of stitches’ pull, puckering and push-pull, controlling it with length and density and layering.  Then, using the techniques that you have learned about the Fill Stitch in a design!

March 17, 2026:  Class #4  9:30 AM Pacific Time: Underlays:  In this Fourth Class we will be learning about Underlays.  Part of our Warm Up before the hard stuff! The Underlay, both Manual and Automatic. The structure of the Design:  Learn which Underlay to use with each stitch type, and where and when to use it, as well as why!
Learn how to hide your underlays…and create knockdown bases when doing terrycloth. Learn to use your underlays for volume and depth, instead of Foam.
HOMEWORK: Lessons in the Length of the Stitch, the Density of the stitches, and the texture and patterns you can add with this group of stitches, puckering and push-pull, controlling your Underlay with length and density and even layering as well as using the length and density and layering in your underlay to control the objects in your design.  Then, using the techniques that you have learned about the UnderlayStitches in a design!

March 31, 2026:  Class #5  9:30 AM Pacific Time:  Pathing… Our 5th Class, and the last of our Warm Up…Pathing!  We will show how pathing is used throughout the design, looking at the how important it is, how it is constructed, which of your three stitches to use, and when to use them instead of an Underlay or trim!  Add to the structure of your design while eliminating trims!  Create additional debth and demension with this manual underlay.  See how a few extra stitches will save time and add beauty to your design.
HOMEWORK: Lessons in the Length of the Stitch, the Density of the stitches, and the texture and patterns you can add with this group of stitches, puckering and push-pull, using the length and density and layering in your “Pathing” to control the objects in your design.  Then, using the techniques that you have learned about the Pathing Stitches in a design!

April 14, 2026:  Class #6  9:30 AM Pacific Time:  Lettering, Custom and Stock:  Today we will look at lettering, first setting up Keyboard Lettering, then Custom Lettering.  This eight Class is Essential, but not part of your WarmUp!  You will find that everything that you have learned in the first 6 Classes is part of Creating your letters:  Your Running stitch, to path through your letter, or even to form your letters, your column stitch to create your letters or its’ Underlay, and even your fill stitch as a letter or an underlay for that letter….AND don’t forget your Underlay and your Pathing.  ALL essential parts of your lettering.  Learn too, to take your Clients’ Custom Fonts and create files just for them…AND you will learn to save the custom letters back to an existing Alphabet in order to use them for the next job for this Client or any other!
HOMEWORK: Valuable Lessons on Density, Length of Stitch, Underlay, pathing, trims, and tie-offs, and Tie-ins, as well as forming Tatami Lettering from keyboard Satin Stitch letters. and saving an edited letter for future use!…and you will use the techniques that you have learned about Lettering in a Design!

April 28, 2028:  Class #7  9:30 AM Pacific Time: Narrow Columns and Small Letters:  Today we will look at Narrow Columns and Small Letters and unlock the Secret to clean crisp small letters that do not get lost. If you can create a narrow column, one that is no wider than a piece of thread, you can create a small column-stitch letter. Learn new techniques for those letters smaller than .22 inches! Techniques you have been told cannot be done!!! Create both Running Stitch Letters and Column stitch Letters at a .15 inch height!
HOMEWORK: Practice the techniques you have learned in this Class, about density, length of stitch, underlays, pathing through your letters, both Running stitch letters AND Satin Stitch letters, tie-offs and trims, and use the Balboa techniques that you have learned to create your own clean crisp, and legible small letters!! Stitch them out, and stand back and look!

May 12, 2026:  Class #8, 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Motifs, Custom and Stock!  Turn your repeating Designs into Motifs!
Learn to evaluate your Design, What do you see that is a duplicate? Learn how to save it, make it a motif, an object that may easily be repeated.  Scale it at different sizes. Learn how to Path between each motif or object and make it part of the Motif. Then, do a running stitch and turn that running stitch into anything from a Border to Bricks to Waterfalls! Take it one step further,  modify the custom motif to run under the design as your Underlay! Want to be sure its not seen?  Run it under a fill in your design, or make it part of a column stitch!
HOMEWORK: Practice the techniques you have learned about density, length of stitch, underlays, and pathing.  Incorporate them into your Motif or repeating Design, save it for repeated use at different sizes!!  Practice making a motif underlay that connects objects in your design and adds definition and dimension!

May 26, 2026:  Class #9  9:30 AM Pacific Time:  Color, and Shapes and Definition through Color: Start with Color, learn the difference it can make. learn how it all works.  Learn to mix your colors so that you will be able to blend your colors.  We will look at the six colors used in the Elvis Stamp and see why each shade was selected.  You will learn to select the colors needed for your designs and know the shades you will get when they are mixed. Your two most important tools: the color wheel and your thread chart, make sure you have them!  See then, how you can make opposites on the Colorwheel give shape and definition to your design!
HOMEWORK: Practice using your color wheel and see where your colors show up on the thread chart!  Take a design of your own, Choose six colors to create that Design and know why.

June 9, 2026:  Class #10  9:30 AM Pacific Time:  Blending:   Blending your colors.  Learn effective ways to create new shades and tints of colors in your designs from the six colors you selected! Minimize the colors you use by blending as you travel through your design!  Create smooth transitions while avoiding any Push-Pull!
HOMEWORK: Valuable lessons on mixing those Colors in your designs, see how simple artistic principles will allow you to give that design the perfect shades of color though blends.  Try correcting a design by substituting colors using the Balboa blending techniques that you have learned in this Class!

June 23, 2026:  Class #11 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Shading: Using your Blends of color to Shade your Design and give it realism and depth.  Know where to place your colors, at what intensity.  Learn to see where to place those darker shades, and where the light colors belong.  It is easy to know if you know where to look.  These are simple artistic methods that apply to our art.
HOMEWORK: Valuable lessons on placing your colors throughout your Design, using densities to enhance the colors or to soften them. Then try these techniques on a Design that contains problems that can be corrected using techniques that you have learned in this Class!

July 7, 2026:  Class #12  9:30 AM Pacific Time:  Design Set-Up:  Our class on setting up your artwork for Realistic Designs and Corporate Logos to give you the Best Digitized Design possible; Learn what to do to get the artwork to give you the information you need to create the design that you want and that your your customer loves!  Learn where to start and which tools to use and when.
Learn tips that will help you economize on stitches while enhancing your design! The thought process…What do you See? What Colors?  What Textures? What Shapes? What stitches? Are there Blends?  Intensity of color equals tensity, Can your pathing enhance the deign, save stitches and trims? Your underlays, can you make them count?
HOMEWORK:  You will take the same design used in class.  Do you remember how to analyse it, what questions to ask?  Lets see what you see!  .

July 21, 2026:  Class #13 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Stitch Saving Techniques  Balboa Stitch Designs.  Back to the “Basics”.  This is what started it all!  A low stitch design that costs pennies to run and looks like a million.  We will take what could be a complicated design apart and make it simple, from 100,000 stitches to 10,000, using Basic stitches that you have perfected, the running Stitch, the Column Stitch and the Fill.  Nothing complicated!  Learn to simplify and bring the the essense of the art!  From there, we look at mixed mediums.  Our systems give us the ability to add prints and embroidery.  We will take a high stitch Design  and reduce it to a print with embroidered embellishments.  Then, Extending your design’s size with a print.
HOMEWORK: You will have the chance to do your own Balboa Stitch Design, taking what you have learned in this Class and those techniques from our WarmUp.  A great way to satisfy the customer on a small budget that wants it ALL!  Then take a design apart, see what could or should be printed, then how much needs to be embroidered.

August 4, 2026:  Class #14 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Appliques! Not just a substitute for stitches! Learn to use the applique to add beauty to your Design! Learn to use this technique to add function and Effect. Learn to use “Trapunto” as a tool for texture. (appliqueing an embroidered “Trapunto” piece to the background adding running stitches to define the design)  Save stitches.  Add beauty and texture!
HOMEWORK: Valuable lessons in using automatic applique programs, different ways to finish off your applique using borders, made from Motifs!, using fills to shade, and using a running stitch leaving the fabric “Raw”., use of auto-applique for Athletic Designs, and creating movement before stitching down the material.

August 18, 2026:  Class #15 3D Foam and Alternatives:  Learn the tricks of doing 3D Foam, and learn alternatives.
Don’t say No to the 3D job. Learn the easiest way to make the clean up minimal, or use the alternative. A step by step tutorial on successful use of Foam, and using your underlays as an alternative.
HOMEWORK:  Try them both:  The foam will be needed for really demensional Embroidery, but for most jobs the underlay will be a successful alternative with no mess!

September 1, 2026:  Class #16, 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Working with non-native Designs. We will address the fixes needed for each of the stitch types, the Fill, the Column Stitch, and the Running stitch. Look at the angle of the fill, was it changed when the formats were changed?, Look at the Satin Stitch, should it be a Fill? Then the Running stitch. Was it changed to Manual? AND…were your Fills changed to Manual Stitches. We will change those manual stitches back to running stitches for control and scaling.
HOMEWORK: You will have a Non-Native design to work the new “Magic” you have learned! See what your limits are, and what may still need to be trashed and replaced to allow for complete control.

September 15, 2026 Class #17, 9:30AM Pacific Time:  Working with a bad Stitchout for art, Making a bad design good!  ting a Design from a stitch out. We’ve all had it happen. The only art for you to use is a stitch-out of the design…No Stitch file, no other Art…AND the reason the customer has come to you is that the stitch out is not good! We will take the art, clean it up, and make it better! And what about that stitch file that we get that looks so good on screen, but is a mess when you run it.  We will take that apart and see what to do.  You would be surprised how the same step-by-step method makes the cleanup easy for any design!
HOMEWORK: Valuable lessons in cleaning up your art, where to start, densities, stitch length, underlay, color, and push-pull, and you will have a stitch file of a faulty Design containing problems that can be corrected using techniques that you have learned in this Class!

September 29, 2026 Class #18, 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Textures:  Glass and Fur and Feathers:  Starting with Glass;  Create stitches that give you glass so real you can pick it up!  All done with your basic stitches, and your custom motifs.  Learn what to capture and what to trash.  For your fur and feathers;  Make use of the things you learned in our WarmUp sessions, your basic stitches and recreate feathers and hair or fur.  Both require layers.  Learn to analyze those layers and place your detail for realism.
HOMEWORK: You will have the same design to digitize that we digitized in Class.  Review the Class and go step by step analyzing the art and using your basic stitches to recreate what you “don’t see”!  For fur and Feathers;   Take the techniques you were taught is the Class and apply them to this design.  A simple process if you take it step by step,  Make sure you do small sections…Too much can overwhelm you.

October 13,2026,  Class #19,  9:30 AM Pacific Time: Portraits, the human face, eyes, nose, and mouth.  See how one flows to the other.  Learn placement and see how to be sure no detail moves!  Build the base, add the detail, and duplicate the expression!  A great beginning to a very complicated design.  Take these artistic principles, use your basic stitches and plan for more training,,,This is just the beginning!
Homework:  We will take a picture and create the portrait in stitches

October 27, 2026, Class #20, 9:30 AM Pacific Time: Finishing Touches, Tie off your design with style, and mix your mediums by bringing your prints, (graphics), into your Designs.  Add a print that looks like stitches, finish it with stitches.  Make sure your finish stitches include tie-ins and tie-outs that are hidden. Use your pathing to improve the backside!  Finally, finish with your heat press for long-term beauty, and present your work with pride.  This is your customers identity, show him, or her, you respect it!  It is all in the presentation!
HOMEWORK: We will take a Design, simplify it to the “BalboaStitch, and then take the background color and set it up for printing.  Your mixed media Design will be a profit center for your future!

November 10, 2026, Class #21 9:30 AM,  Copyrights!  That’s the Law! Learn what this body of law can do for you, and how to use it to your benefit. Learn why we have it, and embrace it…Don’t fear it!  HOMEWORK: Fill out your own Copyright form in both  TX and VA

November 24, 2026: Class #22  9:30 AM Review: Review of some of our Techniques. Lets look at what we have learned with another thought in mind.  Is there a design or a customer who has a design that might need to know about new ideas you may have for their Logo?  Let’s Take that LOGO and make it POP, you know how. Show that customer more than he or she ever expected!  Make a picture worth 1000 words. You have the tools, tools that will make this customer yours forever. Use them!  HOMEWORK: Take that hum drum logo. Set it up as tone-on-tone using the garment that works! Look at colors and techniques that will enhance the design in front of you. Look at perceived value versus costs!

December 6, 2026, Class #23  9:30 AM Pacific Time: Our Christmas Cleanup. We all have that Design that we run year after year for a valued customer. One that you say you will edit before using it again. That editing gets put off and you battle through too much density and multiple thread breaks, making the design take way too long to run.  We will take 2 designs that are sent in, one could be yours, and we will clean that up and get it ready for the Rush!  HOMEWORK: Take Your Design and do our step-by-step Clean-up, and Enjoy your Holiday.  Be ready to submit your Design, if it is chosen for demonstration, you will have Your work done for you. If not, you will see how to do it.
HOMEWORK: Take the time to finally try the techniques that you have learned on your own Design! See how much time you will save, and enjoy that time with your family and friends!