Stitch Sampling

I received an exciting delivery last week…

…let me give you a hint… it rhymes with glowing sashine.

That’s right, I got a new sewing machine. (Eeeeeee!!!)

I can’t wait to tell you more about it, although first I need a little more time to fully get to know my new best friend. I haven’t named it yet even. (Do you name your sewing machines?)

One of the things I vow to do better with this sewing machine was rather than just jump right in, I want to really understand everything the machine is capable of. This one has a lot of features. Sometimes I don’t use my sewing machines to their full extend because I don’t even know all that they can do.

This new machine has 240 stitches alone. I really  want to make sure I use more of them and so this week I decided I needed to take on sampling all the stitches.

Quite literally I set about sewing a 9 inch section of each of the 240 stitch patterns my machine has available.

The process may feel a little repetitive but it really allowed me some time to get to know my new sewing machine. I was grateful to spend time doing that on a sample piece rather than figuring out the little nuances of the machine on a special project.

I really liked getting to know all the stitches. There are so many I’m excited to try and figure out a way to incorporate into my sewing endeavours.

This machine even allows you to program the stitches!

For this project, I used 10 x 10 inch pieces of quilting cotton.

When use some of these stitches on projects, you would use stabilizer. I liked that I didn’t use stabilizer for this sampler because it really showed me how the stitches would perform with a lightweight cotton.

There are several groupings of stitches on this machine and so I tried to keep the groups together.

Here are a few tips for making a stitch sampler:

• Take the extra step and label/number your stitches so you can find them later when you are looking for a particular stitch.
• Load your bobbin! I went through over a bobbin and a half making my stitch sampler. Prep your thread and you’ll have a successful, uninterrupted stitch session.
• Use a high contrast colour between your fabric and your thread so the stitches are clear and easy to see.
• Use a solid colour fabric so you don’t lose the stitches in a pattern or design.
• I’ve seen some people organize their stitches in a binder, between clear plastic sleeves. However you decide to organize your stitches, just make sure they are somewhere you can access them easily. I’ll keep mine with my sewing machine manual (as I know I’ll be referencing that a lot over the next while!).

Have you ever made a stitch sampler? How do you get to “know” a new machine Let’s be honest here, after all, we’re among friends… tell me, do you name your machines? What is your current machine’s name?