A sewing machine controller comprises sewed cloth (107) moving in a plurality of sewing directions, a sewing machine motor 11 for moving a sewing machine needle (5) up and down for sewing the sewed cloth (107), direction change detection means for detecting a sewing direction of the sewed cloth (107) being changed, operation time detection means for detecting the operation time of the sewing machine motor (11), when the direction change detection means does not detect a change in the sewing direction, stop time detection means for detecting the stop time of the sewing machine motor, when the direction change detection means detects a constant sewing direction, stop time comparison means for comparing the stop time value with a first preset time value, when the sewing direction is constant, operation time comparison means for comparing the operation time value with a second preset time value, when the sewing direction is constant, and display means (35) for displaying the results of the stop time comparison means and the operation time comparison means.