Fancy Stitchin' in the Ditchin'

I bought the kit for this 'Maria' bag from Hannah's Room last week and decided to make it up today. The instructions said to stitch in the ditch of the stripes but I decide to take it a step further and use some of the hundreds of automatic fancy stitches on my machine. I used Superior Threads King Tut on top and Masterpiece in the bobbin and stitched using my walking foot - easy peazy lemon squeazy!
 Click on the picture below for a closer look at both the front and back

Do you use any of the fancy stitches on your sewing machine? I certainly don't use them every day but they are fun sometimes, especially on bags. The first time I used them was on this lightweight denim bag which is one of my favourites - it has been to all sorts of places with me and packs easily inot my suitcase for holidays.

I can't remember where I got the idea fro the spiral from but it was easy to sew. I think I drew round a plate to get the curves! I combined three rows of stitching on the handles. The Bernina USA site has 'Stitch Recipes' for combining decorative stitches if you'd like to see more possibilities.

I've also used fancy stitches a couple of other times in the past year. This tote bag also had 'fancy stitchin in the ditchin'

 I used feather stitch on my woven autumn quilt:

Still, I've only used a small fraction of the 180 stitch patterns on my machine so I'll have to make dozens more bags to practise more Fancy Stitchin in the Ditchin !!