Hello Quilty Friends!
Happy Thursday to you!
Sorry for the very long title this week, but we have SEW much to cover! Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
12 Quilts of Christmas
I am super hyped to show off our NEW VRD pattern collection — the 12 Quilts of Christmas!!! We debuted this collection at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival and folks were really excited about it. We’ve been working on this project for quite a while now and it’s so so exciting that it’s finally available. I wanted to show it off last week, but we weren’t quite ready yet.
Release the confetti and the balloons!
Signal the band to play!
Here it is!
Get you 12 Quilts of Christmas collection HERE
Let me tell you a little bit about this collection. It includes 12 brand new Rose Card patterns for the holidays from your favorite VRD designers. You can see the individual patterns included in the collection in the image, above.
You will find —
1 set of place mats (Dinner Party), 2 table runners (Color Mittens and Poinsettia), 2 Gnome quilt blocks (Gnomie and Gerome), 1 wall quilt (Chili), 5 larger quilts (Wreathed, Baking Day, Gifted, Into the Trees, and Hot Cocoa), and 1 panel quilt (Homecoming). That’s a great variety of projects which are also classic VRD patterns which means they are fast and fun!
Featured designers in this collection —
Heidi Cook
Molly Cook
Tamara Cook
Melissa Milligan
Orphan Quilt Designs (moi)
Running Doe Quilts
Sewl Sister
Villa Rosa Designs (Pat Fryer)
The wonderful thing about our VRD designers is that we each have our own style and that means you get a super awesome group of projects!
You can order the patterns individually on the VRD website in both print and digital. The 12 Quilts of Christmas collection which includes all 12 new Rose Card patterns is only $14.95 for all 12 patterns! WOW!
Now, how about a GIVEAWAY????
12 Quilts of Christmas Collection Giveaway
To kick off our NEW 12 Quilts of Christmas Collection with a bang, I’m going to give away 2 sets of the collection right here on the VRD blog, Villa Rosa Quilts! Yay!
All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me a favorite holiday tradition.
I apologize, but this giveaway will be for US residents only.
Oh, almost forgot! You have from today, November 14th through Thursday, November 21st to leave a comment. I will select 2 lucky winners randomly on Friday, November 22nd.
Good Luck!
Now let’s look at more quilts from International Quilt Festival.
Quilts from International Quilt Festival in Houston
I think I mentioned last week that there were around 1100 quilts on display at Market and Festival. What a mind-boggling amount of quilts to be displayed under one roof. I don’t know if this was a larger number of quilts than usual, but it was truly awe-inspiring. I must admit the reason I didn’t see every quilt on display was because I actually had quilt overload and had to stop looking at quilts. But I did see most of them and I took lots of photos to share with you.
Many of you already know what a stickler I am for copyright law protection for designers, so I will only show quilts from the show that I also have the documentation for. This is a great tip for anyone who likes to photograph quilts at quilt shows or events — in addition to asking for permission to photograph the quilts, it’s equally important to include documentation with each quilt photograph because down the road, you or someone else might want to know who created or designed the quilt, quilted it, or what pattern the quilter used. Keeping documentation with a quilt helps to protect the rights of the quilt maker. I usually take a photo of the quilt first and then a photo of the information after the quilt and as long as I do this consistently, I can share quilt photos on social media without compromising the quilt maker. In my opinion, one should not just post or repost quilt (or any other art form) without the maker information included.
Take your time and please enjoy the quilts in the slideshows, below. I am not going to introduce each slideshow because the first image of each slideshow tells you the Exhibit along with a description (in most cases).
Just a quick note about Sharyn’s display — the quilts are arranged from right to left instead of the usual left to right. Knowing this will help make sense of the quilt timeline Sharyn created.
Below you’ll find information about the planned Exhibits for 2025. Have you ever thought about submitting a quilt for International Quilt Market and Festival? Maybe 2025 will be your year!
I wanted to share more about Festival, but it’s getting late and I need to wrap things up. So, that’s it for me this week. Stay tuned for next week — I’ll announce our 12 Quilts of Christmas winners and I want to show you some of the fun stuff I found at Market and Festival.
Until then —
Sew. Laugh. Repeat.
Always,
Tricia @ VRD
Villa Rosa Quilts 
Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved advent calendars. My German grandmother gifted one to me each Thanksgiving, just before the December 1st start. Opening each of those teensy-tiny “doors” was the very first thing I did each morning from December 1st to 25th. I”ve continued the tradition with my own daughter, now 41 years old 🙂
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I love them too! When I was a kid, we had the ones with chocolate in them, but now I have an adorable tree with little drawers to hide goodies in it, which is usually chocolate. LOL!
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One thing I really like to do over the holidays is to dedicate one whole day (and evening) to working on quilting for others (charity quilting). My goal is always one whole day, but I have a stretch goal of 2 days. Working a day-job sometimes makes this hard, but I can do it if I put my mind to it!
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What a wonderful way to contribute to your community! My personal favorite charity is Operation Christmas Child. This year my Mom and I filled 8 boxes together.
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I have so many favorite things from the Christmas Eve church service, going to see lights, etc but the favorite times are being together with family, baking with the grandkids, and sharing meals.
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That sounds wonderful! I also love attending a Christmas Eve service and I used to decorate gingerbread boys and girls with my nieces when they were young. Sadly, they are all grown up now and are busy people…..
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My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve candlelight service. We always take a tour of lights after on our way home. Now we get to see the holiday magic again through our grandchildren’s eyes. Love the new patterns 💕
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Children really make the holidays special.
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Yummy! Save me some cookies….. ;>)
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I love baking holiday treats and sharing them with family and friends.
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I like to bake, too. I’m known as the family baker and I try really hard to make everyone’s favorite cookie every year.
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My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies with the little family members, of course 🙂
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I have super fun memories of baking with my 2 nieces when they were little. Morgan always named every single gingerbread boy and girl before we ate them. LOL!
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My favorite Christmas tradition is a time for me to celebrate my Mom. As a kid, I loved my Mom’s “Nuts and Bolts”. It is a 1950’s snack that predates the ubiquitous Chex Mix variations. The entire family loves it and guests love that it is different than what is now commonly made. Yay, Mom.
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That sounds not only yummy but super fun, too! Way to go, Mom!
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The entire Holiday season is such a time for remembering, celebrating, holding on to traditions from our past, making memories for the future. We love the lights, the trees, hosting friends & family, our cities nighttime mile run thru a course of lights with holiday music, children exclaiming, fun holiday attire, just the joy of it all. To share it with family is truly the reason for the season.
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I think you just described the entire holiday experience! I love the idea of a lighted course with music — what fun!
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I am a huge fan of Christmas lights, so my favorite tradition is going to every Christmas light display I can with my family. Secondly, gatherings and time with close family and friends. And lastly, I love stockings! Seeing my kids and husband open their stockings is one of my favorite parts of Christmas morning!
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Oh! Stockings have always been part of my family’s traditions, too. My parents allowed my sister and I to open our stockings right when we got up in order to give them a little bit more sleep after staying up late to get everything done. Sweet memories…..
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When I was a kid all my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and close family friends always came to our house on Christmas Eve. Lots of fun. Now everyone is gone or moved to different parts of the US.
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I understand what you are saying. Our home was the gathering place when I was a kid, too, and everyone came for Christmas dinner and gifts — grandparents, my aunt, cousins. It was a squeeze in our small house, but it was special.
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Making cookies with my mom and dad who are both passed now.
And the white elephant gift exchange on Christmas Eve with my blended family.
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Gift exchanges are so much fun, aren’t they??? I do a yearly exchange with my Friday sewing group and we play a Right/Left game, which means by the ends, we are all laughing really hard.
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Looking at lights in a freshly fallen snow, along with quiet time with family
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Sometimes it too easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle and we forget about the simple joy of the season. Thank you for reminding me to take a little time and just be this year during the holidays.
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Thx for showing the quilts, would love to go there someday! Such talent displayed. My favorite Christmas tradition is just getting together and enjoying family time at each other’s homes. Trying all the recipes and catching up on what’s going on in each other’s lives that you don’t see often.🥰
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It’s always amazing to me how fast time passes between holidays — it’s super important to stay connected to all the people in your world.
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One of our favorite Christmas traditions is making Gingerbread man cookies–we have done this since our children were small and now have Grandchildren so can carry on the fun!
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I know I mentioned to another commenter that when my nieces were little, we decorated gingerbread cookies together — I’ve always had a huge collection of sprinkles and such (even eyeballs) so they could be as artistic or crazy at they wanted to be. Of course, they ate the sprinkles, too.
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After the last of our children moved out of our home, Christmas became a bit less magical, so we began surprising each other by filing a “Santa” stocking for Christmas Morning. It has been a fun and romantic way to rekindle our joy of the holiday. Over the past 18 years, the anticipation of finding what “Santa” brought has brought laughter and happy tears to us both.
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What a fun thing for the two of you to do! We’ve always done stockings and we still do to this day. Always something to look forward to.
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My favorite holiday tradition is making cookies with my grands when they were younger. We try to continue but sometimes they are so busy we don’t make it. Sure makes for great memories, though! Thanks for the opportunity to win. I’d like to try one of these patterns!
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I know what you mean. I used to do all kinds of fun holiday stuff with my 2 nieces when they were young, but now they are adults and way to busy for their ol’ auntie.
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We have so many favorite traditions but two I enjoy are the putting socks and underwear in the tree for our immediate family. My two kids are in their 30’s and we still do it!! Opening stockings is always a favorite as well!!
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What a fun tradition! Everybody always needs new undies for sure!
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My favorite Christmas tradition is driving around and looking at Christmas lights. (Sometimes we take hot chocolate with us!)
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Yummy! Hot chocolate — you are speaking my language now. I still love looking at holiday lights to this day.
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My favorite Holiday Tradition was making potato salad with my Grandmother. When she passed, I’d make it and cry. Now I make it with Pride, there is no one left that can make it like her, except me.
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That’s a wonderful connection to your Grandmother. Thanks for sharing.
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My favorite Christmas tradition is to have ham, cheesy scalloped potatoes, & green bean casserole for dinner while spending quality time with my family.
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Sounds like a very yummy tradition. Count me in!
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My favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve service at church with the kids doing the program. On Christmas morning, the kids get to open their stockings, then we enjoy biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast before we head out to Christmas morning church service.
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Sounds like a special time at your home for the holidays. 🙂
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Our family Christmas tradition is baking Dutch almond letters. Also enjoy attending church and singing all the Christmas hymns. Thanks for writing your blog, so enjoy sewing the Villa Rosa patterns and kits!!
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Thank you for your kind words, Rachel. I’d love to taste your Dutch almond letters — I’ve never tried them before.
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Baking Dutch letters are the favorite Christmas tradition enjoyed by our family. Also love to attend church and sing all the favorite Christmas hymns. Thanks for writing your blog, so enjoy all the patterns and kits from Villa Rosa Designs!!
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sorry I didn’t mean to reply twice
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My favorite holiday tradition is hosting the family get together on Christmas Eve. Some relatives we only see once a year. It is a time of fellowship and renewal. Wonderful food and hugs.
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You nailed it — food and hugs. That’s always been an important mainstay in my family holidays, too.
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My favorite holiday tradition is tromping through the woods looking for our Christmas tree. We take a thermos of hot chocolate and sometimes pack a lunch. I love that after 30 years of military life we are living 10 minutes away from our son and DIL so they join us on these excursions.
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How wonderful! I’ve never went out in the woods to find the perfect tree. I remember a few live trees when I was a kid, but mostly we always had an artificial one.
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Our family likes to make a Norwegian cookie called Sunbakkels for Christmas. Each cookie is formed in a special tin so they are very time consuming to make. Guess that’s why we only make them once a year. Since they are made with butter, sugar and flour they are rich and delicious.
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Sunbakkels sound very yummy and super special. Enjoy them this year!
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My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the house! Especially my collections of Santas and Nutcrackers. 🙂
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I’d like to decorate more than I do. It would be fun to unearth the entire village and all the accessories and find a special place to display it like we used to when my nieces were young.
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A favorite holiday tradition for our family is adopting senior citizens and shopping for gifts for them. So often, they are not noticed at Christmas time. So kind of you to give away a pattern collection! VR are my go tos for charity sewing. So easy, clearly written patterns
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Thank you for your kind words and thank you for making the lives of others brighter with your actions.
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Thanks for posting the quilt pics with the quilter’s info, I enjoy learning about their inspiration
my favorite holiday activity is to bring out all of my Christmas and winter quilts and other items I’ve made over the years and those that dear friends have gifted to me with love. Lots of great memories
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Quilts! It isn’t Christmas without quilts, is it???
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My favorite is watching the movie Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving night. Sets off the whole holiday season.
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I just watched my first Christmas movie for the season this evening. I love a lot of the oldies like White Christmas and Christmas and Connecticut.
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We have lots of different holiday traditions that I love but I think that our favorite is probably our Christmas eve tradition. We gather as a family and put out a small buffet full of snacks and finger foods and then settle down to watch The Grinch (the original cartoon), A Charlie Brown Christmas and then the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. Afterwards, our two grown kids get to open a gift and then it’s off to bed. We’ve been doing this since our kids were very little and they’re in their 20’s now. Even as adults, they still wouldn’t miss this.
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Good times! Do you all wear matching pj’s while you snack and watch Christmas shows together?
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My favorite Christmas tradition was something I did not even realize became a tradition that my grown children held dear. Both were out of the house and on their own for several years when I did NOT gift them Christmas pajamas/lounge pants for Christmas one year and they were devastated. Apparently they will be getting Christmas pajamas for the rest of my life after that horrible realization!
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Isn’t that just the way it is? I make a new flannel pillow case for each of my nieces every year either for Christmas or their birthdays, which are both in January.
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Love this collection! Our favorite Christmas tradition is to make my Granny’s sugar cookies. She actually never made these for Christmas, but I started making them and letting my kids decorate them when they were little. When our grandkids are here, we do the same with them. I hope it will continue through generations to come.
Thanks for the quilt festival info!
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We have a sugar cookie recipe in our family, too, except ours belongs to my Aunt Helen. We always have to cut the recipe in half or else we’ll be eating sugar cookies until Easter.
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we always enjoy driving through different neighborhoods to see the luminaries on Christmas Eve. I love these new patterns, the reindeer is especially cute!
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I can remember piling into the car when I was a kid to drive around to admire all the lighted homes in the area. Thanks for sharing.
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Our family is now scattered since our children are all adults. Everyone tries to make it home during the Christmas season. That means there is always a big meal at our house anytime someone comes home. Our family has always gathered around to cook and eat together. Lately, instead of exchanging gifts we have swapped games and books that we are finished playing or reading. Our children have stated that what they love most is spending time together! We are very blessed.
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Sounds like a very special time for your family. I love your idea of exchanging books and games.
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I do love the Christmas season – most especially the readings of Advent leading up to Christmas. I also love stitching ornaments for family, the baking, and the candy making!
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I also enjoy making handmade ornaments for my family and friends. Sometimes I even make pin cushions for my quilty pals.
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My favorite part of Christmas is the emphasis on Christ. I love baking cookies and preparing for the Holiday. The new quilt designs are lovely.
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Baking cookies has always been one my favorite things about the holidays.
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My two favorites are when we leave Thanksgiving dinner my husband (who was always a no Christmas until December) plays Christmas is Starting Now by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in the car, and Christmas Eve candlelight seevice.
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Sounds like fun! Enjoy!
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My favorite Holiday tradition is getting the whole family together, Opening presents, and then stuffing ourselves with all our favorite holiday foods.
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Absolutely! Food, family, and togetherness has always been a staple in my holiday traditions.
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My favorite Christmas tradition is attending Christmas Eve church service.
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Attending services is a lovely way to enjoy the holidays.
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My favorite Christmas tradition is attending Christmas Eve church service.
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