... Holly was working as a systems analyst and looking for a creative outlet to satisfy her need to do something artistic.  It was a Saturday morning and as we had coffee she said she wanted to explore whatever was new in sewing since 10 years before she had enjoyed free-motion embroidery and was interested in getting back into that again. 

We headed out for a local sewing machine dealer "just to look"... and a few hours later arrived back home with an embroidery machine, thread, software, etc.  

The rest as they say... is history.  It was only about two weeks later that the idea of making a business out of her new hobby came to her and ArtisticThreadWorks was born at our dining room table.  It took almost another year to open our first website and sell her first design, and a lot of time spent learning how to digitize, but that is how we started this business.

Back then, learning to digitize was really a challenge.  It still is today, but now there is the resource Holly couldn't even dream of at that time... our educational website and our "Digitizing QuickStart Course"!