Sewing for Charity - Finished Products!

Just have time for a short post - worked out some kinks today, learned a couple of new things in my embroidery software (amazing how desperation leads you to research, which leads to a wizard, who gives you the answers you seek - thank you, Mr. Patience!), found an awesome tute on how to very quickly make a lined zippered pouch here (and how have I EVER sewn one of these before I found this?), and ended up with this:

Purple zippered pouches, ready for my donors who gave $10 or more to the cause!

The interior lining - found in the remnant basket at my local fabric store for pennies!
The color was perfect - gives a nice, formal surprise touch in contrast to the fun-loving
purple corduroy exterior!

The Relay for Life official logo - this stitched out so nicely as you could see in the photos that I posted yesterday!

This embroidery stitched out so well it makes me want to nom-nom-nom-nom.....and this was yet another thing I learned today - that my Viking Girl has a separate and distinct stitch setting for satin stitch.  I've only had the darned machine for  6 or 7 years now - you'd think I would have noticed that stitch before.  I thought it was a bar tack setting and had never fooled around with it!  If you look closely (click on the photo and an enlarged pic should pop up), you can see the first go-round with the zig-zag stitch on my machine set to the lowest possible setting - BLEH!  You can see far too much of the underlying color poking through - couldn't get the density compact enough.  Changed to the new stitch and VOILA!  Instant satin perfection (the outside stitching)!!!!

This little doozy is what sent me on my researching spree this afternoon - I had accidentally reduced it too much - my software recommends only resizing 20% or less, and I must have just gone over the top.  As a result, the no longer nom-tastic frosting looks like it's slightly curdled.  (Compare this stitch-out to the photo directly above it - it's the same design!)  So today, I learned from Mr. Patience how to open up an existing design file, hide all the extraneous stitch points, color change info, and other objects and do a global properties change.  This isn't generally recommended, as any success you'll have is based entirely on how the original designer digitized and saved the file - but I'm anxious to do a test stitch-out to see how my changes affected the final result.  (For those of you who don't machine embroider, here's a brief translation:  Full-size?  Nice. Shrinky-dinked file?  Doesn't play nicely.  Fix?  Doesn't always go so well.)
Oh, and I changed the blobby cupcake liner as well.  Looked too much like old play-doh.  I'm about to do the stitch-out, so I'll let you know if I meet with success.  

These little pouches are going over really, really big - it's nice to be able to give my donors something nice, something personally made, to thank them for donating on my behalf to the Relay For Life.  My donations escalated ten-fold when I posted photos on my Facebook page and sent out an email promising one to everyone who donated $10 or more!  Awesome!

Back to stitching for me - then to bed!