+1 on the satin stitching.
It looks flawless.
Any tips? Tricks?
To tell you the truth, I'm pretty impressed with my satin stitching as well, especially since my tension went wonky on my twice during this project.
I think the satin stitching has a raised appearance because there are 5 layers to this project - the applique pieces, the fabric the appliques are bonded to, the steam-a-seam I used to bond the appliques to the fabric, the lightweight fusible batting I added, and the backer piece (I brought the backer piece over to the front to make the binding).
I also used embroidery thread for the satin stitching, which is a little more refined and has a very high sheen to it. My zig zag setting was 2.0 width x 0.3 length on the leaves, and 2.5 width x 0.3 length on the circle.