Fourth of July Door Banner

I felt left out in our community; as everyone had some type of unique door wreath or window treatment for the holiday season. I was so tired of being left out, so I grabbed the 4th of July/Fireworks themed jelly roll that I had on hand and began to assemble a few pieces. Along the way I found a few new techniques that I now love and work great!

I have done a braid before, but for some reason I wanted to make one for this project. Thats where I started, making 1 inch strips of braided America fabric! Once I had a long enough braid, I set that aside to attempt something else.

I wanted to do some blocks around the edging, and found this unique way of doing it. I thought I would give it a try, and I actually found it really easy to keep all the pieces together. I simply start with 1inch squares all cut and ready to go.

Then grab your interface.  I like the lighter weight interface, and this apparel interfacing is pretty thin.

Then lay all your squares out on top of the interface. I did a 5 x 5 inch block of interface, laid all my square right side up, and carefully iron them onto the interface. Once they are ironed in place then you will fold each row and sew.

Heres the first row folded, you can iron it down so you have a strong line.

Sew with 1/4inch seam along the edge.

Once you have it sewn, it should look like this:

Fold the second row and iron it down again to give you a nice fold to follow.

Sew again with 1/4 inch seam.

Continue this until you have sewn rows 3, 4, etc.

Now you need to sew them the other directions.

Doing the same thing you did with the first row, fold it over and iron it down. This might be a little harder as now you will have other stitches to go through.

Carefully sew with 1/4 inch seam.

Now do that again on the 2, 3, 4 etc.

Your square should look something like this:

I made 4 total. I loved the finished look as they were all even and nothing was off set.

Once I finished those, I laid out how I wanted the braid and the squares to look. Kind of did things backwards here, as I liked them on the outside vs the inside. I did some measuring and just used some of the strips to make the center panel. 

I eventually ended up with this:

It seemed plain to me, so I wanted to add some stars. I used my freezer paper, and cut out some stars, ironed them onto the back of the blue fabric, and then cut them out.

I then layered them on to some white fabric, and just did a top stitch. I like the idea that in time the sides will fray!

I cut those out from the white fabric, and used a tight zig zag stitch to applique them onto the front of the panel. I then did a little quilting in the ditch and quilted small stars on top of the squares. To quilt a perfect star, I used my freezer paper star cut out and ironed them on to the squares, then just quilted right around it. No need for it to be perfect either as it was just to add some depth.

While putting the binding on I added small triangles to the top corners, on the backside. I then place a wooden rod inside the two triangles and hang the panel up that way. The wooden rod gives the panel a perfect flat look.

All hung up and giving my door some fun color.

Now I need to find a design to do for August and September. I am thinking a fun summer panel, or a creative sail boat/beach themed design.

Get Creative,
Sarah