The Bobbin Buzz & Stitchin' Bits

We have new "Classified Ads" pages now at ArtisticThreadWorks. Members can post their items for sale for free in our classifieds. Everyone can see the ads, even without being a member of ATW.

To get there easily from the ATW pages - just look for this sign...

Glad you asked!

Larry and Holly Pike are the owners of ArtisticThreadWorks.com. We started the business in August of 2001 and since then Holly has digitized thousands of designs, keeping Larry very busy with building pages on our website. (Click here to read more about Holly and Larry)

Nita O'Keefe is the owner of NitasPlace.com and began digitizing in 1998. Since that start, she has become a Brother educator and an internationally recognized digitizer. (Click here to read more about Nita!)

While attending an embroidery conference in Florida, Holly and Nita met for the first time. They soon became friends and their friendship grew into what is today "ME And Thee Embroidery".

While Nita and Holly still own their own websites and their own businesses, they collaborate together on projects where it makes sense to have more than one person working on it. This website is one such project. Rather than each having their own newsletter online, they've combined their efforts to produce this cyber-magazine for both their customer bases.

They have also worked together on many other projects, such as NitasThreadNest, Fuwari designs, and the ME And Thee Signature Series of designs.

The ThreadNest Signature Design Collections will be available at over 1,000 dealers around the globe beginning in 2008's 2nd quarter..

Because of the terms of our agreement, the ThreadNest design sets will NOT be sold online EXCEPT to the limited ThreadNest membership. There are still a few membership spots available but we are NEAR capacity now. Once we reach our limit, we will only be able to take on additional members when an opening is created by a departing member.

Current memberships will not be affected by any of these changes! If you are already a member of the the club then your prices will not be changed by this distribution agreement. Membership is currently $44.85 per month (plus shipping) and this price includes both sets of designs every month. In addition, the thread that the sets are coordinated to are shipped to our members each month as a FREE BONUS.

If you're not already a member of the the club and you want to join, please don't wait. This door will be closing shortly.

The January 2008 threadnest color set is called "Sunrise Fiesta" and members who join NOW can still get in on the design sets built around this color theme.

Here are the 15 colors included with these 2 design sets...

From 1/2/08 to 1/8/08...

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called "Animal Faces" and it's a set of 9 designs!

This set of designs is free for 1 week to guests. They're always free to members, so why not become a member now? What are you waiting for - really?! JOIN US HERE!

"MyThreadBox" is thread color matching software. (Click here to read more about the program.)

We've got to make room on our shelves for new inventory, so this item has to go! We're marking our remaining inventory down to more than 50% off!

Sorry - sold out!

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is... Cathy Crowell from Canada -- email address lee.crowell @ ns.sympatico.ca

The winner has 5 days from today to claim the membership by emailing me at webmaster@nitasplace.com.

Nita's Fancy Hearts Designs are half price this week in the What's On Sale department. It's not too early to be thinking about Valentines Day or just doing something for someone special. You can get these designs at the link below...

Here is a New Year's poem for you. Hope you enjoy it!

We have a Winner in the December Photo contest and it is Nancy Battersby. Nancy, you have just won a 1 year membership to Nita's Place. Congratulations!!

See the winning photo here or click it for a full size view...

From 1/4/08 to 1/10/08...

Help yourself to this weeks Friday Freebie design set - " Baby Fairies "! These are for everyone that is a subscriber to our free weekly newsletter here!

katwoman92157 @ yahoo.com has just won a 3-month membership at ArtisticThreadWorks! You can claim the prize here... www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com/PrizeClaim before noon tomorrow.

Here's a picture of ONE of this week's design sets...

Members of ATW can download all of this week's new designs, along with more than 16,000 other designs in the "Design Library"... Join Here!

I picked this photo as a "weekly photo contest winner". Thanks for sharing with us rozzilyn! You've won a 3 month extension on your membership for posting this photo!

Here's a bit of the story that goes with this photo...

"I'm trying something new when I made these jackets for my dgd, I quilted them first, then made them...what do ya think?" -- rozzilyn

Thanks to all of you who post photos regularly in the photo gallery. It's hard to pick a winner every week because there's so many great ones to choose from. Members of ATW can post their photos in our photo gallery with more than 27,000 other embroidery project photos!

The 12th and final BirthStone Fairy design is now available for download by members of NitasPlace. They can be found in the "Collectibles" section under the "EMBROIDERY STUDIO menu on the left side of the website.

Members of NitasPlace have been collecting this set all year and the entire set is now available to members for a short period of time. Then they will become a set in the store for purchase. So if you're a member of NitasPlace - be sure you click into the Collectibles section and download these adorable designs. If you're not a member of NitasPlace yet -- here's the link you're looking for! LOL.

Here's a look at the December Fairy - Blue Topaz...

Here's one of Nita's designs for this month's ThreadNest collection. This month's color theme is "Sunrise Fiesta"...

Members will get both of this months design sets mailed to them on CD's, along with 15 spools of design-color-coordinated Floriani thread.. The total retail value of one month's membership is aproximately $290 but the cost is only $44.85 plus shipping. There is still room for a few more members before we reach capacity.

Here's a unique in-the-hoop set of designs I spotted this morning in the Daily News. I really liked the hamburger in the set...

There are 5 missions built in the early 1700's in what is now San Antonio. The most famous is what we now call "The Alamo". Holly and I toured 4 of the 5 missions while in San Antonio in November.

Here's a photo I took of one of the missions... (Click for closeup look)

You can read more about the missions at http://www.lsjunction.com/facts/missions.htm

Here's one of Holly's designs for this month's ThreadNest collection. This month's color theme is "Sunrise Fiesta"...

Members will get both of this months design sets mailed to them on CD's, along with 15 spools of design-color-coordinated Floriani thread.. The total retail value of one month's membership is aproximately $290 but the cost is only $44.85 plus shipping. There is still room for a few more members before we reach capacity.

You'll love this set of "Don't Worry" designs. They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for this week. They can be downloaded from 1/7/08 to 1/13/08 then they're a part of the members-only design library!

(They are free to MEMBERS of NitasPlace forever as part of the membership!)

"The Masquerade" design set is on sale this week at Nita's Place.

Here's a look at this beautiful set of 5x7 designs...

Thought you'd like to see this new design from NitasThreadNest. It's from a new set called "Seranade At Sunrise" included in this month's ThreadNest membership...

This article is from ATW...

"Is it possible to get a print out of the designs/collections that we download ?"

Great question! I would suggest you don't make a printout of your design collection. It takes up a lot of space. Even printing out a piece of paper with the designs available becomes difficult when you have a few thousand designs. And there are probably people here who have 100,000 designs on their computer.

And the cost of even 10,000 designs printed out and place neatly into a series of notebooks would start to add up in buying notebooks, paper, and ink cartridges. So it comes down to a couple of ways that this can be done electronically.

I'll be releasing a video shortly showing how to make a design catalog using several different pieces of software available at prices ranging from $20 and up. Once you see the capabilities of each of these software packages, you can make a choice for what you would like best. From watching the video - you'll already know the basics of making the program work.

(Release date for the new video will be announced here in the next few days. Members can read an extensive article on this topic on ATW now.)

This week's 3-month membership Winner from our mailing list is Pat Heath from Michigan -- (email address pattyjorn)

The winner has 5 days from today to claim the membership by emailing webmaster@nitasplace.com

From 1/9/08 to 1/15/08...

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called "Pocket Flowers". They're yours as a gift from Holly at ArtisticThreadWorks.

This set of designs is free for 1 week to guests. They're always free to members, so why not become a member now? What are you waiting for - really?! JOIN US HERE!

From 1/11/08 to 1/17/08...

Help yourself to this weeks Friday Freebie design set - "Chef Toppers"! These are for everyone that is a subscriber to our free weekly newsletter here! Just click into the picture and choose "Sample Designs"...

Here's a picture of ONE of this week's design sets...

Members of ATW can download all of this week's new designs, along with more than 16,000 other designs in the "Design Library"... Join Here!

cybercyndilee @ yahoo.com has just won a 3-month membership at ArtisticThreadWorks! You can claim the prize here... www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com/PrizeClaim before noon tomorrow.

Here's something I just have to tell you about. We've created a "Free Trial Membership Offer" at ArtisticThreadWorks! All the details are on this page... Free Trial Membership!

I looked at which sets of designs from our Premier Designs Store were the hottest sellers and bundled them together into a really terrific offer. There's a special offer for people who have never been a member of ATW before, another special offer for people that were members in the past and want to try it out again, and there's a special offer for current members of the site.

So a lot of thought, time, and work went into making this a great way to buy some terrific hot-selling designs at an incredibly low price and include a free trial membership along with it so people can experience the ATW website from the inside.

Nita has 29 spots still available 5 spots still available 3 spots still available SOLD OUT! for the January 2008 membership at NitasThreadNest and they will be gone today.

January 2008 memberships are now sold out. If you'd like to be in the February membership - a signup sheet will be online in a few minutes!

Here are the designs included in this month's shipment which will finish going out this weekend...

Set #1 is called Ole` and it's from Holly.

Click the picture for a closeup view of the PDF showing the cover of this months CD #1 including all 40 designs in this new set...

Set #2 is called "Serenade At Dawn" from Nita.

Click the picture for a closeup view of the PDF showing the cover of this months CD #2 including all 40 designs in this new set...

Along with BOTH sets of designs, the ThreadNest members also receive the 15 color-coordinated mini-king spools of Floriani thread as a FREE BONUS with the designs. The designs are created with these colors in mind.

There are 29 spots left for the January shipment. Visit NitasThreadNest for details!

There are LOTS of ways to make a picture of an embroidery design or set of designs...

1) You can do a "screen capture" using a program like "SnagIt" or "JasCap"

2) You can stitch out the design and scan it with a desktop scanner

3) You can stitch out the design and photograph it with a camera

OR

4) You can make a project with the design and photograph the project.

And #4 is what we've been doing here for the last few days. We're working on making the covers for the cases on our new signature series of designs being released in March at your local dealer. Maybe not ALL local dealers - but a good number of them - possibly as many as 1,000 dealers around the world! If your dealer isn't carrying our designs in March - ask them to get the "ME And Thee Embroidery Designs" available through RNK Distributing.

Here's the photo setup we're using to get the pictures...

That's the "starting point" for the photo. The backdrop is some fabric with a 2" hem stitched along one edge to make a backdrop curtain. It's suspended from a frame made for holding backdrops, then softly lit up with photo lights.

The REAL MAGIC happens when I take the 8-mega-pixel photo into my software and...

Released as a member set in the Design Depot is "Swirls & Pearls". Here's a picture of the designs...

Design Depot are Limited Editions and only stay up for a month free to members. Members can download the set at NitasPlace

Guests can purchase the set in the store at www.nitasplace.com/item5285

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is "Patti Johnson" from Pennslyvania -- email address pjjmgj @ ptd.net

The winner has 5 days from today-01-12-08 to claim the membership by emailing me at webmaster@nitasplace.com.

Congratulations Patti!

New Collectible Series "Stained Glass Windows" has been started for members. Guests will be able to purchase these in the store. Members can download them for 1 month free.

Greetings!

Has anyone gotten used to writing 2008 yet? I was trying to teach myself to do that and then uploaded some items to my website that should have been marked 2007. I was just slapping that 2008 on to everything in sight. LOL. Had to go back and change it all again.

I hope the New Year has been good to you all so far.

This has once again been a very busy week.

Friends Holly and Larry Pike have been making Texas their home base this winter because of the many projects we have been working on together. We are working very hard on the new Fuwari 3D embroidery. This is a very exciting concept. We have been putting together a trunk show for the Las Vegas event in February so that everyone can see how much fun this is going to be. You should be able to purchase the designs by early March 2008.

We have also been working like mad to get the new "Me and Thee" line ready to launch in February. Trunk show time again. We have friends helping to put together fabulous projects for this line in addition to our own ideas.

Members Ina Archer and Carol Wayman will be coming in to my studio next week to stay with us and work with us. My sister, Annette, has been here since Thanksgiving weekend and has been stitching like crazy.

Taking time out for a little fun next week as Wednesday will be my friend Holly's birthday. We plan on a massage and lunch out with the girls. Then dinner with the whole team here.

Our webmaster-"DebbieMC" is out this week for some surgery. She has carpal tunnel surgery this week on her right wrist. So she will be back in the forums and online in a few days.

Here's one of our Fuwari projects...

Until Next week;
Happy Stitching Trails,
Nita

"I have been downloading some wonderful designs but somehow they are now all going automatically to the temporary folder instead of where I normally put them in My Documents / Embroidery Files. I am not sure how the routing got changed, but I can not seem to figure out how to fix it. I use Windows XP and my email is through yahoo if you think that makes any difference. The Help files were NOT Helpful at all. Any help is appreciated."

The answer to this question is a new article on ArtisticThreadWorks in our "Computers & Software" section!

" How to make Chenille Strips on the Embroidery machine. One must use unwashed 100% cotton fabric to get the "chenille" effect. Instead of buying small expensive, already made pieces of chenille, make your own on your embroidery machine. In your software, using your straight line stitching tool, set your stitch length to 2.0 to 2.5 mm. Set your background to your "grid or snap to grid" feature. Set your stitching lines at a 45 degree angle to the straight line grid. Place your stitching lines at a 45 degree angle to your grid line. You must do this in order for the cotton to chenille. You can use your duplicate tool to copy your lines. Layer your base piece of cotton right side up, then 2-3 layers of cotton to be chenilled on top, right sides up. Hoop. Use tear away backing for a stabilizer, but I don't usually use any stabilizer for this. Have your machine ready to go and let it do the stitching for you. Remove from hoop. Cut the strips between the stitching line. You will shape and stitch the chenille strips on top of the stitching line. Then use a chenille brush or throw in the washer and dryer....and voila'....you have chenille work. Very easy, and fun! (You can also set your fabric in on the bias, then straight line stitch the lines according to your grid, but you need to make sure your fabric is set in on a TRUE bias for this to work!) "

You'll love this set of "I Love My..." designs. They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next 6 days... 1/14/08 thry 1/20/08.

(They are free to MEMBERS of NitasPlace forever as part of the membership!)

Nita's Masquerade Designs are half price this week in the "What's On Sale?" department. You can also get this design set at the link below.

http://www.nitasplace.com/public/viewimage.cfm?ImgID=172

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called "Heart Friends" from 1/16/08 to 1/22/08...

This set of designs is free for 1 week to guests. They're always free to members, so why not become a member now? What are you waiting for - really?! JOIN US HERE!

" When using temporary spray adhesives, the spray will get "gummy...or buggary" towards the end. By storing your cans "upside down", this will prevent the clogging and you will be able to utilize the whole can of spray without throwing away $$$$$ because of gooping spray "

Thanks to Sandy S. for this tip!

(This question was from our Computer Help Forum where you'll always find a helping hand with your computer and software questions.)

I would download the files, but all I got were the text files... I don't know WHAT happened, but I found them, the designs were there, probaly the whole time!!! I have this thing called CFA... known as CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!!!! -- Mair

Answers...

CFA is pretty common and it seems to be spreading! I think that MOST of the time what happens is we install a new program and it changes your system to work with files that way it want to work with them. The problem is that probably isn't the way you're used to working with files and suddenly things work differently and you can't find anything or... CFA!

The only real solution is to learn how to use the "SEARCH" feature built into Windows to look through your hard drive and find out where the heck that thing went to! I have to do this all the time too so you're not alone. -- Larry

Thanks Mair for the question! This question was from our Computer Help Forum where you'll always find a helping hand with your computer and software questions.

I've also written a more extensive article showing how to use the SEARCH tool built into Windows. It's in our members area under the title Do You Suffer From CFA?

We also offer a VIDEO on CD that plays in your computer and shows you Basic Computer Skills For Embroidery!

" In storage, I keep my thread ends under control with strips of clear plastic. During a project, when I have threads out to reuse, I slip a child's ponytail holder on-from the dollar store, a bunch for a dollar-and that saves a lot of time. "

Thanks to Joanne G. for this tip!

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is... Aggie Wilson from Illionis -- email address akkjb @ xxxxxxxx .com

The winner has 5 days from today to claim the membership by emailing me at webmaster@nitasplace.com.

"Collect-A-Bear-2008" has been added to the "Embroidery Studio" section of NitasPlace.

This month's release is "Sweet Teddy for January 2008" and is available now for download by NitasPlace members. A new set of Teddies will be added every month for 2008.

Here's a new project added for members at NitasPlace. It's called "Sweet Sentiments"! Use these designs to make puffy ornaments or coasters with the sweet sentiments embroidered on them. They're fun and quick to make right in your embroidery hoop.

Members of NitasPlace can download the project how-to AND the designs here!

Today there is a new section created in the Embroidery Studio at NitasPlace. Look down the left side navigation panel at "Embroidery Studio", then click on the "Alphabet-A-Month" link. This will take you to the first monogram collection for 2008. You can also use this link.

The January "Bonus Set" at NitasPlace is ready for members to download!

The design set is called "Graceful Beauty" and is a collection of designs that will delight the eye and make gorgeous projects. I know you will find many uses for them!

Boy, has it been a working studio here at my place this week. You all would have been amazed to see so many people working together in one studio.

Ina Archer from Florida arrived last week on Saturday and we put her right to work creating project samples. Carol@ATW arrived from Chicago on Tuesday and it was right to work for her also. My sister, Annette and my helper, Sylvia, have been busy stitching away getting the test stitchouts finished and stitching up some projects as well. Larry and CJ have been taking photographs and setting up brochures for CD's in one corner of the room.

We are, by the way, letting all these people stop work to eat meals and sleep now and then. Ina asked me before she got here if she was going to be allowed to stop and sleep. :-)

Wednesday was friend Holly's birthday and we all took the day off and went for a massage. Well most of us went for a massage, 4 of us. Then out to lunch to Chili's for the group. Then of course we had to go shopping and where else would a bunch of embroidery and sewing women go shopping but to a craft and fabric store. "Smile"

I am not sure Hobby Lobby will ever be the same. I also think we tried to buy out the store. We did actually come back to the Studio and put in a couple of hours work before the entire gang took off for our favorite local mexican food restaurant.

I wish all of you could come to Las Vegas in February to see all the trunk shows we have put together. It is going to be fabulous. There is a trunk show for the new 3D Embroidery called "Fuwari" and another trunk show for the "Me and Thee" line of embroidery designs. Look for both of these in March at your local dealer.

The trunk show will be traveling from Las Vegas around the country with the RNK staff to events at dealerships and other trade shows. Perhaps you will get a chance to see it soon. Ask your dealer about it.

So, guess that is all the news this week. Lots of new things happening on Nitas Place too. Check those out in the rest of the Newsletter.

Happy Stitching Trails til next time!
Nita O'Keefe

" In the winter when the air is dry and the humidifier doesn't help lightly spray the tread spool with a anti-stactic spray it helps with thread fray and breaking. "

Thanks Marie P. for this tip!

Help yourself to this weeks Friday Freebie design set - "Bath-Kids"! These are for everyone that is a subscriber to our free weekly newsletter here!

reneesdecorating @ xxxxx.com has just won a 3-month membership at ArtisticThreadWorks! You can claim the prize here... www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com/PrizeClaim before noon tomorrow.

Here's a picture of ONE of this week's design sets...

Members of ATW can download all of this week's new designs, along with more than 16,000 other designs in the "Design Library"... Join Here!

I was reading a magazine article this morning about Nancy Zieman. Her show "Sewing With Nancy" has been on PBS over 25 years now. Wow. That's 26 episodes a year times 25 years... or about 650 episodes.

Just think of the changes in sewing that have happened in that time. Heck - even in the last 10 years we've seen major changes. The first computerized home embroidery machines hit the market just 10 years ago.

Where do you think our hobby will be in 10 more years? What do you think a top-of-the-line home embroidery machine will be like in 2018? What will it cost? What about digitizing? How will that change?

Click on "Comments" link right below this article to post your thoughts on where we'll be then. What else can we expect from the year 2018? How about a return trip to the moon? How about a car that looks like the one in this article?

I searched Google for predictions for 2018 and found out that while many people try to predict what this next year will bring, and some will make predictions for 5 years from now, very few people want to say what they think will happen in 10 years. Must be just too far down the road for most of us to even think about.

Well I'll start this off with my predictions for 2018 and see if any of these work for you...

Wal-Mart Introduces New Brother SE-990 Embroidery Machine: Has 500 built-in Disney designs and sells for $99, but only available in the 5,000 stores that still carry fabric and craft supplies, the other 25,000 stores won't be carrying this item.

Sewing Gains In Popularity On Cable And Satelite Channels: Direct TV channels 8000 to 8200 are now sewing and craft channels. Comcast follows suit with channels 9000 to 9200 -- and claim they have better picture quality too!

Stabilizer Manufacturer "JCTD" Merges With "Cut-Rite Wax Paper Company": Seizing the opportunity to grow their market share these two makers of non-wovens have merged and now sell both product lines through grocery stores and gas station convenience stores.

"ME And Thee Embroidery" Celebrates 10th Anniversary! (Just had to put that one in!)

-- Larry

" When I clip jump threads-holding onto them with my treasured and most helpful tweezers-I always lift the pressure foot lever. If I accidently touch the start button, which is right down the bottom on my Ellageo, I won't sew my fingers because the machine won't go! "

Thanks to Joanne G. for another great tip!

" I am a firm believer in test sewing out my embroidery designs first but would like to think of it and a slow project in the works. I recycle used jeans by cutting them up into what I use for my test squares with when I have enough I make them into the most wonderful rag quilt.With using demin and flannel as my backing square there is no need to use batting which saves a step. The quilts are big hits with the family and is always close by if I need to see one of the embroideries. Hardly any of the jeans need to be wasted as pockets make great little hanging pouches which can be decorated in endless ways or used as pockets on homemade tote bags or purses. The double seams can be saved and when braided make great hat bands, belts, purse straps, decorative edging on garments, ect. A great way to recycle and make something the family will love in the process. Happy Sewing from the beautiful Ozarks! "

Thanks to Marguerite A. for this great tip!