Stupendous Stitchery ...



Doing your homework pays off! Here's the completed piece from the online course called Stupendous Stitching on Craftsy. I wrote about it in the previous post. In this final project, we selected a background fabric with some gradation to begin. Then we applied rows upon rows of both couched yarns and fibers along with decorative machine stitches, referring back to the stitch dictionary to choose our favorites. It really was helpful to have that reference tool and I'm glad I did my homework.  



Once the machine work was complete, our next step was to add some further interest by using hand embroidered details. Everything from French Knots to Lazy Daisy stitches made this piece a lot of fun to create.

Here's another detail shot. What a great opportunity to explore and make use of all the pretty stitches on the machine and the decorative threads and yarns in my stash! I'm envisioning some fabric postcards or notecards that include some of this Stupendous Stitching. Taking Carol's class added to my appreciation for the things my trusty Bernina is capable of. That alone was worth the price of admission. But I also believe the class has unlocked more ideas for using the stitches creatively. And that's the payoff for the future.

Behind the Scenes...

.

Well I found out what's behind all those numbers and symbols on the sewing machine. Have you ever taken the time to stitch out all the decorative stitches on your sewing machine? That was the groundwork of an online course I'm taking on Craftsy called“Stupendous Stitching” taught by Carol Waugh. Before getting into the fun of making the class project which I'll show in the next post, I first explored the decorative stitches on my Bernina by making this stitch reference. Class instructor Carol Waugh had us stabilize fabric rectangles, and then sew rows of the numbered stitches in order. We also varied the width and length of the stitches just to see the effect, and numbered each stitch

It was a time investment that yielded a very useful tool. So often the stitch images shown on a machine or a reference card bear little resemblance to the actual results. Now I can see what they look like, and I confess I had never even glanced at many of the available stitches before. Next Carol showed us how to assemble these stitch samples into a booklet to keep handy by the sewing machine. She even made a pretty cover for hers, but I was too anxious to get to the project so mine remains cover-less for now.

While I missed the mark and wound up with pages that vary in size, it won't diminish the usefulness of the project. There are nearly 200 stitches, but taking the time to sew all of them was well worth it. It's easy to spot favorites, it helps to know which stitches use up a lot of thread or take a lot of time, and it provides a great visual tool for sewing. I have the stitch settings for a couple of often-used stitches like the buttonhole and feather stitches memorized, but now I can vary the stitches I use by glancing through my stitch dictionary and making an informed choice.