Baby blanket

I'm slowly working on a baby blanket for my niece. She's actually a grand niece but I feel really old writing that, so I'll stick to just niece, thank you! The blanket is simply one yard of flannel and one yard of fleece with the corners cut on a curve. I plan to embroider her name, birthdate, birth weight and length on it and bind the edges with fleece binding. It really shouldn't take so long but anything I sew takes a long time. My niece was born in late August, so I really don't want to let this go too long.

This is the first lettering I've done with my new Pfaff embroidery software. Actually, this is the first embroidery that I've done with it at all other than trying some of the tutorials. I haven't stitched it out yet - I said I was slowly working on this! It took a while to fuss with the software and figure out how to do what I wanted. It turned out to be a lot easier than the old PC Designer software. Last night I had a spare 30 minutes so I decided to try sending the design to the machine. I found the cable, hooked it up to my Pfaff 7570, turned it on, fired up the File Assistant software and got "Communication has not been established with the machine. Ensure that the machine is switched on, and the cable is connected between the computer and machine, then click OK." Hmmmm. Machine is on. Cable is connected and it must be talking because the display on the machine changed to the computer and sewing machine icons. I tried different com ports. I rebooted. Same error. Rats. I thought about trying different (lower) baud rates for the com port, thinking that the older 7570 may need a slower connection vs. the newer 2140 and 2144 models. Rather than disturb my Monday Night Football-watching husband who would turn this into a 4-hour computer project, I turned to the Pfaff website instead. After a few minutes in their FAQ, I found the problem. File Assistant does not work with the 7570. But I can send designs to the machine using the VIP Customizing software. (This Pfaff software has so many modules - I can't keep them straight: Stitch Editor, Stitch Artist, Customizing, File Assistant, Digitizing...) The File Assistant looks useful, but alas, not for the 7570. But I was able to transfer the design using Customizing, so all is well.

Next step: sew a sample of the lettering