Nellis EOD Christmas Party Auction Quilt

The embroidery machine and I had a little comin'-to-Jesus talk, and we agreed it would be in the machine's best interest to cooperate from now until Christmas.  I was able to get the wording and one crab finished all in a day (!!!) and another two crabs a day later.  I tried using the blocking technique to keep things from puckering up as badly this time - it worked for the most part.  I like how the pictures seem like there's fireworks going off!

The picture was creating using Stephenie Hammer's photo - It looks pretty awesome on the fabric.

The braided part took forever until it dawned on me that I could just use a complete stripset pieced off-set.  Duh. 

I voluntarily used set-in seams because I just couldn't figure out how to trim things accurately.  I probably trimmed closed to 3" off trying to get things to line up.  So, I put the sides on, and then the center tops on, and then figured out the corners last. 

There is an additional black border around the entire thing now.  It's off to be quilted - I can't wait to see what it will bring in at the auction!