The Bobbin Buzz & Stitchin' Bits

A WOMAN almost died after becoming stuck in the tiny slot of a recycling bin. The woman had apparently dropped off some clothes and then changed her mind and tried to get them back. But despite being slightly built, she became trapped in the slot with only her feet showing.

Another recycler spotted her plight and raised the alarm when he couldn't drag her back out. The 35-year-old was going in and out of consciousness. Firefighters said yesterday she was lucky to have survived her ordeal in the car park of an Asda store in Sittingbourne, Kent.

Watch manager Mark Innes said: "We were originally told it was a child stuck in the bin but when we got there, we discovered it was a fully grown woman. "Apparently she had put something in the bin that she hadn't meant to and when she went to retrieve it, she fell in.

"It was a very strange job." Mark added: "Asda was closed at the time, so she was only saved thanks to someone else turning up."

This story is TRUE! Here's a link to the newspaper's website in UK!

"With you and Holly becoming RVers what's going to happen to Mary and shipping, etc. I'm not worrying, just wondering. I wish you both the best as you travel this wonderful country visiting with the people who make machine embroidery and quilting and all the other handcrafts so much fun! I know we'll be seeing designs with the flavor of the locales you visit and I'm truly excited!"

I answered the email but thought our readers may like to know the same thing...

About a year and a half ago our employees (we had two at the time beside Holly and me) set up workspaces in their own homes. Both were expecting for the first time (must have been the water at our house) and we wanted them to be able to work from home while raising their children and not to have to commute to anywhere.

Since then we have added a several more people part-time that also work from their own homes. They warehouse our videos and handle the shipping for us, and do our test-sewing, help people with changing email address, file corporate papers, and we even have one that's working part-time on a secret project that will be a new concept in the embroidery industry when we are ready to release it several months from now.

Holly and I work wherever we are located, either in our house, in our motorhome or in a hotel room or even while visiting friends. We've been traveling in the motorhome for almost two years now for as much as 5 months at one time and always able to work. So going fulltime shouldn't affect anything for us except that we will have more opportunities to visit people around the country. We are hoping to work with various educators as we travel and create videos with them like we just did with Dawn. It should open up some new doors for people in the embroidery and make it possible for you to see educators that you'd otherwise never be able to see in person.

Thanks for asking about this and for the well-wishes! We do spend time smelling the flowers along the way. While we spend many long hours working on ATW, we also have the ability to stop at any time and take a mental health break. We usually take a couple nice walks together every day with the girls and enjoy every day. We also get to know people in the campgrounds and get to visit with our club members wherever we are. We've enjoyed this so much that we just want to do more of it now while we are still young enough.

That's got to be what Phillip Riley of Brooklyn New York is thinking today! I just smiled and shook my head over this one...

If there was a really good repair tech that you could ship your machine to for repairs, rather than taking it to your local repair shop, would you?

A repair tech we know from our travels around America is considering going solo with a repair-only business. I'm trying to find out how many people would use a service like that for repairs and/or maintenance.

I realize there are QUESTIONS that anyone would have before answering so I've tried to anticipate those questions here...

1) Shipping would obviously involved. A machine that weighs 30 pounds would normally cost about $30 to ship across the country, and $30 to ship back. That would add to the total cost of having a machine repaired. So if you have a repair tech right down the street that's good, you wouldn't use a service like this. On the other hand, if your nearest tech is 50 miles away, it costs you $12 in gas just to get the machine there, and another $12 to get it home again.

2) Packing is important when shipping a machine. If you still have the case that came with your machine, then you've got a good start on shipping it properly. You'd still want to box it and add packing materials.

3) Is the tech good? That's what I'd want to know! Yes! We've had him work on some of our machines and he's excellent.

4) Brands... BabyLock, Brother, Bernina, Viking.

So -- is this an idea whose time has come, or would it be like trying to sell door-knobs for pup-tents?

After several hundred comments about our "makeover" for Bobbin-Buzz the response is that 97% have said they LIKE the new look BETTER than the old. Over and over I keep seeing the words "fresh", "clean", "soft", and "easy to navigate".

Glad you like the new look as we continue to make the ArtisticThreadWorks websites your home for online embroidery designs and information. Here are a few quotes from the feedback so far...

The only negative comment I heard was that the font size was too small for older eyes. That was about 6% of the total which meant that the font size IS too small. So I've added the button on the top right that shows how you can enlarge the font size on your computer easily.

The 3% that liked the old look better included feedback from one person that thinks the new look is too "feminine" and another that liked seeing Holly and the girls at the top of the pages. I appreciate those comments just as much as the ones that liked the new look but I'd have to say that hitting a home run with 97% is amazing and I'll try not to muck it up too much with future changes and additions.

One other note I should add...

The main page that you see here contains all posts for the last 8 days. You will still be able to read older posts, just follow the links on the right-hand side. There you'll be able to click into older posts EITHER by choosing a TOPIC (such as "M.E. Tips" or "Travelog" etc.) or by clicking back into previous months. Right now the months only show "August 2007" but those will continue to grow as the months go by.

Our "Old" Bobbin-Buzz issues will continue to be on the ArtisticThreadWorks site and I'll add a link to the Bobbin-Buzz Archives 2001-2007 in the right-side column soon.

As you've probably noticed, Bobbin-Buzz now has its own website. There are several reasons for doing this and I'll share the main one with you here.

To end confusion. We get emails every day from our Bobbin-Buzz readers that say "I can't login to the site!" They're referring of course to the ArtisticThreadWorks website where Bobbin-Buzz has been hosted until now. Robin and I send back an email explaining that Bobbin-Buzz is our online newsletter that everyone is able to read for free, while ArtisticThreadWorks is our membership site that they can have full access to for a very reasonable subscription fee that works out to about $6.65 / month. (It's actually $19.95 every 3 months)

We feel that giving The Bobbin Buzz it's own website, we may be able to cut down on that confusion a bit. You'll still have access to Bobbin-Buzz through the ATW websites, it's just going to take you over to this location instead of pages within ATW.

As a side benefit, I'll be able to give Bobbin-Buzz it's own look and style. I hope you like it!

-- Larry

In case you're wondering about the tips...

They are all collected in our current contest for embroidery and computer tips. One tip will appear here at about 1am every day automatically. So far I've collected enough tips to do this for a little over 3 years!

If you look along the right-side menus of this site, you'll see a menu that looks like this...

Just click the one that says "TIps For M.E." and you'll see just the tips! The other categories work the same way. If you click the "Travelog" link for example, all you'll see is our travel adventures. Same way with the "Designs" category and so on. I hope you like this feature and enjoy the new look to Bobbin-Buzz. But don't forget that our main site is still ArtisticThreadWorks. Come on by for a visit!

Here's a post from Cathy Butkovich (cabmarshall) in the ATW main forum...

Okay Ladies... the gloves are off....Here we go...

ROUND ONE was the start of the charity quilts... we won that round... delievered 5 amazing internet quilts to the KIDS IN DISTRESS, last December2006,

ROUND TWO.. came this year when we started back up after a short month break for the holidays.... We have won that round also... we came back so strong, we knocked them out with 5 consecative months of Charity quilts... 14 completed and donated to the KIDS IN DISTRESS, 10 completed and donated to PROJECT LINUS, and 7 completed and donated to WOMENS SHELTERS. We ALSO acquired a photo gallery, a web page, and a discussion forum to post all our NEWS.. I call that a win!

ROUND THREE came in July with the Patriotic Quilts... I thought 20 quilts was being crazy, but went for it anyway... We KNOCKED THEM OUT WITH 60... these are not complete yet but they are humming along. We also have approx 30 some quilts in various stages of completion from the months March thru June. Some are complete but not donated yet. Not to mention the 9 or so from the month of August.

We decided as a group to get caught up on the quilts and our own projects... so the quilts will end for this year with the AUGUST blocks......

NOW HERES THE CHALLENGE.... Some of the ladies who regularly make embroidered blocks and the filler blocks have been sewing Christmas Charity Stocking also.... NOW we are in the ring for this years final round..... And we need every available pair of sewing hands... even if you are a beginning sewer.... any one with a machine can make a Christmas Stocking. We need 1000. Is that to much to ask? I dont think so! I thought 350 embroidered blocks was to much but all you came thru with over 900 embroidered and filler blocks... to be creating over 60 quilts....

I have patterns ready to mail in envelopes with stamps all I need is your address... Email me with your mailing address, get some material to make the stocking and go sew......
We have several places to send these stockings to, one is a group in IL that only need the stockings... they have the stuff to fill them with..these will be going to approx 1000 service men and women. The other is some Shelters and childrens facilities that need the stocking and the fillings... but you can just send $ to help buy what is needed to fill the stocking.

Debi H in California is heading this endevor... I am her biggest cheerleader...

Monica J in IL has the contacts with the group fro the service men.

Please help us reach our goal and WIN this entire round and a year of the greatest charity work I have ever been involved with. Remember... nothing ventured nothing gained.... if you dont at least try to sew a christmas stocking how do you know you cant!

So thats my challenge.... WE CAN DO IT!

Email me at Cabmarshall@yahoo.com or look for Debi's post earlier in the ATW forum.

LETS GO! -- Cathy B.

Note: Here's one of the quilts for the veteran's project...

These amazing but true stories never cease to amaze me! My favorite for 2006 is the following...

(January 2002, Italy) A violent attack on an innocent man? Andreas, a 23-year-old ex-bouncer from Italy, was found lying in a pool of blood near a country road. Police initially mistook him for a victim of sadistic mutilation. His left leg had been nearly severed by a chainsaw. His last act was an emergency call to operators who heard only a "death rattle." By the time help arrived, copious bleeding had drained his body of blood.

Here's an excerpt from a recent email and my response...

"I have resisted joining Artistic ThreadWorks... (because) so many of your designs are cartoony animals that don't care for and would just never use..." -- Margaret

The designs released every month are geared toward what our customers want. When we started our business 6 years ago, the vast majority wanted designs for their kids. Surveys we've done recently show about a 50/50 split with about half wanting "fun" designs and half wanting "adult" designs. We respond to our customers needs so in a typical month we release around 200 designs and we split them 50/50 between the two types.

For example, in July we released 186 designs and 111 of them were geared toward the "adult" market. ( Here are the July 2007 releases! ) So July was a little heavy on the adult side for our customer mix but that's okay. It will all work out eventually.

But even if you subtracted the "kids" designs released in July, you would still be getting 111 adult designs. That's a pretty good deal for the cost of a large cup of Starbucks. :-)

Right now there are over 13,000 designs in the library. About 3,000 are "adult" designs and the other 10,000 are "fun" deisgns. Even if we focused 100% on the adult designs (which we can't do because so many people still want designs for their kids and grandkids) it would take about 3 years of adding 2,500 per year to reach the balance point.

If you can live with about 100 new "adult" designs per month for about the cost of a large Starbucks then just forget about the other 100 new designs that aren't your cup of tea. Along with the 100 or so new adult designs every month, you'll also have access to about 3,000 more adult designs in our design library archives, plus some great articles, online videos, the best embroidery forums on the internet, and a lot more.

(There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them?)

This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much; he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving; she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people however will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new sales record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “the books are all right there in plain view, hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found.

Hugs From Arkansas
Michele

Here's one from our embroidery forum yesterday...

"I want to put "I Love Daddy" on a burp cloth in Spanish. Can someone translate it for me? Thanks"

Answers...

Babelfish translates it as "Amo a papá" http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

"According to my son who takes spanish, it would be " Yo amo Papá "

Yo amo papa" is the more formal way with the litteral "Yo" ("I") included, but in common usage you would drop the "Yo" and just say "Amo Papa" which would be understood as "I love papa" even though you leave out the "I" (Yo) from the phrase.' The babelfish translation is interesting because if you translate it back from Spanish To English using the same phrase it translates back as "Master To Papa" which might also be appropriate -- especially for a little girl :-) -- Larry

I saw this today and had to share it with you. In 1969 the US Senate was cutting expenses in order to help fund the Vietnam War. Public televison was being supported by a $20 million grant and that grant was about to be cut.

In this film clip from the Senate hearings, Fred Rogers talked for 6 minutes. In the end what he said restored the funding the government was about to cut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a41lJIhW7fA

Sure -- I thought his show was pretty weird at the time, but the truth is that's the way he was and being real is one of the important lessons we all can take away from this video clip.

It was August of 1980 when the company I worked for transferred me to Chicago. All the people I knew in the city would fit in a VW Bug at the same time. And they were co-workers. So I was feeling very alone. I knew how to get from the hotel I was staying in to my office and back to the hotel.

On the last Sunday morning of August (it was the 24th in 1980) I took a drive looking for a church and to feel "connected" again. Not knowing where I was going I made a left, made a right, drove for a ways and saw a church. The sign said "Grace Gospel" and they had quoted John 3:16 on the sign out front and I thought this place will do.

"It will do" would be an understatement. When I walked in I was greeted by a young guy (Rick) about my age and we chatted for a couple minutes. A few days later I came back to the church and met his fiance Gail, and her best friend Holly. I can't begin to tell you how under-whelmed Holly was with me at the moment we met. She had had root canal work that afternoon and it didn't seem like the evening was going to be any better.

That evening a group of about 20 of us went to IHOP for coffee together and I managed to end up sitting across from Holly. We were married a year and a half later on Feb 14th 1982. There's a lot more to this story and if you ask Holly she'll tell you about it when we meet in person.

Here's a fun look at the question of "copyrights"...

Got questions about machine embroidery? Membership to Artistic ThreadWorks gives you instant access to the most in-depth coverage of the machine embroidery hobby on the internet at a cost everyone can afford. Click HERE to join!

Here's a photo from the Illini UnRavelers meeting in St Charles Illinois. These stockings will be stuffed and sent to our soldiers in Iraq for Christmas this year. The Quilters For Charity plan to send 1,000 of these this year and the Illini UnRavelers are doing their part to meet the goal.

Members of the Illini UnRavelers also contribute quilts to Quilters For Charity. These quilts vary in size and theme and go to children in need, women's shelters, and veterans. Here's a photo of one of the quilts...

We have been working for a while now on a project that we'll be able to talk about openly next Saturday September 8th. I can't say a lot about it right now except that I'm really excited and exhausted at the same time. Watch the Bobbin-Buzz next Saturday when we'll be able to release photo's of something brand new and exciting to embroidery. -- Larry

Okay -- maybe more than a little...

...but I'm getting caught up today if it kills me!

I've been working on a new project that's really eaten up my time for the last several days. Thankfully I'm done with the bulk of it and the only thing left is an hour or so tomorrow morning and I'm done! Whew!

You know the feeling I'm sure. The really HARD PART is that I can't tell you about it until next Saturday! That's killing me to keep it under wraps until then but I promise you'll love it when you tune in here next weekend and get the scoop!

The tip above about "getting comfortable" should be carried a bit further here.

Holly has been getting a stiff neck and lots of headaches lately and she finally figured out why. Her glasses are bifocals and in order to read the screen on her computer she tips her head back to look through the bottom of the lenses. It dawned on her that the unnatural position has been putting stress on her neck muscles, making them sore and giving her a headache. At least that was her theory.

We went to the optometrist yesterday and he confirmed her intuition and recommended that she use her bifocal glasses for other activities but switch to a pair of reading glasses for viewing the computer screen. He's making a prescription pair for her now but in the meantime he suggested she try a pair of off-the-shelf $20 glasses from the pharmacy section of the store.

She bought two pair and brought them home. One pair is a +1.00 and the other pair is a +2.00 magnification. The +1 pair is great for when her nose is about 18" from the screen, as when she's going through emails or surfing the web. The other pair is better for when she's digitizing as they focus about 14" from the screen.

If you're having problems with a sore neck and headaches, your bifocals may be at fault. Try this simple solution. If it works, consider getting prescriptive glasses just for computer work.

Today is the 53rd anniversary of my birthday. My mom, Colleen (Pike) DeUsa passed away in 1996 from inflamatory breast cancer. She was the most gracious and faith-filled woman I have ever known. And today I celebrate her life.

This morning Holly bought breakfast for me at my FAVORITE breakfast place in the world. It's called "Richard Walkers" located in Crystal Lake, IL. It's not the sort of place you want to eat at very often if you're fighting the battle of the bulge, but for special occasions it's a big wow! Their apple pancake is to die for!

After breakfast we did some shopping and we'll spend the evening relaxing with our girls and watching a movie. It's a far cry from the early years :-) but it's what I'd call a perfect day for me nowadays.

I hope you're having a great day too and look for lots more of Bobbin-Buzz tomorrow morning.

Here's an email I received yesterday...

"Hi Larry, I noticed several pictures that appear at random with articles you write. Is there any rhyme or reason to which picture you use?"

I had to laugh because there IS a reason why I use different pictures, but nobody had ever asked before! First I'll show everyone here what she was asking about. Here's a montage of some article headlines with pictures from inside ArtisticThreadWorks. I've numbered them 1 thru 4...

The reason is based on my mood or what I'm doing at the time I'm writing the article. Right now it's 3:52 AM and I'm typing one-handed. Not efficient but worth the effort!

#1 is my "normal" picture.

#2 is for when I've just been out walking or playing with our puppies.

#3 I use when I'm typing one-handed because Onyx is on my lap.

#4 I use when I have just had some sort of "corporate" experience - like working on taxes or filling out government forms.

When your embroidery machine is giving you fits, it's time to take it to your local technician. But what happens when your local guy can't get it fixed?

CLICK HERE: Want a second opinion? Or just want to vent? Ask The Reapir Tech is a new feature of Bobbin-Buzz! Just CLICK HERE to post your question and we'll forward it to our certified repair-tech!

Note: Due to the large volume of questions, not all will get answered but we will get to as many as possible!

Yesterday we were driving through a small town and spotted two businesses next door to each other that just cracked us up!

So we started making up other businesses that should never be next door to each other. Or that would be funny to see. Here's some we came up with...

Can you think of any without being offensive? This thread was started in our Discussion Forum this morning :-)

With over 250,000 posts just in the main forum, members find a warm "gated community" feel to the ArtisticThreadWorks Discussion Forums.

Readers know we've spent several days now in Albuquerque taking photos of hot air balloons and other things "Southwestern" for use in designs later on. We've also spent a lot of time talking with our friends Nita and CJ Okeefe about ways we can improve our businesses.

One of the things we've come up with is to bring "Bobbin Buzz" and "Stitchin' Bits" together into one newsletter. The benefit to our readers is that they'll now have one website to visit where they can read TWICE AS MANY articles about machine embroidery. You'll now see articles, prize drawings, pictures and other fun stuff from both ATW and Nitas Place in the same newsletter.

So look for the Stitchin' Bits articles to begin appearing here shortly!

-- Larry

(Thanks to Cindy for this great story posted in our ATW forum yesterday...)

My mother passed away over 11 years ago - so its a little late to let her know what I finally understand but...

I remember as a teenager helping her fold laundry and as I folded my bikini panties, and little lacy bra's - I asked her how she could wear those granny underwear and playtex cross your heart bra's - she told me I'd understand when I was her age. Its been years since that conversation took place between us, but I always remembered it in the back of my mind, each time I went shopping for those oh so personal items.

Well, I'm the age she was then (45) and today I understand...Comfort. No digging straps, no crawling undies, no pinching, poking, pressure or bouncing out above or below. Yes, I took the plunge into the ladies high waist undies, and a playtex cross your heart - and I have to say - its been an 18 hour day and I feel better than I have in years.

So Mom, If you can hear me - I finally understand!

Today is Nita's birthday!

Holly and Nita are going to the quilt show today and just relaxing a bit. I'll be running a couple machines up to the repair shop then join them at the show. Should be a nice day for everyone, especially the birthday girl.

If you'd like to wish her a happy birthday, Click Here to enter birthday wishes!

Or, if you haven't already joined Nita's website, you can do it here then click into her forum and wish her a happy birthday there. That would be a great surprise for her, and a great deal for you as well. :-)

Happy birthday Nita!

-- Larry

We "Holly and I" just took our friend and member, Ina to the airport to go home to Florida today. Bet her husband thinks we have kidnapped her this past week. She has been helping us test sew and work out some new embroidery that we are working on. More news about that later on. So, today we are back in the Studio working on new designs and catching up with our website family.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all

Until the Next time.

Nita

Nita and CJ are heading to KY on Monday to visit with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Also a stop in the Dallas area to visit with Jean and Debbie. Friends Holly and Larry Pike will be taking off for a little sight-seeing in Texas during the holiday and returning to our place the week after Thanksgiving.
During the Thanksgiving Holiday week, there will be no Stitchin'Bits newsletter, however, Bobbin-Buzz will continue as normal. We are going to take that time visit with our families and we know you will, too. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving from Nita, C.J. and Debbie

"JenJen" (Hamilton, New Zealand) has left behind many friends at ATW and NitasPlace with her passing. We'll miss her wonderful project photos and her posts in our forums.

I've posted one of her projects here for everyone to see. It was typical of Jenny's sense of humor...

For our members, I've created a slideshow featuring many of Jenny's projects. She was a very talented lady! Thanks for the memories Jenny.

-- Larry

(Here's a post from "Judy PNW" from the ATW forum about the late Jenny Sedgwick)

"I know many of you didn't know Jenny. She was a wonderful person. Talent? Look it up in the dictionary and there's a picture of Jenny. She was known in NZ as the bag lady. I guess you can see why.

Jenny was quiet and rarely joined in the discussion group but know she read them all. Afraid of “being the nail the sticks up". She was so sensitive. Often she would write me and ask about phrases and comments. One time she wrote me obviously upset because of a comment here “don't make me go there and slap you”. I explained to Jenny that is merely an expression and nobody was angry or going to slap anyone. She was relieved!

Jenny experienced her mum die for 2 years with Alzheimer's. She passed away this year, after a very long good bye.

Family was everything to Jenny. She lived with her husband and son. Her daughter has been living in England for the past 3 years and returned to NZ with her fiancé in October. They are planning a wedding, I believe in March. Jenny was making the bridesmaid dresses. She made a few wedding dresses in her time. I don't think there was anything Jenny couldn't do.

She recently remarked about how well her lavender was coming in. Jenny was a fantastic gardener. She has a perfectly kept yard.

Why Jenny had me for her friend is surprising. I think it was all 1 sided because what could I give her?

It would be possible to write a book on things I know about Jenny. How she took a stranger into her home so he could find a job in NZ and move his family there from South Africa. Who does that?!?! Not me! That's Jenny. God doesn't make many people like her.

I miss you already Jenny.

Judy"

(Thanks Judy! I posted a slideshow inside ATW of some of Jenny's projects. I'll share it here for those who aren't ATW members to view also.)

Click the photo below to view a slideshow of some of
the project photos Jenny posted in our galleries...

(Comments or questions? Click the pink "comments" link just below this article!)

In case you haven't looked at the calendar lately... there are 25 shopping days left 'til Christmas!

This could mean different things to different people. For example, to those who are in the "Get-It-Done-Early" crowd, this means it's time to start gathering material needed for Easter projects. For MOST women, 25 days left means it's time to finish up some last minute preparations they've already started. And for MOST men, it means there's 24 more days until it's "that day" when they have to go out to the stores and find out what they'll get their wife for Christmas!

I generally avoid being in the December 24th shopping crowd. Lot's of testosterone in the stores on that day! I had one friend who would purposely go to the mall on Dec 24th just to sit and watch all the frantic men running into the stores! She was sadistic though and I dropped her from my Christmas card list!

So if you're married and your husband is one of those December 24th kind of guys, here's an idea that will make him and you very happy! Go to your local dealer this week, pick out what you really want and put it on layaway. Take the layaway receipt home and put it in an envelope and using a magnet, attach it to the front of the refrigerator. Before you put it there though, write on the front of the envelope, "Christmas Gift For Me -- Open Only In Emergency!"

That should do it!

This one I wrote as a song, sort of to the tune of Oh, Christmas Tree. I introduced this at the Lady's Auxiliary Christmas meeting a couple of years ago. I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.nitasplace.com/members/925.cfm

This has been a busy week for us. We have been trying to play catch up from our Thanksgiving vacation in KY. This week is shipping week for Nita's Thread Nest also. And of course it is the beginning of December and the Christmas holiday season and that makes things even busier. I have been working really hard getting designs done for Nitas Place and for the Thread Nest. We did try something new this week with the weekly sampler and it was a bit confusing for some of you. So, the links for this weeks sampler are back in the download library on Nita's Place. You will find that link below with the pictures of the designs. Thanks for all your comments.

Several people have asked us for the redwork ladies that were the designs for the quilting swap a few months ago. Those are now in the store for sale. And there is a larger set with 5x7 designs for those who asked for them as well. You can find those in the store at this link.

http://www.nitasplace.com/public/department115.cfm

Our funny story contest has ended and we are still reading the stories. We did receive a lot of them and you will get to read them in the Newsletters to come. I will not be posting all of them on line all at once as there are just to many. The winner will be posted as soon as we have read them all and chosen one. Many of you have been asking me about the winner and I know you are all anxious. The winner will get this months shipment as promised. Please give us another day or so to get the stories all read and the winner posted.

That's all for this week!

Happy Stitching Trails!

Nita

Holly and I are still visiting with Nita and CJ Okeefe in Texas. Our camper is parked in their driveway and we spend every day working together on projects that will be coming out over the next several months.

Nita, Holly, Sylvia, and Ina were all running test-sews for Fuwari designs at one time on machines. Wow! That's a lot of stitching going on, but they've nailed down exactly what each machine will do when used with different designs and it's been fun seeing the results.

Right now these are the machines that are here...

Babylock Ellegante
Babylock Elageo
Babylock EMP6
Bernina 200e
Brother 270d
Brother Inovis 4000
Brother 8200
Brother 8500
Brother ULT
Janome 350
Janome 11000
Viking Designer SE

... and there are multiples of some of these machines too! I'll be taking still photos and video footage soon and will include a look around the studio. It's kind of fun to look at the differences and similarities between machines.

It's also challenging to work with the different ways designs are fed into each of these machines. They use a combination of floppy disks, memory sticks, USB cables, compact flash cards, and proprietary memory cards too.

I can't wait for the videos we're working on to come out. I know some of you will LOVE these. But it won't be for a while still so I'll let you know when they're ready. Meanwhile, I'll post pictures of the studio as soon as I can get them up.

-- Larry

It seems like Christmas is coming in 11 days whether we're ready for it or not! :-)

Holly shops for presents for everyone on our list. I shop for something for her. This works for me! Probably sounds familiar to many of you eh? I finished my "shopping" a couple weeks ago although I've been telling Holly I have no idea what to get her... LOL! I'm assuming she won't read this so please, don't anyone tell her.

But along with Christmas shopping, we've been busy with all kinds of projects here too. We just had some photos taken on Wednesday to use in some packaging we're putting together.

Here's a couple of the photos we'll use in the literature...

Holly Pike

Nita O'Keefe

Nita and Holly

And here's one of me we'll use too when needed...

Larry Pike

As I said the photos will be used in packaging and advertising coming out in 2008. The problem is that 2008 is now only 17 days away. Hard to imagine!

-- Larry

This question came in my email today...

"Could you offer any suggestions the best way to photograph an embroidered design without it looking washed out of overexposed. What is the best lighting. I just wanted to take some sample pictures. Thanks! -- Gail"

The answer is YES! Here's the one secret most people miss when it comes to taking embroidery pictures... Lighting is the most important factor in getting a great photo!

Get plenty of light on your embroidery and your camera has something to work with. If you don't get enough light, you'll end up with blurry or dark, low-contrast pictures.

Here's an example of a well-lit photo...

I got two emails yesterday that were strikingly similar...

Two people had joined our ArtisticThreadWorks website and each had sent me an email that went something like this...

"After reading Bobbin-Buzz for several years, I've finally joined ATW as a full member. I'm so looking forward to everything the site has to offer..."

I get that type of email about 2 or 3 times a week and I usually just smile and send back a note saying "Welcome" and telling them to let me know if there's anything they need. But getting two of these emails in one day was kind of a "bonk" on the forehead, so I picked up my phone and called them both.

Besides saying "Hi" and getting to know them a little, I was curious why they had waited "for years" to join.

The first lady said basically, she wasn't really SURE if it would be as good on the inside as it looked from the outside. She said she's so used to advertisements on TV saying thier product is wonderful, only to be disappointed after she got the item in the mail. She described how she had ordered a die-cast model car as a gift for her husband. On TV it filled the screen. When it came in the mail, it didn't fill the palm of her hand. With experiences like that, she'd been skeptical for years about just how good a membership would really be to our site.

The second lady said she had hesitated because she rarely spent money on herself. She would buy things all the time for her husband or her kids or grandkids, but she would always put off buying things for herself. Her husband had bought the embroidery machine for her two years ago at Christmas and she hadn't really learned to use it yet and only had the designs that came with the machine. She wasn't really sure what she needed to get started using the thing. I got really excited at what she had her hands on and told her how to get designs from our site into her machine with a memory stick.

I made a note in my calendar to follow up with a phone call to each of them a month from now to see how they're progressing. I want to know if the first lady thinks she got her monies worth from a membership. (I'm pretty sure I know what the answer will be - click here for what I think she'll say!)

And the second lady... I want to be sure she's started using that Janome machine instead of leaving it lonely on the table of her room. (That's just not right!) I also gave her the phone number for the local UnRavelers group in her area so she could go out and have a cup of coffee with the great gals in her area that were already having fun with their machines. I think we might have rescued her too!

I understand why both of them had hesitated to join in the past...

To the first lady, I could only say, here's what others have said about their ATW membership. (Click here)

To the second lady, I could only say "Isn't it time for YOU?"

The more I thought about the conversations I had on Tuesday, the more it bothered me!     In case you didn't see the Wednesday article I wrote, I refer you back to this one titled "Isn't It Time For YOU?"

What bothered me about these two conversations was the thought process that so many of us carry with us throughout our lives. It's a kind of "I'll just wait until ______, then I'll go ahead and start doing what I want to do with my life."

Let me pass on these simple words to you...

IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE - PLEASE DO IT NOW.

I'm not talking here about joining ATW, or about buying a new pair of shoes. I'm talking about the important things. The things you know in your heart that you long to do but keep putting off because "it's not the right time yet."

Let me share this story with you. It will be 4 years ago on January 12th that I left my corporate job. At the time, ATW wasn't making enough money to even come close to supporting us. I would have said "It's not the right time yet" if you'd asked me a couple years earlier.

But the world changed for many of us on Sept 11th 2001. And it profoundly changed me. I had planned on staying with my corporate job until my 66th birthday, when I'd be eligible for Social Security and a nice IRA payout. But when I thought about all the people that probably had similar plans and worked in the World Trade Center... it brought home to me that for some of us, someday never comes.

I left my job one morning in January. I left behind some friends that were still on the "when-I'm-65" track. One of them was "Joey D" who sat two cubicles away from me. And one of them was the gal that sat in the cubicle next to me - "Kathy".

One morning in April, after I'd been gone for 3 months, Kathy called me. She said that Joe had died of a heart attack while sitting at his desk that Monday morning. Joe was 2 years older than me. He was more overweight than I am, and he smoked, but that's still not what you'd expect at 52 years old.

I took that as a not-so-subtle reminder...

IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE - PLEASE DO IT NOW.

(Read more about Holly and me here.)

-- Larry

Here's a beautiful Christmas wish from one of our members in the "Embroidery & Fun" forum on ATW...

"I send to each of you the blessings of a Merry CHRISTmas. May your Christmas Eve and your Christmas day be filled with all of those things that make hearts overflow with love, laughter, joy and peace. May your memories be of the simple things, a hug, a smile and the joy of the magic of the season in a child's eye.

Pastor Ruth"

Thanks Ruth. I couldn't have said it as well as you did, so I just shared your greetings with everyone and say thanks for the post. -- Larry

Just wondering if any new embroidery machines or toys showed up at YOUR house this morning?

-- Larry

(Click "Comments" below to reply!)

It happens every year at this time...

The MTV and VH1 stations list their favorite new songs for the year. The News stations list the "big events" of the year. The Biography channel lists who died in the last year. And the rest of us try to figure out where OUR year went!

I thought it would be a good idea today then to look back at 2007 and see what happened in our little corner of the world at ATW, Nita's Place, and in the world of embroidery in general.

One significant event was that Fuwari came to America. I'll be chronicalling this in detail over the next few weeks in a video that we currently have in production. The working title is "Success With Fuwari" and that might be the title on the video when it reaches the stores in the second quarter of 2008. What's significant about Fuwari is that it is a revolutionary new process, rather than an evolution of a current one. It's been quite a while since something truly "new" came into machine embroidery and this would be one of those things.

Another significant event was the creation of the www.nitasthreadnest.com business and website. It's significant because as far as I can determine, it is again a new concept. Making a set of premier quality designs that are created espressly for a thread color family is a first. It was interesting to see another well-known personality in the sewing world come out with a similar product within a few months of our introduction. :-)

The third event I'll mention in this review of our 2007 is the creation of "Me And Thee Embroidery". We expect the products from M&T to begin showing up on store shelves in the 2nd quarter of 2008. That's an exceptionally long lead time for our work since we're used to making something one day and introducing it to the market the next day via the internet. It represents a big learning curve for our team and we're anxious to see how all the M&T products look on the store shelves.

As you look back at 2007, what significant events occured for YOU? Have you taken a little time to chronicle them either in a photo album, or scrapbook, or a personal web page? If not, why not take a few minutes now to jot down some ideas of what your year was like. Then when you get together with friends over the New Years weekend, ask them the same question... "What happened in your life in 2007 that you'll remember as significant events?"

After all, why should the folks at MTV and CNN have all the fun?!

Well, another Christmas day has come and gone. Seems like it was on its way and I blinked and it was over. I hope your day was wonderful and happy. WOW! I just got used to writing 2007 and will have to start over again to learn 2008. It is amazing how fast the time goes.

We have been really busy here at my studio as usual. My sister, Jean, and her daughter, (Debbie "DebbieMc" who is our webmaster at NitasPlace) were here for a couple of days. They just left today. Debbie and I were talking about what we could do for Nita's Place for the next year to make it even better for all of our members.

Last night we all (Holly, Larry,Jean, Debbie, Annette, CJ and I) went over to Galveston Island to the Imax Theater and saw "Polar Express" in 3D. It was so cool and fun. Before that we went to the Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. That was an experience also. We were seated right below the elephants and of course it was pretty noisy when they started to trumpet. The animation effects are amazing. It has been a great week and we are gearing up for a great year to come.

I would like to wish all of you a Most Happy New Year 2008 and to thank you for making 2007 a great year for all of us.

Til next weeek!
Happy Stitching Trails!,
Nita O'Keefe
www.nitasplace.com

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

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...

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

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

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 year