Red White & Blue Blog Hop - Welcome!

Happy 4th of July and a big welcome to all of you visiting for the Red White & Blue Blog Hop!

I must admit that I have been enamored with this color scheme for some time and have several projects in progress using it.

Here is the block I created for this special hop.  I was inspired by a commercial on the food network which showed a beach ball floating across a pool.  To me, nothing says summertime quite like a pool party!


Actually before we get our feet wet....if you also love the Red White & Blue color scheme, check out the other participants of the blog hop.  There were some awesome blocks yesterday at:

• Heather K from Quilt.Cook.Keep
• Just Carol from Just Let Me Quilt
• Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles
• Sheila's Quilt World
• Teresa in Music City at A Quilt and a Prayer

Also posting today are:

• Jane of Jane's Fabrics
• Heather at A Reformed Heath'n - I can't wait to see what she came up with!
• Krislovesfabric
• Katie Q at Katie's Salt Marsh Path
• Karen at The Recipe Bunny 

And tomorrow I am sure the following quilters will have some terrific blocks:

• Mrs. Pickles
• Kelie at Craft Nurse Quilt
• Sharon at Dexter Days - there is also some really interesting stuff about her life in Alaska 
• Judith Hand Made Treasures - her photos are lovely!
• Josie at Insanity Defense
• Kelly at unDeniably Domestic

The full schedule can also be found here, and the blog hop goes for nearly the whole month of July!  There are enough participants that you could make 5 quilts from all the blocks created!

Now then, let's dive in!!!!!


First, you may want to download the ball template here (pardon me as I have the original version of quilting software = graph paper).  You will also need:

• 8" x 13" light blue fabric
• 5 1/2 " x 13" dark blue fabric
• 2" x 13" strip of white fabric
• (2) 5" square pieces of white fabric or muslin
• Red scraps
• embroidery floss, if desired (I used light gray, black, pink and green)

Step 1 - Make your foundation:

Lay your white strip on top of your dark blue fabric so that it overlaps by about an inch

CAREFULLY!!! Use your rotary cutter to make a wavy design, making sure to stay within that 1 inch of overlap AND making sure not to cut yourself!  TIP: I found laying my ruler on the blue fabric and just barely on the white helped keep things from shifting too much.

You should have something that looks like the above.  These are gentle waves!  Anything too big will be hard to piece together.  Think of a gentle breeze blowing on the surface of the pool - not someone doing a cannonball.

OK? Fingers in tact?  Feel a little naughty for cutting something so improvisational and imperfect??

Now, remove that little raw edge of white on the left, flip the white over onto the blue and pin matching concave and convex curves together (that's why we overlapped the two fabrics).

Now sew with a 1/4 inch seam and press toward the blue.

Ooo, yes! We really broke some rules there, didn't we!  Now add the light blue piece.  This time you should actually sew a straight seam - I know, I know, the fun is over.  Press toward the blue again.

Foundation complete.  Don't square it up yet.

Step 2 - Complete the ball applique:

After printing your templates, decide which applique method is best for you.

• You could use fusible web and machine applique the ball together
• If you are brilliant at needle-turn applique, you could just go straight at it and I am sure your ball will be perfectly round.
• I wanted to do hand applique, but I was not confident that it would turn out properly without some help, so this is what I did.....

First I cut out the "foundation circle" and the other circle that included pieces A, B, and C.  It looked like this:

I took the "foundation circle" and traced it onto one piece of my muslin.  I actually liked using the Frixion pens for this.

I then traced the inner part of my ball shape (this section was unnamed).

I now have a guideline of where I need my pieces to be turned.

I traced the templates A, B, and C onto scraps of red.  Cut them out with approximately 1/4 inch allowances, pinned them to the marked foundation circle and then needle-turned the appliques making sure my stitches just covered the lines marked.

At this point I felt the inner white area needed its own fabric piece, so I traced that unnamed section once more on a white scrap and appliqued it in the same manner.

Then I trimmed the whole foundation to allow for an approximately 1/4 inch seam.  It looked like this:

Now decide where you best like your ball to be floating, and applique it in place.

Step 3 - Embellish as desired:

I am taking Rachel's Handstitched Class over at Stitched in Color and am totally loving it.  So, I felt after all that hand applique, I needed some hand stitching to go along with it!

I felt the beach ball's seams needed to be highlighted in some way, so I backstitched along them.

I also added a depth indicator (like pools have) of 4'.  I picked 4' because today is the 4th, but you can choose whichever number you like best!  Maybe you hang out in the deep end more than I do!

Hmm, mine still seemed to be missing something...

That's better.  If I actually got a chance to relax by the pool instead of  being a lifeguard for my 3 little ones, I would want a nice cocktail at the pool's edge.  Strawberry Daiquiri anyone?

There you have it!  Once all your applique and stitching is done, you can square everything up to a 12.5" square.  You could also adjust to make it a 10.5" square rather easily.

I hope you enjoyed my contribution, now go enjoy your Independence Day!

Cannonball!!!!!!!!

Jen