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« September 2011 | Main | November 2011 »
Oct 30 2011: Sneak-Peek, Learn To Digitize Nov 15th, and Update On Pearl
Sneak Peak of 87 Designs In November 1st ATW Member Bonus Set
The next post down from here has a picture of the designs going to ATW members on November 1st called "Thoughts Of Christmas". There are 87 designs in this set.
The way these designs were created was to start with a list of words related to Christmas. Holly and Larry came up with the list of words in about 30 minutes time. The list was then split up between the members of the digitizers apprentice contest by dividing the total number of words by the number of contestants and assigning words to each person.
The digitizers then used Generations software's "Text Tools" to put the words into shapes and situations that would work with the word. Holly showed them how to use the text tools in the week 3 webinar and they had a few hours to work on their creations. The designs below (see next article) are the result of their work.
Who are these digitizers? You havne't heard of them yet, but you sure will be hearing about them in the future. You can see a short biography on each of them here...
Want to learn to digitize?
Generations is holding a test-drive event starting now and going though Dec 15th. The deadline to get into the Test-Drive is November 15th. Sooner is better as it will give you more time to play with the software.
Get a full working copy of Generations digitizing software (CLICK HERE TO ORDER) to use from now until Dec 15th here for just $69. You will be automatically entered into our drawing for a free copy of Generations ($1,999 value) to be given away on Dec 15th 2011. Everyone in the Test Drive will win a prize with a minimum value of $149 in the December 15th drawing.
Update On Pearl
Our white boxer, Pearl, had a UTI this spring, then another one this fall. When I took a sample in for follow up there was still blood in the urine. That's an uh-oh moment. The vet xray'ed her and her bladder was filled with stones. The next morning she had surgery to remove the stones and at the same time I couple suspicious lumps. She came home to recuperate the same day as the surgery while we waited for the results of the lab tests on the biopsies.
The vet called us Friday night which was one week after the surgery and said the pathology reports were all good. No cancer. I slept better Friday night than I have in a week. :-)
Our thoughts today are with all our friends in the Northeast without power due to the snow storm. As of right now, 2.5 million people are experiencing an ugly Sunday morning. I hope your power comes back on ASAP.
-- Larry
Sneak Peak November Member Bonus
This Holiday Season ATW is please to present to you a extra special
Member Bonus - "Thoughts of Christmas"
The designs have been produced by the Apprentice contestants in 2011.
Set will be avaliable for download NOV 1st 2011.
Each student was given 5 words or phrases centered around Christmas. Their assignment was to "Make designs" using only these words and the tools in the software, no outside artwork. The result is presented here for you to enjoy for the holidays!
Set will be avaliable for download NOV 1st 2011.
I am so incredibly pleased with each of the 16 ladies represented and the work they have produced.
This is the most talented group of student digitizers I have ever seen. I am sure you will agree when you see this set.
As students, they are still learning. We would love your feedback and we will be providing a way to do so on the download page...
One or more of these ladies will be my Apprentice(s) for the next calendar year and you will see more designs by them in 2012.
Each design ends in the student's initials. You can learn more about our apprentices from their bio link that will be avaliable on the download page.
I hope you enjoy the Apprentice Class-1 2011 Christmas Gift to you!
~~Holly
If you are a member of ArtisticThreadWorks then this set is free to you. Membership is just $9.95 for a month. If you're not a member yet, why not join now and get this set of 87 designs (PLUS 16 more new design sets thoughtout the month of November) for just $9.95 membership. (Membership info here...)
"Featured Project" @ Embroidery Highway + one month "winner" ATW membership
Posted by: anitab Date Posted: Sep 24, 2011
one for my Mom, one for my MIL. ATW designs. Anita
one for my Mom, one for my MIL. ATW designs. Anita
What New Embrodery Products Interest You?
Hi -
I want to get info about new products you all are interested in so I created a survey that will let me keep track of your answers. Please click here and go through the survey as soon as you have a few minutes.
Thanks!
"ATW-Christmas BOGO" Embriodery Design This weeks Special @ ATW
ATW B.O.G.O - "ATW-Christmsas"- Buy One set get 4 Sets FREE with the purchase of featured HollyDesignStudio.com "Christmas Village"!
See it here:
See it here:
http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/specialoffers
Update On Pearl
I woke up at 4:11 am today. Pearl woke me to go out. I always glance at the clock when I wake up to see if I should just go back to sleep or go ahead and get up. Any time it's after 3:30 I know there is no point in trying to go back to sleep as it won't work. Especially hard to go back to sleep after a walk in the cold morning air to let the girls go p. Might not be wide awake when I get up to walk them but I sure am awake by the time I get back inside the house. :-)
I took the girls out and then started their breakfast. We feed them raw foods so it takes a few minutes to prepare a meal but they wait patiently. (okay... mostly patiently) I ground up Pearls meds and mixed them in with her food. Antibiotic, painkiller, and two others I'd have to look at the bottles to tell you what they are and why. After breakfast it took about 15 minutes for the painkiller to kick in again and she's back to sleep. Of course I'm wide awake! Got a cup of coffee and sat down to work.
It's amazing how fast Pearl is recovering. Holly and I have both commented on how we would be in bed for a week if we had bladder stones removed. She was up and walking the next evening. Have to keep her from jumping and running after two days.
The stitches and staples have to be removed before we leave this area and the vet who did the surgery. That is scheduled for the first Wednesday of November. If all goes well we can leave here on Thursday or Friday. ( I vote for Thursday :-)
Holly stayed home with the girls yesterday while I ran a couple errands. The rest of the day we both worked and kept an eye on Pearl. She is sleeping next to me now while I am on the sofa.
I use an AirDesk to work while on the sofa. That's my "office". I like it because I can have either Pearl or Onyx on the sofa next to me while I am working. Holly uses a lounge chair and a swing arm made by 3M to hold her monitor/drawing-pad. She can have a dog in her lap while working too. :-)
Thanks for all the get-well wishes. Even got a couple e-cards for Pearl. Cute. Time for me to get some work done. The day is half over already! (It's 6:11 am here and I've been up for 2 hours now. Time to get back to work. :-)
-- Larry
PS: In case you're wondering what an AirDesk looks like...
10 Days Of Nothing But Digitizing
Holly and I had planned on leaving Illinois last Thursday BUT there were high wind warnings so we delayed leaving until Friday morning. Since we were going to be in town for one more day, we took Pearl (our white 5 year old boxer) in for a follow up visit to the local vet.
She still had a UTI after 2 weeks of antibiotics so the vet did an xray that showed stones in her bladder. She had surgery on Friday morning to remove them and we will be sticking around for follow up visits with the vet until about 14 days after the surgery. Wow. We are glad the winds kept us from leaving on Thursday. Any of those stones could have moved to a position that would have blocked the outlet from her bladder causing serious pain or worse.
So while we didn't want to see any snow flying this year, we are sure glad we found out about the problem with Pearl and got it fixed. She's recovering now from the surgery and we are keeping an eye on her so she leaves the sutures alone. While we can't leave her alone at all for the next couple weeks we will be getting a lot of work done so that's a positive thing.
Holly will spend almost all of the next 10 days digitizing. I will spend the time on 3 website projects I'm currently working on for you all.
Speaking of work getting done... :-)
Holly and her apprentice class just had week #4 online this past Saturday. You are welcome to take a look at what they've been working on here...
http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/6048.cfm
The video shows some of the designs they did from week #3 assignment and Holly coaching them on this week's assignment. There are also a couple handouts and another video made by me about the work a digitizer does behind the scenes. All are open to the public currently so help yourself even if you're not a member of ArtisticThreadWorks yet. :-)
I'm still working on a couple of projects I need to get finished up before I can tackle the next thing. My main project right now is my 30-days-of-designs that I started a while ago and haven't been able to finish yet. You may have seen the first 20 days worth so far, the rest I hope to finish during the next 10 days while we are here in Illinois and restricted to not leaving Pearl alone. :-)
There are two more projects in the works too that I won't even talk about yet as I'm not done with the 30 days thing yet but they should be really fun for all of our readers on Embroidery Highway and on ATW too.
New Digitizing Class Forming Now...
There will be Generations Test Drive Event with signups opening up today and the event starting on November 15th. Details will be posted here ASAP. If you have wanted to learn to digitize, this is THE place to give it a go. Cost of the software to use is rediculously cheap if you get in on one of these events. :-) Watch for details shortly here.
-- Larry
"Featured Project" @ Embroidery Highway + one month "winner" ATW membership
Posted by: JennyQuire
All these designs are from ATW
All these designs are from ATW
"Seasonal Door Hangers" Embroidery Design - This weeks Featured item on HDS
You’ve been selected to save up to 50% off Embroidery Designs.
We would like to invite you to take advantage of this great set of Embroidery Designs. It's a limited time offer ....so it's best to shop fast.
On sale now:Seasonal Door Hangers
We know you want in. That's why we invited you.
We would like to invite you to take advantage of this great set of Embroidery Designs. It's a limited time offer ....so it's best to shop fast.
On sale now:Seasonal Door Hangers
We know you want in. That's why we invited you.
http://www.hollysdesignstudio.com/
20 different designs in All for only $6.99!!
"ThanksGiving Embriodery Designs" This weeks Special BOGO @ ATW
ATW B.O.G.O - "ThanksGiving"- Buy One set get 4 Sets FREE with the purchase of featured HollyDesignStudio.com "FSL Coasters"!
See all designs in this package here...
See all designs in this package here...
http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/specialoffers
"Magnetic Book Marks" - This Week's Featured Item @ HDS
MAGNETIC BOOK MARKS - 18 different designs + entire monogram alphabet
http://www.hollysdesignstudio.com/
Become a member of ATW and get BONUS designs like this every month
Starting South For The Winter On Thursday
Holly and I are making preparations to head South for the winter. We've gone to our storage unit and dropped off our "summer stuff", done as many "see-you-next-year" get togethers as we can, and said goodbye to our neighbors in Illinois. We are due to pull out of hear on the morning of the 20th and hope to be in Florida before Halloween. :-)
Two couples we have enjoyed camping with during the summers won't be back here next summer. They bought sites in a different campground about 80 miles from here in the last two weeks and will be there next summer instead. While the buy-your-own-site campgrounds are economical if they are in the right place, there are only three of them in North-East Illinois that I know of and all of them are a long ways from where we want to be to visit our friends easily.
That type of place is very common in central and South Florida. Not so much in the Northern part of the state where we go for the winter. So we will stay "gypsy's" for now in both states.
Holly's been keeping ahead of her digitizing lately but has also been spending a lot of time with her current apprentice contest folks. The last two Saturday classes have each run about 3 hours in length. They are all making a lot of progress in their skills and our ATW members will be seeing some of their designs and getting to know these folks soon.
One of our students and member of ATW (Pat Beilke) has been waiting for about 2 years for a lung transplant. Last Thursday night she was called into the hospital for a possible match and it happened for her. We are praying for her fast recovery and are excited for the opportunity to live a longer and fuller life for her. Please keep our friend Pat in your thoughts and prayers over the next few weeks as she recuperates.
I hope you're having fun with embroidery this week. The holiday's are coming in just a few weeks and everyone's embroidery machine can be pretty busy making gifts. I hope yours is too.
Here's a funny story from our forum on ATW as told by MacKit...
"I got a phone call at the store around 5:30 Friday night from a cop that wanted a patch embroidered on his shirt. I thought at first that he meant he had a patch to sew on the shirt so I was going to stay a little late and help the guy out. Oh, he needed it by 7:00 that night. Then I realized that he needed a design embroidered on the shirt.
I explained that the design would have to be digitized and that is not something that I do. He was a little confused so I explained why a picture of the patch doesn't help me. So he wanted to know how long it would take someone to digitize it, get it to me, and have me embroider it on his shirt. He really was not understanding.
Needless to say, he didn't get the patch on his shirt, and he still couldn't understand why there was so much hassle over one little patch.
Just thought you guys would get a kick out of this."
Thanks Kit for the story... I got a kick out of it! :-)
Sneak Peak...Designs from Artisticthreadworks.com coming soon...
Sneak Peak...Designs from Artisticthreadworks.com coming soon...
"Featured Project" @ Embroidery Highway + one month "winner" ATW membership
Posted by: PJS
ATW designs. Just love them. Started this set long time ago. Sewed out one and stopped. I had to redo that one now that I figured out how to stabilize better. I used a fusible pellon on these.
ATW designs. Just love them. Started this set long time ago. Sewed out one and stopped. I had to redo that one now that I figured out how to stabilize better. I used a fusible pellon on these.
Sneak Peak...Designs from Artisticthreadworks.com coming soon...
Sneak Peak...Designs from Artisticthreadworks.com coming soon...
"Featured Project" @ Embroidery Highway + one month "winner" ATW membership
Posted by: jfortney
This is an ATW pattern
This is an ATW pattern
October 2011 Member Bonus: Magnetic Bookmarks
Here are photos of one of the no-sew magnetic bookmark projects by Holly. The designs used in this project are the October 2011 "ATW Member Bonus Set" and are free to folks who are members of ArtisticThreadWorks during October 2011.ATW Members in Oct 2011 can download this set of designs and the instructions for free here.
If you're not a member of ATW yet, join here! Your membership includes a "Member Bonus Set" like this one that is released on the 1st day of every month, additional design sets every week, and full download rights to our archives with over 20,000 designs!
From Our Forums: "The Mac-For-Embroidery Fanboy"
Switching to a Mac does add complexity and cost if you HAVE to use Windows. By the time you pay for the Mac which is more expensive than a comparable PC, pay for Parallels, and pay for a copy of Windows, you have invested a lot more in the Mac, need to learn a new operating system, and have to switch back and forth in order to run your windows programs in windows and your mac progams in mac.
But... there are also some advantages to using a Mac that are hard to pass up IF you are willing to accept all the above negatives. One advantage is that when they manufacture the hardware they don't make choices based on "what's cheapest". It annoys me when I see something that I paid for has been manufactured in the cheapest way possible. Maybe a pet peeve of mine, but it just trips my trigger. :-)
For example, a BBQ grill I bought a few years ago had rust streaks running down from the bolts on the top where the handle was attached. I worked for a hardware company for 20 years and I know that stainless steel screws would have held that handle in place with no rust and would have cost the company that made the grill about 1/2 of a penny more than the plain steel screws they used. The grill cost me $200. Do you think I was annoyed!
It's the same way with computers too. When you see an inferior part inside that was used because it saved the manufacturer $1 in material costs, but means my $1800 computer will likely break sooner, it ticks me off. I don't ever see that with Apple products. They do it the RIGHT WAY and they get enough money from the sale to cover that cost. Yes, they are pricey compared to other brands, but if it lasts longer then you may come out ahead.
I don't suggest everyone go Mac. It's not realistic with the lack of software available for embroidery. But it's worth considering if you can deal with the negatives I listed above.
One more story that I may have told before is about Holly's last PC. She had an 18 month old Toshiba laptop with an active screen. (IE: Wacom screen built into the pc) It started doing strange things and I suspected the hard drive was dying on it. Geek squad confirmed the problem and we put in a new hard $100 hard drive.
But, Windows anti-piracy features would not allow us to install the original Windows-XP Tablet Edition disks again because it was a "new computer". So we ended up buying another copy of Windows. Only Windows 7 was available and only "Ultimate" supported a built-in Wacom tablet. So the $100 hard drive repair (+ $60 installation charge) also cost us $400 more for Windows 7 Ultimate.
Having loaded Windows on a PC many times before, I paid the Geeks $100 more to install the new operating system for me because part of their service included downloading all the drivers needed to make the computer work. I was right in making that choice because it took them 2 days to do it. I'll gladly pay someone $100 to do something that would waste 2 days of my time doing it myself! :-)
After the repaired computers was back with us again, Holly used it for about 3 months but still had problems with crashing. It would often crash after 30 minutes of use. She was THRILLED when it went one whole day without crashing once. This was not a problem with the new hard drive but with Windows-7 and the software on her computer. Reboot time was 5 minutes due to her drivers and other things that happened so her workflow was really messed up. In the first month after getting the computer repaired she tracked 7 days she was able to work out of 30 days total. The rest of the time she was dealing with computer issues.
Finally in desperation she agreed to TRY using my little MacBook with Parallels and Windows-XP on it. We loaded her embroidery software on the Windows part of the machine and she fired it up using an external tablet for drawing. It ran fine. It didn't crash after 30 minutes. Didn't crash all day. She actually was able to work again. Didn't crash the next day either. Not once. In fact, she did not have to reboot for more than 30 days. After that she stopped counting the days.
Holly was so thrilled with the lack of crashing that she dealt with the changeover and the negatives I mentioned in the first paragraph. We bought her a more powerfull MacBookPro after 5 or 6 weeks of using my old MacBook. That same little MacBook was passed on to our niece Mary and has been running now for 4 years and is still going strong.
I took the old hard drive that was in the Toshiba originally and put it into an external hard drive enclosure so I could copy everything off of it easily. I ran diagnostic software on the thing and found out that the bearings were starting to go out which was what caused the problems in the first place. When the bearings START to go bad, it slows down the spinning enough to cause data errors. If you wait a little longer (like a few days or maybe as much as a month later) you will hear a squealing sound as the bearings seize up and the drive stops spinning completely.
While it's possible for any piece of hardware to fail, the hard drive shouldn't have died after 18 months. They are typically rated to last for 500,000 hours MTBF by the manuafacturers. That is 57 years if you divide 500,000 by 24 hours a day and then by 365 days a year. While I don't really expect 57 years of use from a hard drive, it seems like 18 months is way below what it should have been. It wouldn't have cost Toshiba much more to put a more reliable drive in her last PC.
-- Larry ("Another Apple Fanboy") :-)
"Featured Project" @ Embroidery Highway + one month "winner" ATW membership
Posted by: JennyQuire
The designs are from ATW. The font used is Mural Script. I crocheted around the socks and the $2.00 blanket from WalMart.
The designs are from ATW. The font used is Mural Script. I crocheted around the socks and the $2.00 blanket from WalMart.
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