Quilt Market Bound and At the Races (Jelly Roll Quilt Race, That Is)

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

As you read this post today, I am on my way to International Quilt Market in Houston, TX. Yay! I’ve been so psyched recently as well as frantic because I’m always afraid I’m going to forget something important. Whew! I will admit that I’m not an easy traveler. Most of the time I overpack and I overthink. I’d like to be more spontaneous but sadly, I don’t think that’s in my genes.

Although I’ve been to Quilt Market more times than I can count now, this year’s Fall Market is going to be a first for me because I am staying for both Market and Quilt Festival, which follows right after Market. I’ve never been to a Festival, so I am doubly excited for this trip! Houston, here I come!

International Quilt Market is the trade show part for companies, shops, and industry professionals while Quilt Festival is the retail show for everyone with tons of vendors, classes, and beaucoup shopping!

Right now I’m in the packing phase, so I packed all the clothes I thought I’d need. Well, silly me, now it’s time to cut that down by 25% or 33% if I can manage so I have room for other essentials. Thank goodness Pat, our VRD Rose Queen, rents a house with a laundry! Thanks, Pat!

I’ll be taking my laptop along for the first time on the plane, so that’s a new experience too which made it necessary for a brand new travel laptop bag on wheels with extra space for clothes and such. Sigh….by my estimation, I should be done packing sometime next week — you know, a week after I leave. LOL!

Are you headed to Quilt Market or Quilt Festival in Houston? If so, we all hope to see you there. Please stop by our Villa Rosa Designs booth and visit — we’d love to meet you in person and tell you about some exciting new things coming for Villa Rosa Designs.

Quilt Market

You can find Villa Rosa Designs at Booth #803 on the show floor.

We have a Schoolhouse Session scheduled for Session 13, 4:40-5:10 PM in Room 362D. Gosh, I hope the room is big enough — it was standing room only last year.

Quilt Festival

You can find Villa Rosa Designs at Booth #801 on the show floor.

Don’t forget to stop by the blog next week for more Quilt Market Adventures! And who knows? Maybe I’ll pop in at the blog sometime before next Thursday….

Jelly Roll Quilt Races

Have you ever participated in a Jelly Roll Race? Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company (MSQC) did an awesome video years ago which started a massive Jelly Roll Race response. You can find Jenny’s video below if you’ve never seen it.

A couple friends and I were reminiscing about the fun Jelly Roll Races we had way back then (Jenny’s video came out in 2012). Our group actually raced another group in Chicago! Twice! So not only were we racing against each other to finish first, we were racing as a group to finish before the Chicago group! Wow! That was so awesome — I swear my sewing machine was smoking! That conversation sparked our interest in having another Jelly Roll Race (or maybe more). So I asked my local quilt shop owner here in PA, Gail, if we could do it again. She agreed, of course.

So while I’m flying from Pittsburgh to Houston, you can enjoy some great Jelly Roll quilt tops (flimsies) made recently at our super fun Jelly Roll Race events.

As you’ll see in the photos, every top looks entirely different! Individual fabric choices — choice of straight seams, angled seams, or even posts to sew the strips together — adding a border or not — horizontal strips or vertical — all of these things make each Jelly Roll quilt unique.

Drum roll please!

Here’s our newest and fastest Speed Queen, Donna, with a smokin’ hot 36 minutes to make her quilt top! She was one determined quilter!

Our Runner Up was Jill with a not too shabby (wink, wink) 38 minutes — Jill was our original Speed Queen from our races way back when.

The best thing about a Jelly Roll Race, is the fact that everyone really is a winner regardless of their finishing times because each participant gets a throw-sized quilt in a short amount of time! Here are the rest of the quilts in no particular order.

Two quilters even participated twice. Weren’t they smart? That way they each made 2 quilt tops in record time. Good thinking, Lisa and Robin!

Donna added a border and even finished her flimsy and showed it off at our next gathering! Way to go, Donna!

Phyllis (who went home to Chicago before this photo) and Mary Lee added borders onto their tops to make them larger and plan to use fleece on the backs. Great idea! (Psst! Did you miss my post about quilting with fleece? You can find it HERE.)

There you have it! Looks like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? Go ahead — I dare you to ask your local quilt shop to host a Jelly Roll Race. And don’t forget to check out the selection of Jelly Rolls while you’re there!

Did you know that Villa Rosa Designs (both the online shop and the physical shop) have a nice selection of Jelly Rolls and other precuts? You can see them HERE. We also have lots of VRD Rose Card patterns just for Jelly Rolls — you can find those HERE.

One more photo…….

Although I didn’t actually race as I was the “host”, I did complete my own Jelly Roll top, using a fun Christmas strip set. Sigh, now to get this one finished……….

Speaking of quilt tops, I hope you had the chance to read last week’s post about finishing flimsies. If you missed it, you can find it HERE (or just keep scrolling down).

Hope to see you at the Villa Rosa Designs booth at Market and Festival as well as our Schoolhouse Session at Market. Just tell ’em Tricia sent you….

Until next time —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD