Free Embroidery Designs

Computerized machine embroidery is thought to be first introduced by Wilcom. Though Melco is the first to have created computerized embroidery specifically marketed to home sewers.

New technological advancements have been made in commercial embroidery, resulting in higher quality cap frame systems. Cap frame systems have something to do with the machinery that they use to create the embroidery they use/want.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_embroidery#Computerized_machine_embroidery
http://www.wearablesbusiness.com/wearablesbusiness/mag/apparel_technological_advancements_mean/index.html

In the early eighties, designs where still being hand punched and the stitched out in factories By the late eighties some where switching to computerized machines.

Few individuals are talented enough to do elaborate free hand embroidery with a sewing machine.http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3833/video-manuels-free-motion-embroidery-technique

New technologies would include downloading designs from the Internet, software for the home embroidered to digitized their own art work and editing of commercial designs and the USB flash drive which provides large amount of storage space, and connectivity from the Internet to the embroidery machine.

The home embroidery machine has been around since the nineties.

I bought my first one early in the current century.
References :

About 15-17 years
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I have a little home computerized embroidery machine called a Viking Huskygram/Poem machine. It was made way back in 1984- (the date is marked in it’s instruction book) and originally made to operate on and with a Apple Macintosh not even Microsoft windows kind of operating system. It still works fine too! So that was probably one of the first home and not factory ones. That would make it just for that little machine, at least about 27 years old now maybe, since it’s 2011 now. And they did have larger commercial ones in factory’s way before that. That little machine has zero thread cutters, only stitches about 300 stitches per minute and only has a sewing field size of less than 4 inches square.

Big fast machines now all have thread cutters, stitch faster maybe at least 1500 stitches per minute even sometimes, and way bigger sewing fields, and a lot more needles for more thread colors. So every year, there are always way more technological advancements in embroidery, being made and used. I think some of the big ones, over time, might have been when they discovered how to make a machine sew out an embroidery design with just a computer file, (for the instructions to the machine on where to move the pantogram arm to for each stitch drop, instead of using real paper punched tape for that instead), and also how to make a machine even cycle the machine head and make a jump stitch with the needle up in the air to travel to a different place.

Other really neat things that can happen now on newer machines, is that some of them can stitch out both regular embroidery and chennille loops on the same machine, and some have lazers in them for positioning, and some can even embroider out the full width of a piece of fabric all at once, to make pre-made up embroidered fabric yardage, that you would buy on a bolt of fabric like that, at a fabric store. Some can also sew cords to the top of fabric and sew sequins in sequin strips down to the top of the fabric too. Other neat things are people often use lazer cutters now to cut and layer applique fabrics for the embroidery, and then use the machines to just stitch those down on top of the fabric after wards. Also trends to use fabric printing methods to print or etch a design onto some fabric, and then a matching or partial matching embroidery is done on top of that with an embroidery machine, so more layered and varied multi-media looks, all on the same garment that way. So lots of new neat stuff, more and more every year it seems.
References :
sewing a long time