Red, White and Blue Blog Hop Block

I am so thrilled to be participating in the Red, White and Blue Blog Hop. I have named my block Paul's Celebration in honor of my dad.  He would have turned 78 on July13th.

Paul's Celebration Block

The block finishes at 12-inches. The three fabrics I used were:
Red-Dela Des Cimes From Studio E Fabrics
White- Paisley from Hoffman Fabrics
Blue - Hoffman screen print fabric
I think that the colors and textures of the fabric worked beautifully in the block. 

Now to the directions.
From your Red fabric cut:
2-     2-1/2 inch squares
8-    2-7/8 inch squares and cut them in half diagonally to make 16 red triangles

From your White fabric cut:
18-    2-1/2 inch squares

From your Blue fabric cut:
8-    2-1/2 inch squares
8-    2- 7/8 inch squares and cut them in half diagonally to make 16 blue triangles.

Your pile of cut pieces will look like this.  (I have cut pieces for multiple blocks)

Now we'll start piecing the block. 
I like to layout the block pieces onto a large ruler beside my sewing machine so that I can pick up the pieces, sew them and put them back into place so I don't loose the design I am trying to piece.  Especially when I have a block with lots of pieces.  Below I have all of the pieces laid out onto my ruler and ready to piece.

I first make the half-square triangle blocks by piecing one red and one blue triangle together.  After you sew together the half-square triangle blocks square them up to 2 1/2 inch blocks and trim off the dog ears.

 Your results is nicely trimmed blocks.  Set these aside for piecing the blocks.

 I also utilize chain piecing to save time and thread while piecing.

 Once you have the half-square triangle blocks done you can start piecing the blocks.  Following the block picture piece one half-square triangle block to a white square, then one red to one white square and another half-square triangle block to a white square.  You now have began the three rows of this block.  Press your seams open or to the side if you wish.  Now piece another half-square triangle block to the opposite side of the white block, another white square to the opposite side of the red square and another half-square triangle block to the opposite side of the white block.  Press again.
Now matching seams you can sew the three rows together.  Carefully watching the block design placement.

 Once you have completed sewing the three rows together press and square up to 6-1/2 inch block.  I love to use the diagonal arrows when I square up a block to make sure I do no nip off any points on the block.  You can see this in the photo below the arrows run from the right upper corner to the left lower corner.

Next you start piecing the 9-patch blocks. 

Then sew the three rows together into the 9-patch block.

 Now trim the blocks to 6-1/2 inch.  Again I use the diagonal arrows to keep the block square as I trim.

Next we start to piece the block together by sewing one 9-patch to one churn dash block for the first row, then a churn dash block to a 9-patch block for the second row.  Sew the two sections together to form your 12 1/2 inch block.  Trim to 12-1/2 inch.

This is the completed block.  Love the play of the red churn dash blocks within the blue and white. 
I also made a project from the Paul's Celebration Block.  I made a table runner to use in my home during July.  The runner is named Paul's Celebration also in honor of my dad.  I added red sashing between 3 blocks.  Then I added red border and then a blue & white border.  I appliqued stars in the corners to complete the table runner.

The backing fabric was left over from quilting my uncle's quilt which is the Navy Seal.  I quilted it on my longarm freehand.  I added red rick rack into the binding.  Below is a closeup view of some of the quilting.

 Some of the border quilting with the rick rack I added in the binding.  This is the first time I have added anything into the binding.  I really like the effect.

 Next is a view of the stars in the corners. 

 And finally the finished table runner. 

Here's the table runner with my favorite nutcracker.  Dad always loved this patriotic little guy.....and I think he looks great on Paul's Celebration Table Runner.

 A close up of the little guy.

I hope you have enjoyed my red, white and blue block I designed, the table runner designed from the blocks and the patriotic blog post today.  If you are a blogger and follow my blog please put a blurb about the blog hop and my post on your blog. Thanks for helping spread the love of quilting.

Here are the other quilters who are also posting today.  Make sure to hop over to their blogs and see what other beautiful quilt blocks are showing today.

Amanda Murphy

The Slow Quilter

Creativity Amongst Chaos

Mocha Wild Child

Diane P (Hosted by Jane)

Now for our giveaway.....

My giveaway consists of Red, White and Blue embelishment package, Sewers Aid, Thimble-It, A hand beaded thimble necklace, a sewing travel bag and a Sunbonnet Sue needle holder.

Here's how to enter the drawing:

• Follow my blog. 
• Leave a comment about the project and tell me your favorite 4th of July celebration ideas. 
• Post your comments by midnight July 16th to be included in the drawing.
• I'll draw for a winner at the end of the bloghop on July 17th so be sure to check back and see who the lucky winner is.

The full bloghop schedule can be found at www.janesfabrics.blogspot.com

Happy quilting,

Shelia