Jan - your scallop in the ditch is a great idea. My stitches in the ditch are mostly OUT of the ditch too. I do have a STID foot, which I have learned to use fairly well, but it still isn't as good as I'd like. I don't have a nice smooth scallop on my machine that I can stretch out like yours, so instead I came up with another. I have a Janome 6600 and I use Mode 3, Stitch #11. I put one scallop in memory, then punch in another #11, but reverse it, hit the memory button again and when they stitch out, they look like the picture below. I use this in my borders, in particular, all the time. When I sew on my bindings (NEVER by hand) I use Mode 2, stitch #31 (picture below).
Nita
binding stitch (L), reverse scallop (R)
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binding stitch with a bit of the reverse scallop showing in the border
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