Quite often a customer will write to us asking if we can resend designs they purchased. The biggest reason - their computer crashed! It happens every day. Most likely while you are reading this article someone, somewhere has just lost all their embroidery designs due to hard drive failure or a total computer crash. They may be able to recover some of them, but who can remember every design they had and where they purchased it?

There is a very simple way to prevent this from ever happening to you. Make it a habit to regularly back up your embroidery designs and other important data files on your hard drive. There are many different types of storage media and back up software programs available that really make it easy.

Some time ago we published an article that addressed this very subject and thought it was worth revisiting. You may find it helpful in making choices that are right for you.

Learn more about back ups...

Ta Da! Drum roll please!

We are extremely pleased to announce the release of Josie's brand new design set. The theme for this new set is Sports. As you will see, Josie is involved in many different sports and loves being competitive.

If you are one of the many Josie fans, you won't want to miss out on her brand new set at our special introductory price.

For a limited time save 65% Off the regular price.

Josie loves sports...

The latest operating system from Microsoft, Windows Vista, has just been released. As with any new software there are sure to be glitches that will need ironing out. If you plan to purchase a new computer, or upgrade an old one, here is something to consider before you include Windows Vista in your plans.

All of us use various embroidery software programs to accomplish certain tasks. Some of these programs may be outdated and unable to run on this new platform. I know some of the old programs we have won't run on Windows XP. If we wanted to continue using them we must upgrade each of them individually. Quite often third party software makers are a bit slow in rewriting their software and drivers to accomodate a new operating system.

I am not suggesting you will have a problem with any of your embroidery software, but I am suggesting it is a possibility. Be sure to investigate software and driver compatibility before making your decision to upgrade. It could save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

We just released two designs from our brand new Dream Catcher series. These great Native American traditions are a real favorite of ours. We hope you like them too. Follow along with us as we continue to add more designs to this exclusive series.

Follow your dreams here...

If you use compact flash cards to transfer designs to your machine, consider sizes carefully when purchasing your cards. Large capacity cards, such as 1GB or larger, do hold a lot of information, but they may not be the best choice for use with your embroidery machine. Most embroidery machines are not designed to utilize these high capacity cards. The main reason for that is machine memory. Your machine is not equipped to store that much information.

When you ask your machine to access the designs on a compact flash card, it must read the entire card before you can select a single design to sew. If the information on the card exceeds the machine's memory capacity the process will fail. Even if the machine did have adequate memory capacity, the process of reading and storing all those designs would be lenghty. Using folders can help if your machine has the ability to read them, but some machines can not read from folders or sub-directories.

You really should consider your compact flash cards only as a means to get designs from your computer to your machine. The cards don't need to be large for this purpose and you should not depend on them for long term storage.

Smaller capacity cards are getting increasingly more difficult to find. Large capacity cards have taken over the market, but you can still find some smaller cards if you know where to look. Ebay is one venue where you can still find smaller cards at reasonable prices.

Newer embroidery machines now seem to be switching to flash drives (or thumb drives) and doing away with compact flash cards. Regardless of which media your machine uses the same principles apply. You will be unsuccessful if you ask your embroidery machine to read and store information beyond its capacity.

Our thanks to Suzan Maxwell for submitting this helpful embroidery tip:

When embroidering with metallic threads I use a straw to prevent the thread from knotting up. Just run the thread from the spool through the straw and finish threading your needle. This works great!

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.

• Sewing & Stitchery Expo - March 1-4 Puyallup, WA
• Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - March 8-10 Atlanta, GA
• Imprinted Sportswear Show - March 9-11 Atlanta City, NJ
• National Network of Embroidery Professionals - March 16-17 St. Charles, MO
• Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - March 29-31 Cleveland, OH

If you missed the Special Edition of Thread Times on February 10th, here's another chance to meet our exclusive new boy character. He's Josie's brother, that much we know. What we don't know is his hame.

We're asking for your help in giving him a proper name. Be sure to enter our naming contest for your chance to win some great prizes. Complete contest rules, prize list, and the official entry form can be found by following the link below.

Submit your entry here...

Designed to let you create your own personalized Easter Eggs. This set consists of one egg design (as shown on the left) and a 26 letter alphabet for adding a monogram.

Hint: Try sewing the egg with varigated thread. You'll be suprised at the results.

Where's the bunny?...

Help yourself to this set of four redwork horses. Two sizes of each design are included for both the 4x4 and 5x7 hoops. Zip file contains DST, HUS, JEF & PES formats. Please enjoy them with our compliments!

Available to subscribers only.

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