Mother, for having taught me how to sew.

Nearly everything I enjoy doing — sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, tatting, crafting — sprang from her teaching me to hand sew then to use her Singer.

Fifty years of enjoyment (and still counting) is a lot to be thankful for.

I'm only sorry that it's too late to tell her that.

One thing I hope the article might address is thread lint and thread wear on the machine parts. I can't count how many times I've been told by my Viking Designer 1 dealer, her repair man, teachers and other sewers from all over the country that I should only use "good" thread because of the lint and wear caused by cheap thread. When I ask about specific brands, C&C is never recommended for use, which is annoying since it's the most readily available in this area. I can chalk some of the admonitions up to hype and sales pitches, but I've seen the pictures that were gathered here http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa102100a.htm, and it's clear that there are differences. Personally, I don't see the C&C as being worse than the European brands, but it still gets a bad rap. Why is that? I wonder if C&C even knows that they have this reputation as being bad for use in everyday sewing on high-end machines.