Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions!!! I went to bed last night and actually dreamt about it all night. I was going to use a magnet but hubby insisted that would be a bad idea because of the electronics.
also he figured it would be cheaper to have the repair man get the screw out then to replace electronics. I got brave and we took the bottom off and got the screw out. Thankfully it had just dropped all the way down and hadn't gotten hung up on anything.
Needless to say I have learned a valuable lesson. When removing the stitch plate don't put the loose screws on the bed of te machine! I guess I really do gave a screw loose! lol!