The Bobbin Buzz & Stitchin' Bits

You'll love this set of "Cute Firemen" designs. They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next week.

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

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

I don't remember where I read it but it was about using a thumb drive instead of taking the dongle out everytime you wanted to use another computer. I have a lap top which I want to use to learn how to use my 3D for my Designer 1. Do you know how to do this or where I could get the information?

Answers...

I think you're referring to this article...

http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/members/1935.cfm

You can read the article in-depth there and see some pictures with it, but the basic info in a nutshell is this... It's not really using a thumb drive to replace the dongle. It's using an "extender" that keeps you from having to plug your dongle directly into the USB port then remove it over and over again. Eventually the connector on the end of the dongle breaks loose from the body of the dongle making it unusable. By using the extender, you cause the extender to break and can then replace it easily.

Thanks Faryn 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!

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called "Crazy Cats 1"

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!

Here's a new video from Larry comparing the best programs on the market for converting embroidery designs formats. Regular online price will be $24.95 but INTRODUCTORY PRICED at $19.95 for a short time. Members of ArtisticThreadWorks take off an additional $5 at checkout!

Compare Software: Get a closeup look at 10 of the leading programs on the market for converting embroidery designs. Watch as each program is used to convert designs. Find out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Learn Basics Of Each Program In 5 Minutes: The fastest way to learn any software program is to have someone show you how it works. Get up to speed instantly on the most popular conversion programs on the market today.

Find The Right Software For Your Needs: What's the right program for your needs? Why guess and spend money on the WRONG program! Embroidery Conversion Software Roundup takes the guesswork out of buying converson software.

Here are a couple comments from members who've stitched out the Redwork Eagles release to members last Friday...

Holly~ just wanted to let you know that the redwork eagles are AWESOME!!! I can't beleive how much detail is in each design!!!! The look fabulous in a medium blue!!! Thanks again!!! -- mair :)

AND

Hey mair, me too, lovin' these. Thanks, Holly!!! I posted pics of some of them done in white, gold and dark blue. They're great for Vet's quilts blocks!!! -- Marsha

Glad you like them! I looked at our server stats and found out they were very popular with our members already. I think using them in the veteran's quilts are a great idea. If you haven't downloaded them yet - check under "This Week" or "Eagles" in the Design Library. -- Larry

(Here's a post in the ATW forum from Cathy who coordinates the Quilters For Charity on the ATW site...)

I really needed to share this... We have been sending the Patriotic Quilts as they are finished over to this Hospital in Germany.. to share with the wounded men and women. This is an email I got yesturday... the pictures are in both the regular gallery and the charity gallery... if you ever needed to know how important giving even just a few embroidered blocks can be.... here's your answer! (I took out the email address's for security reasons.)

I want to say thank you to everyone who helped make these quilts... I am not sure whose quilt they are holding up in the photo... but I am sure the maker will recognize it. Thanks again.

We are doing the quilts and block drive again this year... I will post details on a seperate post.
-- Cathy

Here is a note from some of the top military people to tell you all thank you for the beautiful quilts. Alicia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Landstuhl Hospital Visit
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:43:14 -0400
From: Ronald.Winter
To: ahill537

Dear Sam and Alicia: I was at the Landstuhl hospital last Wed morning along with my counterparts from the Army and Navy. If you look at the picture titled, “DV Partying Going C17” you will see from left to right, Dr. Lynn Heirakuji/Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, me/Air Force, Dr. Lynda Davis/Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Maj Gen Gar Graham, the Air Force Commander of the District of Washington (79th Medical Wing). We all had the privilege of visiting the Chaplain's Closet where we saw your beautiful quilts and so I'm sending the picture of the quilt we saw. The Chief Master Sergeant is Derrick Crowley who is Gen Graham's Command Chief.

All three Deputy Assistant Secretaries oversee health care for our respective services, and Gen Graham commands the medical facilities on this end where those arriving patients are received and processed to stay either here in the DC area at Walter Reed/ Bethesda, or moved on to various locations throughout the US via C-17s.

I can assure you, but you already know this, that it means so much to them to know people like you care about their sacrifices. On behalf of the secretary of the Air Force I just want to thank you and all those who take the time to make these quilts for our wounded, ill and injured men and women.

Sincerely,
Ron
--------------
Ron Winter
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Force Management Integration (SAF/MRM)
Room 5E818

“We're all about people!”

Here's one of the photos posted by Cathy...

Interested in helping with Quilters For Charity? They can use all the help you can give them! Contact Cathy for more info about how you can get involved. Contact info for Cathy is on this page... Quilters For Charity along with a photo gallery showing some of the quilts the group has created for children, abused women, and veterans.

Fireman-Weekly Sampler-4-4-2008 / Digitized by KC / Artwork by JDS clipart

DOWNLOAD PAGE

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is Joy Holladay from Las Vegas, Nevada --email address sew vegas @ yahoo .com

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

Funny Story for this week was submitted by Pam Wisner.

"One day I was embroidering with my new machine. My son who is 16 had came in to talk to me and he happened to sit down by the machine. We got to talking and we did not notice that his shirt had somehow ended up on the hoop and was now being embroidered on with some flowers. The phone rang at that time so he got up in a hurry to answer the phone and the machine went with him across the table. We both were very surpised and had to hurry up and stop the machine and get him unattached. At the time it was not so funny but now we laugh at how he became interested in sewing that day. When he comes and talk to me now he sits across the room."

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

What's On Sale this week? Nita's "Buzz-N-Stitchers". It's Spring and these frisky bees are stitchin' away! This set is half price. Get it while it is on sale!

Holly and I are leaving the Emerald Coast today (near Destin Florida) and heading towards Tampa. There are tonado warnings in the area now and severe storms coming this morning so we hope to get out of here in the next few minutes. For that reason - I'll cut this very short and just say I hope you are enjoying your embroidery hobby (or business) and look forward to talking with you again soon.

-- Larry

UPDATE @ 6 PM: We pulled in for the evening about 40 miles west of Tallahassee. Our weather alert radio came on and told us they were experiencing 60 mile per hour winds and had tornado warnings in Tallahassee so we decided to just pull in at the nearest campground and stop for the night rather than going on into the storms.

-- Larry

Holly and I arrived in the Tampa campground (Lazy Days Rally Park) yesterday afternoon. If you were watching the national weather yesterday (or if you live in Florida) you'd have seen that most of the state was covered with thunderstorms. It rained all day and some of the time it rained HARD. We slowed down for the heavy stuff and it seems like any time we stopped to get out and fuel up, walk the girls, or just stretch our legs, is when it rained the hardest.

One time we pulled into a Flying J to refuel and Holly said "I'm going to go for a walk and stretch my legs". When she opened the door, the skies opened up and let loose in a torrential downpour with the wind driving the rain sideways! She decided to just stretch a bit inside the coach, but I still had to get out to refuel. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. It would have been really cool though if the rain had stopped again when she closed the door! :-)

I walked across the lot to get inside and pay for the fuel and got soaked AGAIN. Our shower is about 1/4 full of clothes that were soaked in the two days of driving down here and still haven't dried out. We'll use the laundry facilities today and get them washed and dried.

One good thing yesterday was that Holly found out that she IS able to digitize while I drive. So that opens up a whole bunch more time for her to be productive during those days we're traveling. That's very helpful.

Speaking of travel, we're staying near Tampa for the next 6 days then we head for Port Charlotte Florida which is only about 90 miles away on the 13th of April. We'll meet up with Nita and CJ there and on the 16th we'll all be in a Viking dealers store doing the first ever in-store "Fuwari Party".

Holly and Nita will be teaching Fuwari techniques, CJ will be finishing the stitchouts using the Fuwari machine, and I will be video-taping the whole thing. We hope to create a teaching video all about Fuwari from this visit as well as create the first Fuwari Club. If you're in the Gulf Coast area of Florida you can make reservations to attend. I'll have more details about the location in a follow-up post shortly.

-- Larry

You'll love the new set of "Sampler Designs" from Nita! They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next week.

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

" When beginning a project, I hold onto the top thread and turn the wheel so that the thread goes down and pulls the bobbin thread up on top. I then take a large tweezers and pull the bobbin thread up. Otherwise, when I try to do a fix, it won't catch the bobbin thread. "

"My mother is a Travel Agent - for guilt trips!"

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

Question... "I have never had a problem uploading photos, but not when I try to upload, it takes forever, then says the page cannot be found. I am using a new camera. Any help is appreciated."

Answer...
New camera with more megapixels? Your new camera's photos are probably much bigger files now. If you make the photos smaller they will upload faster. Open them in photo sofware and resize to a smaller size for uploads. Best size to make is about 500 pixels wide or choose 640x480 if that is an option. :-)

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!

This 1-year membership Winner from Nitas Photo Contest is Harriett Creech!

The winner has been notified and subscription has been extended already. Congratulations! webmaster@nitasplace.com.

Check Nita'sPlace for the half price sale this week in the "What's On Sale" department.

http://www.nitasplace.com/public/viewimage.cfm?ImgID=695

Funny Story for this week was submit by Donna Coffey

I have been embroidering for many years now, first on my Viking 1 Plus and now with my Designer 1. I can't help but to share something very funny (actually a little embarrassing too!) One of the very first things I made with my 1 Plus was a personalized Sweat shirt for myself. I had embroidered across the chest several designs depicting my family. I had a fire dept emblem for my son Danny who is a Volunteer Firefighter, then a dalmation for his wife Dawn who collects dalmations (stuffed animals, figurines, etc - not real dogs!); I did a teacher design for my daughter Patty who is a teacher; and a cute little fishing design for her husband Richard who is an avid fisherman. At the time, I had one grandchild (I now have six!) and in the center of the two pairs of designs, I stitched a cute little face of this most adorable little girl with bright, red hair. (Yes! My first born grand-daughter Amanda, has the most beautiful red hair in the world.) I was so proud of my newly personalized "Mom/Grandma" sweatshirt that I wore it to work one day. As I was talking with some of the engineers at work - and not thinking, I proudly stuck out my chest and pointed to it, exclaiming "These are my kids!" {{{ GASP!!! }}} I should have seen it coming - but didn't, when one of the guys announced while staring widely at my boobs - "Donna, I've heard them called a whole lot of things - but I have NEVER heard them called "kids"! LOLOL!! Talk about embarrassing moments! Everyone had a good chuckle as I quietly walked back to my desk. I still LOVE that shirt.

Thanks for the story! If YOU have a funny story you'd like to share, email it to nita@nitasplace.com

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called " Crazy Cats 2 "

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!

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

This photo was chosen in a random drawing as our "weekly photo contest winner". Thanks for sharing with us Nancy! 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...

""

Thanks to all of you who post photos regularly in the photo gallery. THIS IS A RANDOM DRAWING - ATW MEMBERS POST THEIR PHOTOS TO ENTER THE DRAWING. Members of ATW can post their photos in our photo gallery with more than 25,000 other embroidery project photos!

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

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!

Yesterday morning Holly and I had breakfast with one of our ATW members Denise Embury from Zephyrhills Florida. Actually - Denise is from New York but moved to Florida a few years ago. Many people move here after they retire, Denise and her husband just made the move a little sooner and are enjoying the winter weather here a whole lot more than in New York. We had fun talking with Denise and getting to know her.

Today we're working on digitizing (Holly) and the website(s) (me) and plan on having dinner with our friends Ron and Mary this evening. I also have to dump the tanks today and prepare for departure tomorrow morning when we'll leave for Port Charlotte, Florida.

Tomorrow's trip is the last outbound leg planned for this season. When we leave Port Charlotte on the 18th, we'll be heading for Illinois to see the family. It's good to see Illinois family between April and October. After October, they'll need to travel south to see US! :-)

-- Larry

(Photo of Holly during road-trip!)

I'm on the web every day working full-time on ATW''s websites. Because I'm online all day every day, I run across some very interesting websites. Every Sunday I post a link to a new or interesting site that I've run across recently. Today's site may be one you'll want to add to your favorites! Then again - it may already BE one of your favorites. Either way...

Hi to all my member family,

As you know we have been traveling a lot lately. CJ and I drove to Florida last month and stayed in a cabin in Navarre Beach campground. We met Holly and Larry Pike at the campground. It was pretty neat. I was there for a couple of days and then went with the Florida friends and members ( Missy, Ina, Dot, Kelly aka KC, Denise ) and Holly up to Atlanta, GA for the AEC conference for embroidery. It was a great conference and I enjoyed it very much.

I especially enjoyed meeting all the members from NitasPlace that attended the conference. It was a real joy to put names to faces. I do think that the next time, we will use the log in names of the member along with the real name so that we can recognize them. I hope that all of you who went enjoyed the conference and I hope that those of you who did not go will get a chance to attend a conference at some point.

CJ stayed at the campground while I was gone and went fishing with Ina's husband a couple of days. He and Larry hung out together a lot too.

After our return from the conference, we stayed at the camp another day or so and them started making our slow way home. Since both of us were under treatment for back problems, we were just driving aroud 4 hours a day and then stopping. SO it did take us several days to get home.

We will be leaving again on Sunday to fly to Port Charlotte, Fl and meet up with Holly and Larry there and conduct the first ever "Fuwari Party". Stay tuned for more news of that event.

-- Nita

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called " Pat - The Camping Bear "

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!

Holly and I finished our work in the Florida area yesterday. We're taking today to get things gathered up then we'll begin the drive home tomorrow morning. It's about 1,400 miles and I like to drive less than 400 miles a day with the camper since driving it is a whole lot different from driving a car. So we'll be back in Illinois about the 23rd or 24th of April.

We'll be on the internet most of the time as our WiFi works from most everywhere except one place we stayed for a few hours in the hills of West Virginia a year ago. And Holly has found that she can digitize while I drive so that helps with her being able to get a bit ahead on digitizing work too. Unfortunately, it doesn't help me get ahead on anything LOL!

Summer is almost here! Yeah! Looking forward to seeing our summer friends soon.

-- Larry

You'll love the new set of "Sampler Designs" from Nita! They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next week.

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

This photo was chosen in a random drawing as our "weekly photo contest winner". Thanks for sharing with us Sandra ! 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...

""

Thanks to all of you who post photos regularly in the photo gallery. THIS IS A RANDOM DRAWING - ATW MEMBERS POST THEIR PHOTOS TO ENTER THE DRAWING. Members of ATW can post their photos in our photo gallery with more than 25,000 other embroidery project photos!

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

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

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!

What's On Sale this week? A delightful Wisteria Arbor. You can use this on any project and it will be beautiful! Check out the special half price on the Wisteria Arbor and get yours today.

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is Jenny Evans from Hornsby Heights, Sidney, Austrialia --email address lucipre @ optusnet .com .au

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

Funny Story for this week was submitted by Mary Lenci.

"When I embroider I'm not very selective as to where I throw thread that I cut. I usually end up dragging long strands all around my house, or going out with numerous pieces hanging off different areas of my clothing. This morning my son starting pulling off a piece of thread that was hanging from the top of my skirt. He said "Mom, you have a thread, let me get it." He grabbed it and I walked away. He kept pulling as I walked through the house until I realized he was unraveling my underwear!

The April Alphabet now available for our members. The "Leilani Monogram" is sure to personalize your projects with style!

Another Teddy Collectible has made his appearance for our members. As cute as ever, he wants to come to your house.

Holly and I stayed in Valdosta Georgia last nite. We found a very pretty little RV Park right off I-75 exit #18 and pulled in for the nite. We'll be leaving again this morning and hope to make another 475 miles today taking us to Knoxville TN and the home of RNK Distributing. We plan on visiting with Ricky & Kay Brooks there for a few hours on Sunday. The weather channel is showing rain for today so that makes the trip a bit more challenging!

While we drive, we listen to books on audio quite often. We've heard many books read in their uncut version this way over the years and it makes the time go by quickly. Right now we're listening to David Baldocci's book "Split Second". If you've got a long drive ahead of you, give it a try!

We video-taped the "Fuwari Party" in Port Charlotte last Wednesday and I plan on editing all the Fuwari tapes as soon as we land in Illinois. This video will be for dealers and I may be able to get a shortened version up here on the web too, showing those parts that will be interesting to our customers.

I have been using Windows-based software for video editing for several years and finally decided to move to a Mac a couple days ago. So on Thursday we drove to an Apple store and I picked up a MacBook computer and video editing software. From what I've seen so far, their software for video editing is WAY BETTER than anything available on Windows computers. It used to take me about 40 hours to edit a bunch of tapes down to a 1 hour video. I think with the Mac I'll be able to do it in 10 hours or less.

Of course, the other use for the Mac is to try out all the embroidery programs I can get on it too. I'll let you know what happens when you run (or try to run) embroidery software on a Mac as soon as I've tested the programs out. Stay tuned for that!

-- Larry

I'm on the web every day working on our sites, looking up information, and generally snooping around for what's new. Sometimes I run across sites that are strange and wonderful. Other times I find sites that are more strange than wonderful! This one would have to be part of the second group...

Virtualstapler.com

I thought the "Staplers In Film" section was really funny since they could only find ONE MOVIE that featured a stapler. :-)

-- Larry

You'll love the new set of "Sampler Designs" from Nita! They are free to readers of the Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits for the next week.

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

Sewing and Recycling? Here are some tips you can use to save money, recycle and organize!

The Mandarin Alphabet is now available at NitasPlace for her members. This Alphabet can be used for anything you want to monogram or personalize.

The March Collectible Teddies have arrived for NitasPlace members. Just as cute as can be and ready to dress up all your design projects! A little late, but still as cute as can be.

Holly and I stayed in Knoxville TN for the last 2 nites. We had a trying day on Saturday when we ended up having to replace both rear tires on our Jeep and then had to have one of the new ones re-mounted again on Sunday morning because they goobered up the installation the first time. We finally left Chatanooga on Sunday afternoon and got to Knoxville a little after 4:00pm. We had plans to meet Rick and Kay at 5:00pm so it was a rush to get the camper set up in time to meet our plans. But we made it and had a great evening with them.

It was my first visit to the RNK warehouse and it is bulging with embroidery products including Floriani threads and stabilizer, and litteraly TONS of other products. It was fun to look through everything they did and what's new there too. I spent 20 years walking through one of the worlds largest warehouses and going through RNK's brought back lots of memories.

Holly and I plan to leave this morning for the rest of the drive back to Illinois. We're about 750 miles away right now to that should be a 2 day drive for us. The hills around us are green and beautiful. It's a little cooler here than we're used to now but it's really gorgeous.

Below are several new articles today about Nita's Place and what's going on there. Help yourself to the freebies and enjoy the articles.

-- Larry

Help yourself to this week's weekly sampler designs called " Butterfly Sticks "

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.)

SOLD OUT

Nita has 0 more brand new in the box "My Thread Box" programs to get rid of. It's strictly 1st come / 1st served on this sale. They're 50% off! Order yours here!

There seems to be some confusion still by our combined newsletter. We get emails every week from readers who aren't sure of the relationship between NitasPlace and ArtisticThreadWorks and TheBobbinBuzz and our other websites we own. I guess the easiest way to expalin it is this...

Holly and Nita have become very close friends over the last few years. They work on projects together, talk over new ideas for digitizing, travel together, and generally enjoy each other's friendship. Nita's husband CJ and I have also become close friends too.

One of the many coffee table talks we've had centered around our daily workloads of keeping up with our websites, advertising, newsletters, test-stitching designs, shipping products, digitizing, and on and on with the things that have to be done to make a web business run. We realized that if we could combine some of that work, we could get it done quicker and with less effort. In effect, combining some of the work that did where possible. And so - we've combined our two newletters into one place.

Nita still owns and operates her own websites at NitasPlace and NitasThreadNest while Holly still owns and operates her own websites at ArtisticThreadWorks and DigitizersWorld. Each site is independant of the others and offers different services and products. Our newsletter readers are invited to join whichever site suits their needs and tickles their fancy! There are different designs and projects and information on all the sites.

When we investigated what it was that confused people about this newsletter site, we realized that maintaining the original name of the ArtisticThreadWorks newsletter (Bobbin Buzz) for our combined newsletter confused many people. Some had assumed that the two businesses had been combined together to make one business. That's NOT what happened, but I can understand the confusion! Since we kept the name of Bobbin-Buzz as the newsletter domain name many people missed the title change at the top where it now says "Bobbin-Buzz and Stitchin Bits".

In order to make this clearer - we'll be setting up a new domain name in the near future. As soon as it's ready to use, we transition smoothly over to the new domain. That will happen in the next few weeks.

We are constantly working on new and exciting ideas for our members and our readers. Whether it's new designs or new types of embroidery, new videos, new projects, new sales, or completely new websites, our focus is always on bringing the best in embroidery to you in a fun and friendly atmosphere.

I'm anxious to show off some of the new projects we've been working on lately and we'll be able to do that in the next few weeks.

-- Larry

We stayed in Somewhere, Indiana on Tuesday nite, then arrived back in Union, Illinois on Wednesday afternoon. It's nice to be home! We're looking forward to seeing friends and family while here for the summer. The first thing we did after getting the camper parked on our space was to head over to see the god-kids. Samantha and Jake will be 2 in June and they're really fun now.

The prices of diesel fuel sure changed a lot in the last couple months. The lowest we saw was $3.99 per gallon in Indiana to as much as $4.29 a gallon in Illinois. Of course, you can't forget the 9/10 of a cent at the end too! LOL! It used to make sense way back when to add the 9/10 to everything when gas was 29 cents a gallon. That 9/10 then was an additional 3% added onto the price. Now at $4 a gallon it's less than 0.2% of of a price change and is toally silly! I suspect nobody wants to be the "pioneer" that does away with the 9/10th of a penny. Come to think of it -- pennies themselves are kind of useless today too!

Well now that we're settled into one place for a few months we both have long to-do lists and are anxious to get started on them. Holly will be working with both Mary and Carol on upgrading their digitizing skills. I'll be working on some new website areas as well as a couple new videos. At least that's the plans for now. It seems though that we never get everything done in the time we have set aside for it. I wonder if other people have the same problem?

-- Larry

This week's 3-month membership Winner from the mailing list is Janet from Murphy, Texas --
email address super sewer 101 @ yahoo. com

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

This photo was chosen in a random drawing as our "weekly photo contest winner". Thanks for sharing with us! 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 had someone wanted the days of the week on onesies for a baby shower. "

Thanks to all of you who post photos regularly in the photo gallery. THIS IS A RANDOM DRAWING - ATW MEMBERS POST THEIR PHOTOS TO ENTER THE DRAWING. Members of ATW can post their photos in our photo gallery with more than 25,000 other embroidery project photos!

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

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

We're back in Northern Illinois and it's spring again! We saw spring in Texas, then again in Tennessee, and now we're seeing it in Illinois. Must be my favorite season or I wouldn't keep repeating it. LOL!

Here in Illinois, spring means lots of thunderstorms. One last nite went on for several hours and included a power outage for a couple hours. Fortunately, we have a generator and didn't have to wait in the dark. Unfortunately, our TV reception is via satellite and that goes out in a heavy storm. While the storm was raging, a couple pulled into a tent-camping site in front of us. The husband, wife, and what looked like a 6-year old, got out of their car and set up a tent and started a campfire in the rain. I admire the guts but questioned the sanity of the dad! When I woke up about midnite, the storm was past, the power was back on in the campground, and the tent campers had already packed up and left. :-)

It's nice to be parked somewhere for a while and settle into a work routine. Holly's been digitizing a lot the last couple days and I've been working on another project we'll be showing off soon. I hope you enjoy the fruits of our labors in your embroidery hobby.

-- Larry