A Quilting Hodgepodge — Blog Hop, Quilts of Valor, and Decluttering

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

2024 Fun & More Fast Blog Hop

I am SEW excited to finally give you the scoop on our upcoming 2nd annual VRD Blog Hop! There’s been a lot of behind the scenes work going on and now I can share information with you. Our theme this year is: Fast & More Fun. As you know VRD Rose Card patterns really are super fun and super fast to make. Besides, there’s really not much I can do to improve on the Fast & Fun theme from 2023, is there?

The dates for the Hop are March 14-21 2024. So mark your calendars now and let all your quilty friends know so they can hop right along with you.

I have 17 bloggers lined up so far. I still have a little room for additional bloggers if any of you are active quilt bloggers and are interested, please email me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com for more information. 

At the time of this post, I already have some awesome sponsors and am looking forward to adding more because a Blog Hop has to have great prizes for the Hoppers, doesn’t it? So, if anyone is interested in being a sponsor for the event, please email me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com for more information.

This year’s blog hop will be similar to last year’s hop — we have selected 5 super fun VRD Rose Card patterns for the Hop and each of the bloggers will chose a pattern (or two) and will create their own version to share with you on their blog hop day. Yep — there will be quilty prizes too!

It’s going to be great fun, so I hope you and your quilting pals will join us March 14-21. We’ll be talking more about the Hop as we get closer to the kick off on March 14th right here on our VRD blog.

National Quilts of Valor Sew Day

Are you planning to participate in this year’s Quilts of Valor National Sew Day? Every year, members and friends get together and sew on the first Saturday in February to make quilts for Quilts of Valor. This year’s Sew Day is February 3rd. You can find more information about National Sewing Day HERE.

I am thrilled to be participating in my very first National Sewing Day, organized by my local organization, Pennsylvania Stitchers of Valor’s Sew Day. Our event is actually 2 days Friday and Saturday February 2nd and 3rd. My local group not only set up sewing for 2 days, but they arranged for 2 different locations in 2 different towns in order to accommodate more quilters. I can’t wait to see how many quilt tops we get done in 2 days!

I signed myself up along with 3 of my sewing buddies (and cousins) Kim, Lisa, and Robin (Hey Ladies!). Stitchers even put quilt kits together with fabric and patterns for anyone attending either location. 

I’ve already got my kit cut out and ready to go. I am also making sure to cut out a few more projects just in case. 2 days of sewing is a lot of time so I want to be prepared to make the most of my sewing time.

Here’s my project kit. It’s called Primarily Stars and it was designed by Jodie Davis. The pattern was featured in the Fall 2013 Patriotic Quilts Fons and Porter publication. It looks like a fun scrappy project — the more fabrics you us, the more fun it looks. 

I have a group of fat quarters from Moda’s American Gatherings II by Primitive Gatherings picked out for another project, but as you can see, I haven’t cut the pieces out yet. At the moment it’s only in the planning stage. You’ll have to wait to see this one because eventually, it will be a new Villa Rosa pattern.

Here’s a group of red, white, and blue fabrics from my stash for a VRD Stars & Stripes quilt. I’m not pre-cutting this one, though, it’s an extra project in case one of my pals gets her quilt done early and needs another project to work on.

You can find the Stars & Stripes pattern HERE. It’s also part of the 12 Quilts of Valor (see below).

Of course, if you can’t get together with your local organization (or maybe there isn’t a branch close to you), you can sew at home in your own space. Just make sure to check the quilt requirements HERE.

Maybe you’re looking for a great pattern for your Quilt of Valor? Then check out our 12 Quilts of Valor pattern collection! Don’t forget that a portion of the sales will be donated to the Quilts of Valor Foundation. You can find the 12 QOV collection HERE.

If you don’t have enough time to order the collection or your local shop doesn’t have it yet, then you might just have some of the patterns in the collection floating around in your very own Rose Card Collection. Please note though, that borders were added to some of the quilts in the collection to make them the perfect size for a Quilt of Valor. Just make sure you check those requirements on the QOVF website HERE to avoid any confusion when making your own quilt to donate.

I’ll tell you more about my Sew Days in next week’s post, so stay tuned!

Decluttering

Here’s an update on my decluttering project in my studio:

Once I grouped all the stuff hanging out on my cutting surface into categories I could work with — fat quarters, batiks, yardage, patterns, future projects, etc. I actually started putting things away, if you can believe it! 

I subdivided my fat quarters by color and actually put them away in my fat quarters baskets! 

Then I did the same thing with my assorted yardage. 

Instead of having piles of future projects just sitting around, waiting to fall over and get all mixed up, I put each project in a gallon-sized plastic bag. 

Next I need to label the bags and find a place to keep them until I sew them together. I also need to make sure I put the pattern or book in each bag. That way I don’t pull out a project bag and wonder what I was going to make with it.

Additionally, I’ve found some quilt tops from previous projects that I will probably never finish, so I’m considering either selling or donating them. Either way, re-homing them will free up some space — not only physical space, but also head space. LOL! I may not be making fast progress, but I AM making progress and that’s what counts.

I know I’ve mentioned the idea of a fabric yard sale before and I’m happy to say that one of my local quilt shops, Fox’s Sew and Vac, is hosting their annual Fabric Yard Sale in March. I just signed up and now I have a real reason to do some purging. Fingers crossed………

If you’re looking for some ideas for refreshing your own quilting space, check out my post, 11 Ways to Get Your Space Ready for a New Year of Quilting and Sewing, HERE.

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Give. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD