The Bobbin Buzz & Stitchin' Bits

A new Collectible January Single Teddy is now up for our members. The link is:

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is Nadra from Lenora, Kansas --email address njohnson @ gbta .net

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

Nita's 2007 Collectible Snowman collection is now available for purchase in the Store as a set of 12 designs. You will find these adorable snowmen in the Seasonal Department.

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

Here are the photo's drawn at random from our January '08 photo gallery. Each of these 3 people have won a 1-year membership at ATW!

Photo# 26706 by JudyPNW

Photo# 26980 by kacy 49

Photo# 27147 by CarolynH

Congrats to the winners and a reminder to all members of ArtisticThreadWorks... ANY photo can win! All you need to do to enter is post a photo of your embroidery, your sewing room, your kids wearing a project you've made, almost anything related to sewing and embroidery (except advertisements) can be posted in our photo gallery. Each photo you upload is an entry into our monthly drawing for a free 1-year membership.

" I've been using a paint roller on an extension pole with two regular size lint rollers put on the paint roller to pick up threads off my carpet. I've was doing this long before the 'industry' marketed this type of thing for picking up pet hair. Should have patented it "

We have a Winner in the NitasPlace January Photo contest and it is ......... Dominique Beer aka NiqueB

Dominique, you have just won a 1 year membership to Nita's Place. Congratulations!!

Winning Photo...

I installed a new piece of software a couple days ago. Everything seemed right with the world at first, then I started noticing little things going very wrong...

When I tried to shutdown my computer, it hung up and wouldn't shut down. I resorted to killing it with the power button. Then I'd get a popup notice about my spysweeper program not running and I couldn't close that popup. Then some of the tools in my drawing program stopped working. It was definitely getting worse by the hour. Time for drastic measures!

The first step was to remove the new program. Then I rolled back my computer to an earliers time using "System Restore". It took half a day to get everything working right again but all is good now.

So what did I do next? I created another "System Restore" point on my computer! If your computer is running well today then TODAY is the right time to make a restore point.

Go to START / HELP & SUPPORT / "Undo changes to your computer with System Restore"

Then click where it says "Create A Restore Point" then "Next". Then give your restore point a name like "SETTINGS GOOD" and save it. That's it! You've got a good place to go back to now if you run into problems down the road.

Make one about once a week and you'll be way ahead when the need comes up.

-- Larry

Sampler set is ready for you to download. "Love Puppies" are here to decorate your Valentine project with love!

A new series from Becky J! The first in the new series is Arnelle Palmingo. Look for more of these delightful designs from Becky J.

Grandma Loves Me. Tim is learning to digitize and this is his first gift to our members!

Here is the February Teddy Collectible. 5 teddy bears with their hearts! These are free only to members of NitasPlace during the month of February...

In the "What's On Sale" department this week is Field of Tulips, a set of 13 colorful bows and flowers. This set is half price for one week only!

February 19th Deadline For ThreadNest Membership.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SITE IS CLOSING!!! It is very much alive and well and will continue to run just as it has been for several months. What it means is that we will no longer be able to accept new members after February 19th.

I have to tell you this...

Membership at the ThreadNest is probably the biggest bargain on the internet for anyone in the embroidery community. Period. The designs are exquisite, top-quality, manually digitized, adult-oriented designs. Members get TWO SETS EACH MONTH with a total retail value as high as $200 but for just a fraction of that price. And they get a spectacular BONUS too!

I'll explain that a bit more to you...

Nita and Holly sat down a year ago and looked at all the colors available from the Floriani threadline. They sorted them out into families of colors and named each assortment for the place or thing that they reminded them of most. Then they set about creating sets of designs that work perfectly with each of those thread collections. The designs are color-coordinated to the thread colors!

While you can substitute colors and get stunning results, Nita and Holly have made it easy for anyone to get perfect results by choosing the colors for the designs. Of course, having the designs and having the colors on hand are often two different things normally. So they've gone the extra mile and provide not only the design sets, but the exact colors you need to go with them as a free bonus when you're a member of the ThreadNest. That makes it a "CAN'T FAIL" deal for you. Yes -- it costs Nita a fortune to give away that much thread, but it's the best way to be sure every member has the exact colors needed to enjoy these designs to their fullest.

The designs are beautiful (view photos here) and they have been PICKED UP FOR INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION beginning in March. As part of the distribution agreement, we must cap the membership at the ThreadNest to only those people who have joined BEFORE the 20th of February 2008.

As I said before -- it's THE bargain of the century for embroidery fans. And it's only available until February 19th OR until we've reached our capacity -- whichever comes first.

Everyone who joins in February will receive the March design sets and the March threadsets. New members will be able to pick up past sets in the private members-only store area of the site as inventory becomes available. Non-Members will NOT be able to buy previous sets except through the retail stores.

We have a few openings now available but the door closes on the 19th of this month. If you want to take advantage of this offer - do it now. The last time we had a few openings was in January and those membership positions sold out in 2 days. We have a few more openings now, but I doubt they will last until February 19th. So IF YOU WANT A MEMBERSHIP in this club -- take it now.

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called "Paw Prints".

(Here's a hint... you can skip stitching out the name and have just the paw print!)

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!

Clipartopolis has released their new "Clipartorama" software. I've been playing with it for just a few hours and I've got to say that this program is COOL!

I'm no artist but the compositions I was able to create were really neat. Whether you digitize for a living, or just for fun, it's a good way to create unique clipart at a fraction of the cost of paying for exclusive artwork. And they have two ways to use it - either online or installed on your computer. It's fun software, but don't take my word for it, check out this page and see for yourself.

-- Larry

" If you happened to cut your outline for applique stiches and the material is pulling away place a piece of scotch tap to the material and pull it toward the stiches so then the outline stiches will catch the material and the scotch will pull off. "

We will be upgrading our server over the next couple days to improve site performance.

Our site has been steadily growing over the last year and we are now seeing some lag in response times that we will address with a new and more powerful server. This may take a few days to complete the changeover. During this time you might find the site unavailable for short periods of time. Typically around 10 minutes but possibly as long as 1 hour at least one time while we make the final cutover to the new server.

This will affect the ArtisticThreadWorks site and may also affect the DigitizersWorld site since it is on the same server. It will NOT affect the NitasPlace or NitasThreadNest or TheBobbinBuzz websites as they are on a different server.

Thank you for your patience during the upgrade process.

-- Larry

" When I use solvy on top of my embroidery , I pick it away with tweezers as close as I can get to the design. I still have little bits in corners, so I take a small paintbrush with the foam tip on the end of it and dip it in water and dab at the solvy. I use a sippy cup. Then you can sprinkle on the foam tip and I don't worry if I knock it over... "

Another funny embroidery story, this one submitted by Jennifer Curry.

I am a big machine embroidery fan. I love to sew and I love to embroider on my Bernina. A few years ago my husband and I had our own embroidery business where we ran four Melco ten needle machines.

We are both school teachers and coaches so we were very busy along with raising two daughters. My husband was involved in a workshop/training for PE and Health teachers for our state and we took one of our machines with us and set up our shop at the workshop-conference doing shirts, bags and hats.

One afternoon I was in the room they gave us to set up in and run our little shop. My husband was out on the golf course. I was alone in the room and reached under the presser foot to flick out a thread. That was a mistake! I was not quick enough and the needle came down and caught my finger.

Well, it caught my finger and and I was caught under the presser foot. I could not reach the phone in the room. It was across the room from where I have I was standing stuck to the machine. The needle was down through my finger on the edge of my fingernail. It really did not hurt but I was a little woozey.

Luckily a man and his wife came in to order and he asked how I was and I explained what had happened. He panicked and said well what can we do. I said "well I have to bring up the needle but I was just getting myself psyched up to push the button to raise it. I knew that was when it would hurt."

I explained that my husband was on the golf course and he immediately said "I will call him." He called the golf course and told the person that answered that there was a man out on the golf course that they needed to get ahold of immediately because his wife was hooked to a machine.

I said, "Oh no, they will think I am on life support."

They described my husband and sent a golf ranger out to find my husband. When they did they told him I had had an accident and was hooked to a machine. He understood and came as quick as the golf cart would carry him.

We have laughed about this story for several years. I then of course was asked if I had my tetanus shot up to date etc. It was quite an experience!

Thanks for the story Jennifer! If YOU have a funny embroidery story, send it to nita@nitasplace.com

Help yourself to this weeks Friday Freebie design set - "Circus-1"! These are for everyone that is a subscriber to our free weekly newsletter here from 2/8/08 to 2/14/08!

Here's a fun online game... "MonoMatch". It's provided by MonoBrow.com and it's a simple puzzle where you flip the pieces until you turn up two that match. Each puzzle piece features a person or character with just one eyebrow!

" For 'in the hoop' embroidery projects that require elastic, I use fabric pens to color the elastic to match the fabric. I've been doing this for years "

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

UPDATE: 2/9/08 Readers have bought almost HALF the open positions in the 3-1/2 days since I originally announced this on the afternoon of Feb 5th. In case you missed the anouncement - I've repeated it here...

February 19th Deadline For ThreadNest Membership!

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SITE IS CLOSING!!! It is very much alive and well and will continue to run just as it has been for several months. What it means is that we will no longer be able to accept new members after February 19th.

I have to tell you this...

Membership at the ThreadNest is probably the biggest bargain on the internet for anyone in the embroidery community. Period. The designs are exquisite, top-quality, manually digitized, adult-oriented designs. Members get TWO SETS EACH MONTH with a total retail value as high as $200 but for just a fraction of that price. And they get a spectacular BONUS too!

I'll explain that a bit more to you...

Nita and Holly sat down a year ago and looked at all the colors available from the Floriani threadline. They sorted them out into families of colors and named each assortment for the place or thing that they reminded them of most. Then they set about creating sets of designs that work perfectly with each of those thread collections. The designs are color-coordinated to the thread colors!

While you can substitute colors and get stunning results, Nita and Holly have made it easy for anyone to get perfect results by choosing the colors for the designs. Of course, having the designs and having the colors on hand are often two different things normally. So they've gone the extra mile and provide not only the design sets, but the exact colors you need to go with them as a free bonus when you're a member of the ThreadNest. That makes it a "CAN'T FAIL" deal for you. Yes -- it costs Nita a fortune to give away that much thread, but it's the best way to be sure every member has the exact colors needed to enjoy these designs to their fullest.

The designs are beautiful (view photos here) and they have been PICKED UP FOR INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION beginning in March. As part of the distribution agreement, we must cap the membership at the ThreadNest to only those people who have joined BEFORE the 20th of February 2008.

As I said before -- it's THE bargain of the century for embroidery fans. And it's only available until February 19th OR until we've reached our capacity -- whichever comes first.

Everyone who joins in February will receive the March design sets and the March threadsets. New members will be able to pick up past sets in the private members-only store area of the site as inventory becomes available. Non-Members will NOT be able to buy previous sets except through the retail stores.

We have a few openings now available but the door closes on the 19th of this month. If you want to take advantage of this offer - do it now. The last time we had a few openings was in January and those membership positions sold out in 2 days. We have a few more openings now, but I doubt they will last until February 19th. So IF YOU WANT A MEMBERSHIP in this club -- take it now.

-- Larry

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 know this may sound bogus to our readers in the North, but what I would call "winter" is almost over here in SouthEast Texas. Late December and all of January we saw temperatures in the upper 30's and lower 40's at night. During the day it peaked around 55 or 60 on sunny days but there weren't a lot of those so mostly it was cloudy with a high around 45. That's "winter" in this part of Texas. And I can live with that after living in the Chicago area for 25+ years!

We're still frantic to finish our projects before Holly and Nita leave for the Las Vegas show on the 19th but there's light at the end of the tunnel finally. We'll be introducing the "ME & Thee" line of designs to the dealers at the show and the day they fly off will feel like the first time I can catch my breath in about 6 months. LOL.

Meanwhile - I'm also working on getting a new server set up for the ArtisticThreadWorks site. Our current one is only about 18 months old and we've already outgrown it's capacity. Our community is really active and we love it. Just creates small growning pains once in a while as we move to a larger server to hold all the photos and forum posts going on inside.

I've received quite a few emails about the recent series of articles on ArtisticThreadWorks called "Adding A Zero To Your Business". Part-4 was released this morning and I have several more articles queued on the topic of running your own business over the next few weeks.

One of the emails I received asked me how do I know just what they want to learn about next? It's pretty simple really... whenever I'm wondering what people would like to read about next, I look in our forums and the answer is there. It's whatever people are asking questions about today. So if you've got questions - post in our forum. You'll get answers from our members that have already been-there/done-that and you might even see an article about it if I'm one of those who have already been-there/done-that too.

I hope you enjoy this weekend's additions to TheBobbinBuzz and have fun with the new designs!

-- Larry

" Use Embird's Predefined folders to go directly to your most used embroidery folders. Great shortcut. "

" When I use a needle smaller that what my needle threader likes, I hold a small piece of white paper behind the eye to thread with ease "

UPDATE: 2/11/08 Readers have bought OVER HALF the open positions in the 5 days since I originally announced this on February 5th. In case you missed the anouncement - I've repeated it below.

There are still a few openings left but I expect they will all be gone in about 4 more days. After that time, there will be no more openings period. So if you're one of those who have been waiting until the deadline gets closer... It's about as close as it can get.

February 19th Deadline For ThreadNest Membership!

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SITE IS CLOSING!!! It is very much alive and well and will continue to run just as it has been for several months. What it means is that we will no longer be able to accept new members after February 19th.

I have to tell you this...

Membership at the ThreadNest is probably the biggest bargain on the internet for anyone in the embroidery community. Period. The designs are exquisite, top-quality, manually digitized, adult-oriented designs. Members get TWO SETS EACH MONTH with a total retail value as high as $200 but for just a fraction of that price. And they get a spectacular BONUS too!

I'll explain that a bit more to you...

Nita and Holly sat down a year ago and looked at all the colors available from the Floriani threadline. They sorted them out into families of colors and named each assortment for the place or thing that they reminded them of most. Then they set about creating sets of designs that work perfectly with each of those thread collections. The designs are color-coordinated to the thread colors!

While you can substitute colors and get stunning results, Nita and Holly have made it easy for anyone to get perfect results by choosing the colors for the designs. Of course, having the designs and having the colors on hand are often two different things normally. So they've gone the extra mile and provide not only the design sets, but the exact colors you need to go with them as a free bonus when you're a member of the ThreadNest. That makes it a "CAN'T FAIL" deal for you. Yes -- it costs Nita a fortune to give away that much thread, but it's the best way to be sure every member has the exact colors needed to enjoy these designs to their fullest.

The designs are beautiful (view photos here) and they have been PICKED UP FOR INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION beginning in March. As part of the distribution agreement, we must cap the membership at the ThreadNest to only those people who have joined BEFORE the 20th of February 2008.

As I said before -- it's THE bargain of the century for embroidery fans. And it's only available until February 19th OR until we've reached our capacity -- whichever comes first.

Everyone who joins in February will receive the March design sets and the March threadsets. New members will be able to pick up past sets in the private members-only store area of the site as inventory becomes available. Non-Members will NOT be able to buy previous sets except through the retail stores.

We have a few openings now available but the door closes on the 19th of this month. If you want to take advantage of this offer - do it now. The last time we had a few openings was in January and those membership positions sold out in 2 days. We have a few more openings now, but I doubt they will last until February 19th. So IF YOU WANT A MEMBERSHIP in this club -- take it now.

-- Larry

You'll love this set of "Sweet Dreams" designs. They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next 5 days. (Today through 2/16/08)

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

" I use a size 8 needle for embroidering small lettering. I use Embird alphas and have no problem with lettering as small as 1/4". You may have to thread it by hand if your needle threader doesn't work with that small of a needle. However, it is worth it to get crisp small lettering. "

I got 10 right out of 12 possible... how about you?

I got an email this morning and I want to share part of it with everyone here because it asks an important question. My response is just below...

"If I don't want to Join Nita's thread nest what is left? Will ATW be available like it was before. Or will it eventually close?"

Here's my answer...

Thanks for writing! I really appreciate you asking because if you're wondering then there are probably other people that are thinking the same thing and I want to clear that up right away.

Our newsletter website www.TheBobbinBuzz.com (you're on it now) is our primary way to communicate with our customers. This is where we make announcements, share stories, ideas, free designs, contests, and other information our customers are interested in. It is one part of the ME & Thee Embroidery system.

Our website www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com belongs to Holly and me and it is not going away. It's been online for several years now and is very doing very well. We have the most active embroidery community anywhere with nearly nearly 1/2 million posts in our forums and photo galleries. It's a never-ending treasure trove of embroidery ideas, conversations, articles, and designs. In fact, it's doing so well that we have outgrown our hosting companies computer and will have to install a new computer with bigger hard drives in the next few days. The ATW site has hundreds of articles about embroidery and computers as they are used in embroidery. It also features a Design Library with over 16,000 designs for member download, online videos, and much more.

Another website in our system is www.NitasPlace.com and it belongs to Nita O'Keefe. It also is NOT going anywhere! Nita's Place shows how to make projects using embroidery designs. Each month there are several new projects showcased and they include step-by-step instructions on how to make them yourself. They also include the designs used to make the projects and many additional designs created by Nita O'Keefe.

The post about www.NitasThreadNest.com is to say it won't be accepting NEW members after Feb 19th. The ThreadNest also belongs to Nita O'Keefe and it is NOT closing. It just won't be accepting NEW members after the 19th because the designs from the ThreadNest will begin "in-store" distribution as of Feb 20th in more than 1,000 stores internationally under the ME & Thee label. Those people that are already members of the ThreadNest as of Feb 20th can keep their membership and continue to get the great deal they have been getting. We just won't be adding any NEW members to the ThreadNest after Feb 19th due to our contractual agreement with our distribution company.

I hope that clears up the confusion for you. If it doesn't, please email me at larry@artisticthreadworks.com

" I love using the cones of thread because they go so much further then the spools. If you do not have the thread stand you can put your cone in a large mouth empty instant coffee jar. It keeps the cone upright and the thread coming off like it should. I also use the small spool spindle to put the thread to the outside where it will stay in the guide. "

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called " Wild Ducks "

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!

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

It's been a while since I backed up my designs so I tried to do that today. I downloaded the designs to a CD-R like I have done in the past and when I went to see if the designs were actually on the CD, the tower wound up as if to read the CD but nothing happened. I made a new CD thinking the first CD had a problem. Same thing happened. My question is... were there too many designs on the CD? How long would it take for the computer to read the CD if there were about 500 designs on it? Thanks for any help.

Answer...

When you burn to a CD it's a two-step process if you're using Windows to make it. Step-1 puts the files into a holding area and step-2 actually burns them onto the disk. Many people don't know that they have to complete the process by initiating step-2.

There's a couple ways to deal with this. One is to use software for burning CD's that isn't just the Windows built-in system. Many of the other software programs do a much better job of handling this issue. A couple of my programs have an area where you put the stuff you want to add to the CD and then a big red button that says "BURN" for when you're ready to actuall burn the CD.

If you're using Windows then after you add the files to the disk holding area, you want to click to initiate the burn.

And to answer the other question -- it would take about 10 seconds to read the CD with 500 designs on it.

Thanks 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.

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

For those ATW members who have been following this series, the 5th and final article is now up! The series started a couple weeks ago and covers..

"Marketing consists of a message, a medium, an audience, a strategy, and follow-through."

If you have questions, please email me or post in the forum!

-- Larry

" When I cut away the extra stabilizer after embroidering a design, I save the larger pieces. Then when I need extra stability, I hoop a piece of cut away or tear away stabilizer and spray it and then add the extra piece. Then I spray it again and add the fabric to embroider on. "

" I am always losing my stylus for the screen. Why do they like to run away? Well, I took a little Velcro spot and put half on my stylus and the other half on my machine where it would be handy and yet out of the way. No more searching for it. "

Very clever Dr Seuss style poem!

" Place the netting spool covers over the rayon embroidery thread to keep it from spooling or tangling. Run the thread from the top of the spool and thread machine as normal. "

The diamond was a special favorite in New England for use in making “best quilts.” Almost always the quilting on diamond quilts was more elaborate and painstaking than that on square or triangle patches.

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is Debra Davis from Lancaster, Kentucky --email address quiltntym @ alltell .net

The winner has 5 days from today - 2-16-08 - to claim the membership by emailing me at webmaster@nitasplace.com.

Another funny embroidery story, this one submitted by Rose Weaver.

We've all heard 'Patience is a virtue' well how about patience with an embroidery machine is a virtue? My wonderful hubby had just gotten me my Futura machine. I proudly opened it up and read through the machine embroidery book...did I say read? let me rephrase that I scanned its' front 2 pages..ahh I had been sewing since I was 4 (I have 5 older sisters and 3 are great seamstresses) so I learned by watching (ok being nosey). I figured 30+ years should have taught me something...not about computerized sewing anyway.

I attached my embroidery hoop just like the book said..ok the way I fit it...I scanned my patterns and found the one with the lil teddy bear on it. I hit the send button and low and behold the machine kept saying the thread broke..I reset the button after checking my thread..again the computer screen read the thread had broken. Again I checked my thread and reset my machine.

For the next 15 minutes it was me against machine. I'd check reset and again the screen would repeat itself. Finally I pulled the thread totally off the machine rewound the spool and rethreaded the machine carefully threading it through the needle, at least this I knew how to do. I reattached my hoop and tried again.

Again the machine wouldn't sew and again for the next 15 minutes I fought with this last link to my insanity. Patience of Job I do not have but this day it was personal. I was not going to let a machine with the cannibalistic taste for thread ruin my good fortune of my new toy. I pondered as to what to do next.

My hubby whom I love greatly sat there and watched me and my frustration. Even the cat had come and sat next to me as if to say 'I'll give it a cat scan and see what I come up with'...yeah that's it we'll take it back to the store and get a refund and buy something else since this one is defective. So off we go at 9pm with the boxes in tow. We get to the counter and I explain the problems to the sales clerk. Letting her know that I had left the machine threaded and how hard I had tried to get the machine to work and how dare the SINGER Co. send out less than adequate merchandise for unsuspecting husbands to buy for their spouses...

"Well honey, let me see what I can do for you" the sales clerk said... (we live in the south and everyone is Honey or Darling here. She opened the boxes up and set to work on my machine. Once she had the machine set up she politely asked me if I had left it THREADED exactly as I had it at home? I said yes and looked very baffled at her question..."well bless your lil pea picking heart (that let me know I had just pulled a real one.)

Honey your machine works better if you load the bobbin with thread as well.

"My hubby laughed and said to me 'bless your lil heart' and then pushed the shopping cart right out the store.

Thanks for the story Rose! If YOU have a funny embroidery story, send it to nita@nitasplace.com

Fiesta designs are new in the Design Depot. Bright and colorful on whatever you want to decorate.

Nita's Place Members: Design Depot

It's Sunday and today I'd like to share a website I followed off-and-on for several years. It's called "OurCoolHouse.com" and it's about a couple in Maryland who decided to build an energy efficient home.

The site documents every step of the journey from finding the land to painting the walls in the finished rooms. Their design is unique and it really showcases what can be done by people who want to live a different way.

Have fun visiting thier site at... OurCoolHouse.com.

-- Larry

" When embroidering something that does not need a tear away or disolving stabilizer (one that will stay or be cut away) I have found embroidering a fabric softener sheet in place gives a beatiful scent to the finished piece, especially nice when you are giving it as a gift! "

" When I use large cones of thread I set my serger behind and to the right of my embroidery machine with back facing my embroidery machine. Then I place my cone of thread on the serger's thread holder and thread the thread up thru the thread separators on the serger and over to my embroidery machine. This works very well to keep the thread feeding without tangles "

Here's a website that's a little strange but interesting anyway...

Our readers have lots of questions about using their computers. In order to answer your questions better, I'd like to ask you to tell me a bit about your computer.

There are 10 questions in our survey. It will probably take 5 minutes to answer them and I thank you in advance for telling us more about your computer questions.

"I found that I can cut off thread when I have made a mistake by using my pelican or applique scissors. I lay it flat on the design threads and snip. I repeat if necessary. No danger of cutting the item and I pick out the threads with a long nose tweezers or a picker-clipper."