Deco floral stitch-out

I finally sat down and played with the embroidery machine this morning, then I spent time trying to get a clear pic of it.  My teenage son ribbed me about fuzzy pics, but here is a mostly clear one:

Decorative floral emb test stitch-out

Believe it or not, this is only my second multi-color design ... and I have a few tips that should probably go into the Sgt. Obvious file.  The most important being that in between colors, it's a good idea to clip the bottom threads from jumps as well as the top threads.  Otherwise, it can get tangled and try to go under/into the throat plate ...

Maybe not a Sgt Obvious observation, but along with tweezers, the blunt side of a seamripper is great for getting tearaway stabilizer out of the inside parts of the design.

The little sets of dots are supposed to be different colors, but as these were the last three and I was tired of changing the thread ... I made them all that pretty pale blue.

While stitching, it occurred to me that the rayon embroidery thread (that I bought for the silk charmeuse tunic) would probably work better on this rayon challis than the polyester thread that I used on the stitch-out test.  The Sulky thread isn't on sale at Hancock until next weekend, so it doesn't look like I will get this tunic done in time to take up to Indiana on Monday.  I think I'd rather be "late" with it and make it as awesome as I can.