I've never claimed to be very good in geography, but as I travel as much as I do I have come to learn a lot about the mid-west and other parts of this great country.  My trip to Laredo Texas was certainly an experience to remember!    First of all... I didn't check my map before scheduling this training nor did I reserve a hotel room before I got there.   I know I know... duh!

Before I go on, I usually talk about my trainees in this blog, and Arturo and Julio were great students and I learned a few new words in Spanish during this training, but the trip there was certainly what I would call an adventure.

After driving south for 16 hours I ended up in quite literally the worst motel that I've ever stayed in.  The door plate was missing a few screws, there was mold above the shower, the walls looked like what you might find in a mechanic's shop with greasy fingerprints everywhere and the light bulbs were without fixtures.  If it weren't the last room for miles I certainly wouldn't have stayed, but it has given me good stories to tell about my travels. 

The hotel that Arturo set me up with in Laredo was the extreme opposite!  The building itself sat right on the US/Mexico border and was about 175 years old.   The time I spent in this hotel would have to be the most memorable ever!

Only in the mid-west could you find an embroidery shop in a farm supply store! 

Tami has been in business for many years and has been stitching on an old Melco EMC.   She has this reoccurring order that she has been doing on the EMC machine and it would take her 1 1/2 hours to sew, which only allowed her to get a few jackets done in a day.  With her new machine she has cut the time of stitching out this design down to 35 minutes.  This time saving is going to make a huge difference in Tami's production schedule.

Since Tami had some experience with embroidery before training began I decided that I would show her how to do micro-chenille.  What a great application that can only be done with the auto tension system on the Melco family of machines.   Tami was excited to learn something new and different that she could offer to her customers to set herself apart.

Rocker Patch

Recently I had someone interested in learning how to make Rocker Patches so I decided to make a short video to explain it to everyone. As you will see in the video learning to create rocker patches will help anyone with digitizing.