Chances are you woke up this morning still stuffed from yesterday's Thanksgiving feast. The refrigerator is probably loaded with left over turkey and numerous side dishes. Enough to feed the family for several more days.

I've always marveled at how much food is prepared and consumed on Thanksgiving. Those of you that celebrate this holiday surely know what I mean. We gorge ourselves with food in a way that is unlike any other day of the year. Even if we take only a small sample of each dish our plates are piled high with savory meats, dressing, potatoes, vegetables and other delectable side dishes.

Now with Thanksgiving behind us, we turn our attention toward holiday shopping. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Malls, department stores and specialty shops will entice us with huge sales and promotions. Some will open before sunrise and some will never close. Opportunities to find those perfect gifts are endless.

However, studies have shown that many shoppers no longer want to face traffic congestion, parking problems and long lines. It's now much easier and more convenient to shop online. From the comfort of your home you can order many of the items on your shopping list and have them shipped directly to you.

The popularity of hand-crafted gifts is also on the rise. Put your creativity and embroidery machine to work with some of the gift ideas we've got for you this holiday season. You'll find a couple of these great ideas featured below. Be sure to have a look.

If you do your own digitizing you know there are many things to consider when creating a design. Things like stitch type, stitch length, stitch direction, fill pattern, and density are just some of the important design elements that need to be carefully planned.

One very important element that can easily be overlooked is design mapping. Mapping is exactly what the term implies. It's a road map that your machine follows to get from the first stitch in the design to the last stitch in the design. You can send your machine on a wild ride of back roads and hairpin turns, but it will take a lot longer to reach its destination.

The correct sewing sequence for each segment and color can make all the difference in the world. Your design may look great on your screen, but if it doesn't sew out well no one will be happy with it. By properly mapping your designs you can eliminate unnecessary jump stitches and trims.

Here's a few things you can do to help map your designs more efficiently:

• If possible, sequence your colors to sew out completely before requiring a thread change.
• Move in and out points to make travel distances as short as possible.
• Add travel stitches if necessary to eliminate unecessary jumps and trims.

Before you consider a design complete, spend a little extra time mapping it. Believe me, proper mapping will pay huge dividends.

Mirror & Pouch project done completely "In-The-Hoop"

There's still time to take advantage of this special introductory price, but hurry this sale will end soon!

Click the link below for details.

Mirror & Pouch In-The-Hoop Project

Are you ready for this? Janome is soon to release a new embroidery only four needle machine, the Janome MB4. Weighing in at only 45 pounds, this machine is extremely light and compact. We're not sure where it will first be introduced, but we expect to see it on display at Janome dealers worldwide soon. Janome has not yet officially announced this new machine on their web site, but it is scheduled to be released this month.

Don't let the picture fool you. This machine has only 4 needles, but two rows of thread containing 4 spools each. The machine comes with two different hoop sizes with the largest sewing field at 7.8 inches x 9.5 inches. Maximum speed - 800spm. No official word yet on MSRP.

Just released! A brand new set of Native Motif designs. This unique set consists of 10 different characters in two sizes for both the 4x4 and 5x7 hoops. A total of 20 designs in all. They look great on blue jeans or denim jackets. Available now at 75% off the regular price.

Native Motifs

Our thanks to Mary Morrow for submitting this helpful embroidery tip:

When embroidering on umbrellas, coat the back of the design with a thin layer of clear caulk to keep it waterproof. The caulk will dry clear and flexible and keep the umbrella from leaking.

Want to win FREE designs? Submit your tip or trick to us. If we publish your tip you will win your choice of any design or design set we offer for sale on our web site.

We featured this in our last issue, but since the holiday season is upon us we thought it was worth mentioning again. If you are still searching for a perfect holiday gift idea this might be just what you are looking for. There's still plenty of time, so let us show you how to use our Retro Restaurant Advertising design set to create unique, beautiful and long lasting gifts.

Buy now and save 60%!

Retro Restaurant Advertising Design Set

To help us determine what machine format the majority of our customers want, we're asking everyone to take a moment to tell us. Please select your favorite format from the choices below and enter your vote.

We appreciate your input. It will assist us in making future decisions on what design formats we should offer.

Sometimes a design you want may not be offered in the format you need. Many digitizers offer their designs in the most common formats only, but don't let that stop you from buying a design. Let's face it, offering designs in 10 or 15 different formats requires a lot of extra work and additional storage space. So, what should you do if you need a format that isn't listed?

There are a number of programs available that allow you to easily convert designs to and from various formats. Many of them you must purchase, but there are a few free programs out there that work exceptionally well. Wilcom's Truesizer is one of those free programs that we highly recommend. With Truesizer you can easily convert designs to the format you need and it will cost you nothing.

The really good news is Truesizer 2006 will now convert designs to the Bernina Artista ART format. With this free software Bernina owners can now purchase designs not available in the ART format and easily do their own coversions without having to purchase expensive Bernina Artista software.

One final note - You may hear that you can use Truesizer for scaling and resizing designs. While technically this is true, resizing functions only work with designs in the Wilcom EMB format. Trying to scale or resize home machine formats will not produce satisfactory results, but for simple conversions Truesizer works great.

If you'd like to try Truesizer, download it free here...

An adorable snow globe that's right on time for the Christmas holiday season. For the 4 x 4 hoop. Please enjoy it with our compliments!

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