SxS Mini Project 1: My Stitch Sampler

People who embroider make samplers; whoever would have thought that a sewing sampler would be useful?

Pardon the glare, darn camera . . .

This is my sampler- a large piece of fabric sewed with every stitch available on my machine, in different widths so I can see how it works.  How amazing is that!  My plan is to frame it and put it on the wall above where the sewing machine lives so I can always see what it does.  Isn't practical wall art great!

Ready to get the book yet?  Its fantastic!

The Journey:

Yesterday morning I was totally going to start my sampler when the unexpected happened:

Yes, that is my sewing machine minus the back panel.  Why?  A spider.  Not a tiny one, oh no, half-inch long and yellow.  Scared the devil out of me.  I always have had trouble with spiders in this house, but usually NOT in my sewing machine, so I attacked it with a can of air.  Haven't found the spider but if it is still in there it ought to be terrified!  I did learn two really neat things about my sewing machine though: there is a lever to lower the feed dogs that is impossible to see when the machine is assembled and there is one tiny nut that will fall inside one you have put all the screws back in so you have to take it apart.  Again.

Luckily that didn't take a lot of time (practice makes perfect, grrr), so only an hour after I intended to start I actually started.

I enjoyed learning about the different stitches (which you can see across the top of the machine) and figuring out what they looked like.  I still don't know what most of the do, but some look pretty neat as they are.

Close up shots of my favorites, please ignore the glare.  Sometimes my camera gets up in a bad mood.

The curve reminds me of a banner and there are a few that look like heartbeat monitors.  The zigzags (right) look a little like leaves.  Absolutely a neat way to learn about your machine!