Tuesday's Tips & Techniques-Vary your stitches

I am finally getting around to scrapping some of those railroad shots that I took of the kids a couple months ago. As I am sure you know by now, I love sketches and this layout is based on a sketch by Becky Fleck. Here's her sketch:

 

 To add some variety and interest to my layout, I used different machine stitches.

First, I used a large zig-zag stitch to go around the circle of my title.

To do this easily, sew the circle BEFORE you adhere it to the page. No one is going to know that the circle is not actually SEWN onto the page (well, now you all know mine isn't). It is much harder to turn an entire 12x12 sheet of paper in a circle as you are stitching than a little 4 inch circle. {Mom, I can hear you laughing at the thought of me advising someone else how to sew...}. Remember to tie your loose ends together when you are finished just as if your were "really sewing."

I also added a zig-zag stitch to one of my border strips.

Now this takes a little planning ahead...you DO NOT want ANY adhesive under the area that you want to stitch on. Needles and adhesive don't get along. So, I put just a couple tiny glue dots under my strip on the side that I wasn't going to stitch on. If you don't put any adhesive at all, you run the risk of your border sliding a bit on you and that...is hard to fix.

I adjusted my zig-zag to be wider than the one I used for the circle, again just for interest.

My final stitch on this page is a simple straight stitch. Since the area I was stitching was very small and the entire layout is quite distressed, I stitched in forward and reverse very tightly. It was just the look I was after.

And again, my finished layout:

Happy Stitching!