Discovering the automatic stitches on the sewing machine

I missed the date yesterday: 11/6/17. Oh well.

Today I (finally) got to do some sewing. I have been thinking about the new challenge for the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria's challenge - Take a Shell.
I took a shell.
Then I put it away.
Absolutely no inspiration.

I have been browsing Pinterest. And I have seen a couple of works there, and in person, that have used the built in stitches on the machine.

I bought my machine about a year and a bit ago - nice exact information there.

I usually only use the straight stitch. When I did the workshop with Kathryn Harmer Fox I used the zigzag stitch too. But that is all I have used on my machine.

Today was learning day!
I had Taken a Shell - today I actually looked at it.

Here is my take on the shell. It might not win any prizes in the challenge but I have finally started sewing again.

First, I attached a piece of wadding to the fabric. I am thinking of mounting it on a preprepared canvas, so it has to be the right size, with enough leftover fabric to wrap around the side. I am not particularly good at mounting works, so it will be interesting to see if this preparation is good enough. 

Then I drew a rough pattern, based on the shell. I hope the so-called water-erasable pen actually does erase! I have left it in the sun on previous occasions and the sun seems to have set it. It is winter and I  didn't get going till twilight, so it should erase. 

The rater large selection of stitches on my Husqvarna. I haven't used them before, it was a learning experience to simple choose the stitches, let alone the size and width. 

Work in progress. I had a bit of fun choosing the various stitches and turning them to fit the pattern. No free motion sewing here, I had to let the feed dogs be up, set the tension and actually fiddle with the width of the stitches. 

Here it is, rinsed out to get rid of the marker. It is still damp, so will be lighter when I work out how to attach the actual shell - if I do. I thought about ironing it dry but don't want to interfere with the stitching and the texture, so will let it dry naturally. 

I may put the shell the other way, if it looks ok with the sewing - it doesn't seem to mimic the arc all that well. 

Oh well, at least I experimented and learnt about the various stitch choices on the machine.