Favorite Finds at International Quilt Market and Quilt Festival 2024

November 21, 2024November 20, 2024 rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Today is my last post about Quilt Market and Festival.

We’ve covered the insider’s view of Market HERE and the 50 year Celebration of International Quilt Festival HERE. We’ve also explored some of the amazing and wonderful quilts on display this year during Market and Festival HERE.

So what’s left to talk about????

All the cool stuff at Market and Festival, of course!

My Finds at Market and Festival

I’m going to share with you the things that inspired me at Market and Festival. I wish I could showcase every single thing I saw because there was sew much eye candy in Houston, but that would make this post into a very long long book, I’m afraid. So I guess I’ll focus on the things that I found interesting, cool, or just plain fun, in no particular order.

Just sit back and enjoy…………

Sew Q Laser

I watched a demo of this cool system in the Sew Q booth. It really was quite fascinating! I’ve been using my trusty 1/4″ seam guide foot for a long time, but I can really see a lot of possibilities with this laser system. You can check out their website HERE.

Thimtec Thimble Tape

The Thimtec booth was right beside our VRD booth during Market and I had the opportunity to stop by to learn about this new product. Thimtec tape is easy to use, only sticks to itself, and molds to the shape of YOUR finger. It’s reusable and economical, Cool beans!

I took my pink roll to my Friday group and everyone made an individualized thimble to take home and use. After everyone was done creating one, I still had half a roll left!

You can find video demos and more info on their website HERE or find it on Amazon HERE.

Classy American Quilt Design Walls

I met the owner, Tony, when he asked if I could watch his booth for a couple minutes. Of course I did and I had the fun opportunity to play with the Quilt Design Walls. I must say that this is now sew totally on my quilter’s wish list! The smaller one (in the photo above) is big enough for a long throw quilt, but my dream is the really big one because — gasp — it has a remote control! AND I LOVE GADGETS! LOL! The small one would be great, too, as it goes up and down easily just like your window blinds. I tested it out, of course, and discovered that if you were careful putting it up and down that your quilt blocks could actually stay stuck to the design wall. Brilliant!

You can see Tony himself introduce his design wall in the video below and you can check out Tony’s website HERE. Just tell him Tricia sent you. Tehehe……..

Patience Griffin Books

*I don’t remember what she said to me that had me laughing that hard………….*

I had the pleasure to meet Patience Griffin at Quilt Market. In addition to being the popular author of both the Kilts and Quilts book series and the Sweet Home, Alaska series, Patience is a quilter and also a new fabric designer with Riley Blake Designs. You can see Patience’s collection, A Touch of Celtic, coming to a shop near you in May 2025, HERE.

If you love quilt fiction as much as I do, you can find her books HERE.

Printed Felt Board Story Panels

This one is for all you librarians, teachers, early childhood educators, parents, and grandparents. I mentioned this adorable felt printed panel by Jennifer Long for Riley Blake a couple weeks ago (the Created with Love panel, above, will be available in shops April 2025), but I just had to include it again on my “favorite finds” list.

When I was a children’s librarian, I created my own felt board pieces to go along with the stories, rhymes, songs, and activities I used for my weekly felt board story as part of my library toddler story time. Oh! How these wonderful shapes would have been a fabulous addition to my felt activity repertoire! Although I am no longer a librarian or early childhood educator, I still have very fond memories of engaging the youngest library patrons with fun stories, songs, and rhymes accompanied by my humble pieces.

Here’s a Nativity felt panel by Jennifer, which is available right now. You can find it HERE.

Goldie Lou’s Shirts

Goldie Lou’s was a new business at Market and Festival this year. They were selling the most fun quilting shirts and sweatshirts with the cutest tongue-in-cheek sayings! Oh sew fun! I bought a couple shirts myself to show off my quirky quilter style, including one of the shirts you see above (it is sew me!). You can find more info about Goldie Lou’s HERE.

Horn of America Deluxe Storage Chest

I am sew sew in love with this cabinet! It has drawers and shelves and cubbies on one side and a flip up extension table on the back where you can even add more shelves! This would be a real dream piece of furniture in anyone’s sewing space! I kept walking past it whenever I went to the food court and dining area — it stopped me every time and I would pause to test out the drawers or just imagine it in my own sewing dungeon, er — studio. I would want the one in the white finish……You can find more info HERE.

Mary Ellen’s Best Press

Yippee! Mary Ellen’s Best Press Spray has a new scent — Lemon Mist! I’ve been using the Best Press starch alternative spray for a long time now and I am thrilled that they finally have a lemon scent. I was very excited to have scored a sample at Market so I can test it out, but I already know I am going to love the Lemon Mist scent. It will most likely be my new favorite. You can find it HERE.

Well, folks, I hope my favorite finds will inspire you — they have certainly inspired me! Now I’m adding everything to my quilter’s holiday wish list. Sigh…..do you think that cabinet will fit down the chimney????

That’s it for me this week. Take care and travel safe this coming week if you are heading somewhere to celebrate Thanksgiving. And while football is playing after Thanksgiving dinner, maybe you can sneak away and read all about my recent visit to Ohio Amish country for my Mom’s birthday.

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Our NEW VRD 12 Quilts of Christmas Rose Card Quilt Pattern Collection, A Giveaway, and MORE Quilts From International Quilt Festival in Houston

November 14, 2024November 13, 2024 rosecards82 Comments

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

quilt festival · quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW November VRD Rose Card Patterns and 50 Years of International Quilt Festival

November 7, 2024November 6, 2024 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Just got home from International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston. Texas was a very welcoming and friendly place, like always. I didn’t get to many places as it was primarily a work trip, but I did make it to Phoenicia. Unfortunately, I never made it to Guadalajara’s for lunch with my quilty pals, Cathey and Leslie – maybe next year.

I am deliriously happy to be writing this post on my trusty desk top computer instead of the laptop I took with me to Houston, which fought me every step of the way. What a relief to type and actually see the words show up on on the screen one at a time instead of me typing and waiting and waiting some more before my words actually made it it onto the screen.

It’s always great to get home after being away for a while. You should have seen my pup, Bailly, when I walked in the front door. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself – her little backside was wiggling like crazy and her tail was doing circles! There’s just something so incredibly special to come home to a furry pal, even if you were only gone a few hours. The cats were also happy to see me and showed me in their much more reserved cat-like ways. It feels so good to be loved like that. Of course, I brought goodies home for each of the fur babies from my trip! And Bailly is wild about her new yellow squeaky dog shaped like a banana. LOL!

Before I jump into a bit about Quilt Festival, I want to share the NEW November Rose Card patterns with you, which came out while we were at Festival last week.

NEW November Rose Card Quilt Patterns

We’ve got 5 new throw-sized quilt patterns for this month from 5 different VRD designers.

Get your set of 5 print patterns HERE

I’m excited to finally show my new throw-sized pattern, 2M Junior. If you loved the original 2M pattern (see below), but maybe didn’t want to make a large bed-sized quilt, then 2M Junior is just for you. And I’m absolutely thrilled to tell you that I used Pat’s new Riley Blake fabric collection, Bedazzled, in 2M Junior. Bedazzled is shipping to shops in December and you’ll be able to pre-order it soon.

Get your 2M Junior print pattern HERE or your digital pattern HERE

Get your original 2M print pattern HERE or your digital pattern HERE

And we can’t forget this month’s table runner, Bespoke, and our new snack mat, Little ‘Shroom.

Get your print Bespoke HERE and your digital Bespoke HERE

Get your print Little ‘Shroom HERE or your digital Little ‘Shroom HERE

With 7 brand-new November patterns to choose from, which one will you make first???

International Quilt Festival’s 50th Anniversary

This year, 2024, International Quilt Festival celebrated its 50th Anniversary! How amazing is that??? There were something like 1100 quilts on display!

I spent some time exploring the quilt displays, but I definitely did not see all of the quilts this year. I did take lots of photos to share with you, however!

There was a special Red, White, and Blue quilt display hung from the ceiling in the quilt area. Oh my goodness! It was mind-boggling! So many gorgeous quilts from traditional to modern from small to large all in red, white, and blue.

Let me share some photos I took, although they cannot do justice to the display at all, but I hope you will enjoy them.

Inside the circle of quilts hanging from the ceiling was a mini quilt display.

There were also more red, white, and blue quilts all the way around the ceiling display, too. Here are 2 of my favorites by the amazing Combat Quilter, Andrew Lee.

Well, I guess that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed a peek at some of the quilts on display. Stop back next Thursday so I can tell you more about my trip to Houston for Quilt Market and Festival. And, yes, there will be more quilts, I promise.

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Villa Rosa Designs at International Quilt Market 2024

October 31, 2024October 30, 2024 rosecards6 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

And Happy Halloween, too!

Whew! What a crazy whirlwind the last few days here at Quilt Market have been! As I sit down to write this, Market is over and Festival is just beginning and I thought I’d share a little bit about my Market experience with you. So here goes.

Time to Travel

While Molly and Heidi were flying in from California and I was on my way from Pennsylvania last Thursday, Pat was already here in Houston. Pat spent the day hauling stuff from the van to the booth and running here and there to pick up shipments. Molly and Heidi’s plane was diverted which made them arrive a few hours late and my plane was early, so the three of us actually met at the airport.

Check out these really cool clouds I saw from the plane. I’ve never seen clouds quite like this before with strange finger-like projections on the top of the clouds. You might need to zoom in on the photos to see the weirdness.

DID YOU KNOW?????? Snack Mats are a great accessory for plane travel — they are just the right size for the seat trays. What a great way to brighten up your flight (and keep things clean) as you enjoy the onboard snack and beverage. I discovered this quite by accident when I was finishing a bit of binding and laid my mat down on the table. Huh! Happy accident! You can find ALL of our VRD Snack Mats so far to date HERE.

Up to this point, everything had seemed so easy for me – too easy, I guess – as there ended up being an issue with Molly’s rental car so the three of us went to 2 different rental companies until we were finally on our way to the house Pat had rented. We dropped our stuff off at the house and headed for Wal Mart to grab what we needed. Wouldn’t you know it, but the closest Wal Mart wasn’t even a real Superstore because it lacked sections such as dairy and produce, so we ended up having to go to Randal’s to pick up our food items. Yikes!

We finally made it back to the house so we could settle in. Sheesh, I was totally worn out! Travel days can be like like that, can’t they?

Behind the Scenes at Market and SEW Much More!

We headed to the Conference Center the next morning on Friday to get the booth set up for Quilt Market. This is definitely no easy task, let me tell you! First, you have to get everything inside so you can set up your booth. Luckily Pat had spent Thursday doing just that so we didn’t have to move much inside. Secondly, you have to navigate around all the other vendors’ stuff sitting in the aisles as they are also setting up their booths. Let me show you some photos of set up. Don’t forget the loaders and equipment, the trolleys and carts….

See what I mean??? These photos are looking up and down the aisle the VRD booth is located in.

And here’s our VRD booth in the beginning stages. We had a Schoolhouse session at 1:55 PM, so we couldn’t do much with the quilts until afterwards. Schoolhouse sessions are basically mini break out lectures where vendors can share their current and upcoming products and programs.

I was thrilled that our quilting partners, Hoffman, were in the booth right beside us. It was great seeing my Hoffman pal, Sandy, again. Oops, I never did take any photos of their booth. Mea culpa…..

So, halfway through set-up, we took our cart of quilts (which you see above in the third photo) and headed up to the classroom assigned to us for our session.

WOWZER!

There ended up being well over 100 people in attendance to see what was new with Villa Rosa! And to see all the quilts, too! Amazingly, we showed every single one we brought upstairs. It was crowded and standing room only — just the way we like it. YAY!

Look at all those happy people!

Then it was straight back to the booth to really get it set up. Molly and Heidi worked on hanging quilts. Pat and I kept working on Rose Cards. It was hustle time!

Finally, we were ready for the onslaught of eager shop owners on Saturday! It never fails to amaze and delight me when a disorganized space suddenly turns into a beautiful booth. Big SHOUT OUT to Molly and Heidi — they hung all the quilts, moved tables, helped Pat figure out the layout….

Me, I just try to stay out of the way and look pretty. LOL!

Quilt Market is On!

Saturday went incredibly fast as we were pretty much swamped all day. It took all 4 of us to man the booth. I just LOVE chatting with everyone and hearing their wonderful VRD stories and experiences. I didn’t get to grab any photos for you on Saturday, sorry.

Sunday was also pretty steady, but not the mobs like on Saturday. Molly and Heidi had some meetings at fabric companies to order new fabrics just for you! You’ll have to stay tuned to see what new fabrics are coming into the shop over the next year.

Here are some great photos Molly and Heidi wanted to share with you:

With Stephanie from Fancy That Design House, Moda

By the way, Molly promises to drop into the blog soon – she’s working on some new posts just for you. 🙂

Monday was my play day! Woohoo! When I wasn’t needed in the booth, I headed right down to the first aisle and enjoyed some great eye candy as I meandered my way through the aisles. I was such a slowpoke, though, because I kept stopping and chatting, but hey, that’s part of a show, isn’t it? After all the Markets I’ve been to now, I’ve developed lots of show friendships over the years, so it’s great to check in with folks and catch up.

Of course, I also love to meet new people, too.

I even managed to get some photos with a few folks myself. Cool!

I stopped by and met some other great designers too. Sandy Gervais has been one of my all-time favorite fabric designers for a very long time, so it was great to meet her.

Monday was such a relaxed day, I didn’t feel like I had to hurry to see everything all at once. Surprisingly, I did actually get to see everything. Yay!

This is a wonderful felt board set – it’s a felt panel! – by Jennifer for her Created With Love fabric collection coming to shops in May 2025. There will even be a felt panel sew along in May, so watch for it!

I absolutely adore it!

When I was a Children’s Librarian at my local public library a few years ago, I led a Tuesday Toddler Time and we always did some kind of felt board activity. Oh, how the kiddos would have loved this set. It does come with a cute little book for storage and play, but you could use them on a large flannel board, too. If you have little ones in your life, you might want to watch when this collection comes out and grab the felt panel because it probably won’t last long.

I wouldn’t be a very good book nerd if I didn’t show at least one photo with books, would I? There were 3 different publishers present this year. That was really great to see because since the Pandemic, book and magazine publishers have been slow to return to Market. Still no magazine publishers, though. Maybe next year.

Schiffer Publishing (the photo above) has always been my go-to publisher for amazing historical quilt books with an abundance of gorgeous photos. It was so nice to see my Schiffer pal, Joe, and catch up with him. I haven’t seen him at a show since before the Pandemic so it was great to see him.

C&T Publishing was there this year, too. In addition to being one of our 2024 Blog Hop participants and sponsors, they were my publisher for my book, I Love Precut Quilts!

Fox Chapel was there, too. They were also one of our awesome 2024 Blog Hop sponsors.

Next up is Quilt Festival! If you’re planning to attend, please please please come see us and introduce yourself — we would love to see you. You can find us at booth 721. I promise, we’ll have some great shopping for you – kits, patterns, fabric, and super fun fat quarter bundles! Wait until you see our amazing dump table.

See you there!

Well, looks like that’s it for me this week! Stay tuned for next week’s post all about Quilt Festival!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Be Inspired. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

quilt festival · quilt market · villa rosa designs

Quilt Market Bound!

October 24, 2024October 23, 2024 rosecards3 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Today is the day! As you read this post, I’m on my way to Houston, Texas for International Quilt Market AND I am staying for Festival again this year. I wasn’t originally planning to do that, but things worked out and I am able to stay for Festival now. Yay!

I definitely have to thank my family for taking care of my Bailly pup, my kitty boy Griffy and our kitty girl Pip. I know they’ll be spoiled and loved, but I will miss them a lot while I’m down in Houston. It will be fun to come home again to my Bailly’s tail wagging a million miles a minute! And I can’t forget my Griffy’s show of affection when he gives me random whole body rubs against my legs. And Pip — what can I say? – she is very quiet and observant of everything around her, but she’ll walk right over to tell me she’s glad I’m home. If you’re a pet parent, I know you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.

If you are planning to attend Market and/or Festival, I hope you’ll find time to stop over at the Villa Rosa Designs booth and say hello! Pat, Molly, Heidi, and I would love to meet all of you in person! 🙂

I’m sitting here, smiling, thinking about last year’s Market and Festival. My friend, Cathey of Cathey Marie Designs, and I met for lunch during Market — we hadn’t seen each other since Market 2022. This year, our friend and fellow designer Leslie, is attending Market with Cathey. My fingers are crossed that we might be able to break away for a little lunch at Guadalajara, our favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown Houston, but we’ll see….

Last year my pal, Gaynel, and her sister Evie, went to Quilt Festival, so I was able to have a quick lunch with Gaynel — giant Texas-sized potatoes, of course! A long way to travel for lunch! LOL!

Here I am, showing off my yummy potato smothered in cheese, sour cream, and bacon!

Did I mention the food??? LOL! One of my favorite things to do when I travel (which is actually not very often) is to try different restaurants. Who wants to spend time cooking when you can spend time eating????

Of course, while I do get to have a bit of fun, I am also working at the VRD booth for Market and I get to help at the booth during Festival, too. Market and Festival are such a whirlwind of creativity, inspiration, and exhaustion.

One of the biggest features of both Market and Festival is the HUGE amount of quilts on display in the exhibit area. Most of the time, I don’t get to see all of the quilts, but I sure do try to slip a little quilt-gazing into my trip. Last year, there was a wonderful antique quilt display and I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to participate in a quilt walk through the exhibit. what fun! There were quilts from the 1800’s right up to the 1980’s! Some of my favorites were the unique and original African American quilts. I am in awe of the art these women created with what they had. I really could have stood there for hours just looking at the fabrics and how everything fits together!

I was also totally mesmerized and amazed at how quilters in the 1960’s and 1970’s turned double knit polyester into gorgeous works of quilted art. I have always been fascinated with the idea of double knit quilts and I am very lucky to have a couple examples now — sweet little doll quilts. I will definitely have to share some of my sweet and wonky doll quilts sometime on the blog, won’t I?

What else is there to see at Market and Festival? Why, the people, of course! Lots and lots of folks from all over the world — it isn’t called International Quilt Festival for nothin’! I just love to hear all the happy and excited voices in different languages on the show floor, in booths, among the quilt exhibits, at the food court, and in the halls. The excitement and inspiration is so intense, you can almost taste it.

You might also get the chance to meet a famous quilting rock star, too. Over the years, I’ve met quite a few of my quilting heroes and they are always so gracious, even when they are mobbed by their fans.

Both Market and Festival offer a plethora of classes, too, although I rarely get the chance to pop into any classes these days. While Market Schoolhouse lectures are going on, we’re busy getting the VRD booth together for you. When it’s time for our VRD schoolhouse session, we grab the quilts and hurry upstairs. Then it’s back down to the show floor to finish setting up the booth.

If you’ve never been to Quilt Festival, I hope you’ll get the chance sometime — it’s the biggest most awesome quilt show and shopping venue! And if you are a quilting professional, I hope you get to attend Market at least once to experience all the sights and sounds of the quilt industry.

I count myself so lucky that I’ve been to Market more times than I can count and this year will be my second Festival. I’m ready — bring it on!

See you in Houston!

Until next time —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

quilt market · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Quilt Market is Coming and a NEW Villa Rosa Fabric Collection

October 3, 2024October 2, 2024 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s October! How’d that happen? I feel like this year has been too short and yet too long at the same time. Does that even make any sense? So much has happened this year, yet there is still so much to accomplish, and now there is only a few months to do it in. Oh brother……… (me, smacking my forehead).

I know I mentioned last week that Fall is my absolute favorite season and happily, October is my most favorite month. October in northwest Pennsylvania is simply beautiful! You can almost watch the leaves burst into shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple . Then after a grand showing of color for a little while, they simply hop off the tree branches and drift down to the ground. There is nothing better than walking through those piles of color, crunching as you go. Raking leaves into a big pile and jumping into it is still an option for me too. Of course, I adore the cool nights and warm days, which make me feel more energetic and eager to get back on track to get things done after the lazy hazy crazy days of a hot summer.

Did I mention the food of autumn (and October)??? Goodness! How could I forget that? Apples are huge in our area this time of year, in fact I even have a couple neglected apple trees in my backyard. I was able to rescue some good-sized apples, even if they weren’t perfect. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple cider, homemade applesauce………need I say more? And if you have apple cider, you simply must have donuts to go with it. I don’t know if this is a regional thing or common all over, but I have fond memories of Friday and Saturday night cider and donuts.

In my hometown, there is also a huge nighttime Halloween parade later in October. When I say huge, I mean HUGE! Every firetruck and queen/princess for miles takes part! As well as all the area marching bands. There are floats, too. It was always a fun time when I was a kid, snagging all the candy thrown from the parade participants. I must admit that the Zem Zem mini race cars always made me nervous when they were doing their routines, — I was always afraid they’d run over my feet when they drove so close to the curbs where all of us kids were sitting. And after the parade, it was time for — you guessed it! — cider and donuts. LOL!

International Quilt Market

October also brings Fall International Quilt Market (the professional event) followed by Quilt Festival (the retail event) in Houston, Texas. YAY! Although there’s a lot of work that goes into getting ready for Market, it’s so much fun and totally exhausting. For me, it’s the one time a year I actually get to work with Pat and the VRD gang in person, which makes it super important to be there so we can brainstorm, discuss ideas, and dream up fun new VRD events just for you.

This was the VRD booth for Festival in 2023

I attended my first Quilt Market in 2010 when my very first quilt book, Orphan Block Quilts, was coming out. It was also where and when I first met Pat and fell in love with Villa Rosa Designs. My pal, Leslie (who I went with to Maryland back in August) went with me for that very first Market — basically she help my hand and provided me with training wheels, or…………simply moral support. LOL! Thanks, Leslie! I’ll never forget when we saw superstar Ty Pennington from HGTV, who was there to promote his first fabric collection. OMG! Women were practically throwing themselves at him. He had a security guard trying to protect him and they even had to bring in stanchions and ropes to help control the crowd of rowdy women. Ahhh, good times.

Last year I was really fortunate to be able to stay on for Quilt Festival (the retail event) after Market. That was my very first Festival experience, even though I’ve now been to enough Markets that I don’t even keep track anymore. I had an amazing time and I met such terrific folks at both Market and Festival.

I don’t really have any specific goals in mind for Market this year, except to work in the VRD booth and to just enjoy the experience. I do hope to meet some new industry professionals, to put a face to people I’ve only worked with online, and to catch up with some old friends — like my pals, the Springers, of Quilts of Mulberry Lane, who kindly gifted me with an antique quilt last year. You can read the Story of the Quilt that Followed Me Home HERE. I might even line up some new fun sponsors for our 2025 VRD Blog Hop.

Bedazzled Fabric Collection

The most exciting thing going on for Villa Rosa at this year’s Quilt Market is Pat’s new fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs. It’s called Bedazzled and it is a batik collection. If you know Pat Fryer, then you know she adores batik fabrics!

Here’s our Pat’s RBD designer photo on the Riley Blake website.

There are 26 fabrics in the Bedazzled collection. Lots of purples and teals with hints of pink, jade, and blue. The fabric designs have a lot of movement and energy and the colors are just sooooooo rich. Of course, Bedazzled will be available in precuts — 5″ squares, 10″ squares, 2.5″ strips, and fat quarter bundles, so the collection will literally shine in lots and lots of VRD Rose Card patterns!

But wait……………….there’s more! There is a teeny tiny little extra detail that makes Bedazzled truly unique and special — it has bling! It isn’t called Bedazzled for nothing, you know. Tehehe. The main print has wonderful hints of sparkle and shine.

A close up of one of the main prints — can you see the gold stars and moons? That’s the sparkly bling!

Bedazzled will debut at Quilt Market later this month and is shipping to quilt shops in December, which is only a couple months for you to wait. Right now all of us at VRD are busy working on quilt samples to show off the Bedazzled collection for Quilt Market, so you will be seeing those soon, I promise. You will be SEW inspired! I’m also working on a couple new tutorials for you, which will go live towards the end of the month and into the beginning of November.

One of the things I’m most excited about Bedazzled is the collectible Bedazzled tin Riley Blake created for the collection. What makes this tin so special??? It will hold Villa Rosa Rose Card patterns! Yep. SERIOUSLY! A tin designed specifically for our Rose Cards. How many times have we talked about how to store our VRD Rose Cards right here on the blog and on the Facebook page?

Ridiculously, I am so in love with this tin already and I haven’t even seen one in person. Hmmm…..maybe Riley Blake will have one as part of their Bedazzled display. Guess we’ll have to wait until then to find out.

The collectible Bedazzled Rose Card tin. Isn’t it yummy???

Remember, Bedazzled is shipping to quilt shops in December. Of course, we’ll have it available at Villa Rosa Designs. Did you doubt we would? So, hang in there. December’s coming really really fast!

Well, that’s it for me. Time to get back to work on my Bedazzled sample quilts and tutorials. Stay tuned for updates coming soon.

Until next time —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · quilt festival · quilt market · villa rosa designs

Antique/Vintage Quilts from the American Quilt Study Group Display and My Favorite Finds at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival

November 16, 2023November 15, 2023 rosecards6 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I’m still in Quilt Market/Festival mode and boy, have I got some goodies to show you today, including another slide show of quilts! I’d like to point out that this demonstrates how far-reaching and important Quilt Market and Festival really are — it literally takes weeks to “unpack” your brain afterwards. That can include looking through literature from companies, sifting through all your goodies, contacting new contacts, making connections about orders or new projects, and so much more. I am most definitely still decompressing from Market and Festival. Whoah! Squirrel……….

American Quilt Study Group Display

One of my favorite quilt displays at Market and Festival this year was by the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG). The display had a wonderful title — “Every Quilt Tells a Story”. It was a really interesting display with quilt examples ranging from the 1850’s up to circa 1980 — that’s one really broad stroke in quilt history! Some of my favorites on display were the double knit polyester quilts, believe it or not! I’ve always wanted to adopt a double knit quilt because the whole idea of working with such fabric always fascinated me.

As many of you know, my personal roots in quilt-making began with collecting antique and vintage textiles long before I taught myself to quilt after I graduated from college. I came to quilting through the side door, so to speak. Quilting, for me, was a perfect merger of my love of the antique and vintage as well as history and textiles. And OH THE STORIES our quilts could tell us….

So, this display was very near and dear to my heart. I even managed to be in the right place at the right time and participated in a quilt walk talk. It was great to hear more about each quilt as well as the collector/owner.

And while I was there, I even joined AQSG! I’m excited to learn more about my own textile collection and to see how I can contribute to the AQSG existing body of knowledge. You can learn more about the AQSG (and how to join) HERE.

Without further ado, here’s the slide show showing the quilts I was particularly drawn to. Again, please note the quilt information is the slide after the quilt.

Pretty awesome, huh? Which one was your favorite?

Speaking of antique and vintage quilt stuff, let me show you some of my favorite finds at Market and Festival.

Favorite Market and Festival Finds

Probably my most special find was Harold the antique quilt with the opened feed bags for a backing. Did you miss my story, “The Quilt that Followed Me Home”? You can find it HERE.

Then there’s the HUGE collection of antique and vintage Orphan blocks I found at 3 different antique quilt vendors — Quilts From Mulberry Lane, Tenny Roche Vintage, and Legacy Quilts . I can’t wait to play around with these….

Speaking of antique and vintage quilty stuff, I also found this incredible piece of Hawaiian quilting at the Lavender and Old Lace Co booth. It is hand-appliqued and completely hand-quilted. Maybe it was going to be a pillow square? Who knows? There probably isn’t any way to find out how old it is because it’s a solid red on muslin, but it definitely isn’t recent. It had a wide red silky blanket binding applied with some kind of fusible product all around the edges. The blanket binding pulled right off, but it did leave some red staining here and there. Ho hum, just part of the piece’s history. I plan to square it up, bind it in a vintage red fabric, add a hanging sleeve on the back, and a label. I don’t know the name of the block yet, but I will enjoy doing some research into Hawaiian quilting.

Of course, I had loads of fun shopping in our very own VRD booth! Being that I live in PA and the VRD quilt shop is located in CA, it was kind of like visiting the shop (at least a mini mobile one). I grabbed a couple kits I’d had my eye on — Pascali and Picture Perfect.

It’s your lucky day, too — we still have kits left for both patterns!

Pascali in True Blue HERE

Or maybe you’d just like the Pascali pattern? Physical Pascali HERE, Digital Pascali HERE

Picture Perfect in California Parks (the one I bought) HERE

Picture Perfect in Dwell in Possibilities HERE

Or maybe you’d just like Molly’s Picture Perfect pattern? Physical Picture Perfect HERE, digital Picture Perfect HERE

I spent time during Festival helping Molly and Heidi to keep the half and full yards of fabric organized in the plastic bins. I had never seen (or felt) the Charley Harper fabrics up close and personal before now. The fabric was so smooth and silky and the images so colorful and crisp!

Of course, after handling it for days, I just had to take my first Charley Harper fabrics home. It was hard to decide which fabrics to start with, so I ended up putting together a winter collection, a fall collection (’tis the seasons…..), and the last photo shows 2 random prints I fell in love with. It was really fun to mix and match the prints from different collections together. I am looking forward to creating a new VRD pattern (you know, in the next 50 years or so) using my Charley Harper fabric finds.

Pat, our VRD Rose Queen, has used Charley Harper fabrics in a couple patterns already, Newsflash and Jolie. Of course, the kits are long gone, but you can still get the patterns — physical Newsflash HERE or digital Newsflash HERE and physical Jolie HERE or digital Jolie HERE. And you can shop our VRD Charley Harper fabrics HERE.

Charm Squares and Fat Quarters, oh my!!! What more can I say???

PSST! The fat quarter rolls were from our VRD booth, you can see our VRD bundles **HERE**.

Have you ever been to Phoenicia in Houston? It’s an amazing specialty grocery store through the park and a block away from the Convention Center. Totally worth the short walk. Specialty grocery just doesn’t do the store justice — it’s a restaurant, coffee shop, bakery, meat and fish store, fresh foods, international foods, hot foods, cold foods, salad bar, fresh fruits/vegs, wine and beer, gifts, and so much more. I haven’t been here since 2019. I had so much fun wandering the aisles upstairs and down. I found some great goodies to take home for my family and even some special stuff for myself. I LOVE Turkish Delight. Have you ever tried it? I go all the way to Houston to find my favorite Koska brand from Turkey. And there were even some new flavor combinations, too!

Here I am sitting out front at one of the little bistro tables enjoying a S’mores cappuccino ( light on the coffee, heavy on the chocolate) and an amazing chocolate eclair. Yum!

Speaking of food, I get really excited to go to Quilt Market (and now Festival) just to have one of the most amazing Texas-sized stuffed baked potatoes. Yep, you heard me right — baked potatoes. I’m talking butter, brisket, cheese, BBQ sauce, sour cream, real bacon, and chives. Yum yum yummy! You can’t beat it for the most filling lunch ever. It’s not cheap, but it’s oh so satisfying.

Here I am digging into my tater……

So grab your own ginormous potato next year at the Food Court and tell ’em Tricia from PA sent you. I think they should keep a world map and a USA map on display (and color in the countries/states) to show all the places where potato lovers come from. Just sayin’……..

When I went to Houston, I took along a little hand-sewing wool felt project for the airport and on the plane. Of course, while I was taking everything in, I was drawn into the wool booth, Yellow Creek Quilt Designs — blame it on the Gnome piece that reached out and grabbed me. Ha Ha! Of course, I bought the pattern for the Gnomes well as a few others. And at another booth, Penny Lane Primitives, I bought this adorable snowman candle mat kit.

Well, I guess that’s it for me this week. I’ve got to get back to work on our upcoming 12 Quilts of Christmas collection! Stay warm and get quilting! And get some rest so you’re ready to first eat turkey next week then shop until you literally drop.

See you next Thursday on Thanksgiving —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW November VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns and International Quilt Festival Quilts

November 9, 2023November 8, 2023 rosecards4 Comments

Here I sit at the Hobby airport grabbing some lunch while I wait for my flight back to good ol’ Pennsylvania. Wow! What an awesome Quilt Market and Festival! I am so excited to get back to my studio and get to work on new projects — my head is just exploding with inspiration and ideas.

I did figure out how to get Harold the quilt home — I bought a duffel bag at WalMart since I’d only brought one suitcase and “2 bags fly free.” The only problem with the duffel is that with only Harold in it, it was kind of empty so I just had to shop for awesome cool stuff at Festival to fill it up so Harold wouldn’t be lonely on the trip home. So sad, huh? I’ll be showing you some of my favorites in next week’s post, so stay tuned……

Now let me show you our NEW VRD Rose Card patterns for November.

NEW November Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Quilt Patterns

Yay! It’s the Thursday after the first Friday of the month and you know what that means — NEW PATTERNS!

Aren’t they great??? As always, you can get the set of 5 regular patterns for the special price of $8.95 HERE.

We’re happy to welcome our newest Villa Rosa Designs designer — Deanne Moore of Creative Sewlutions. Most of you are probably already familiar with her classic Oh Henry pattern — Deanne selected the most popular size for her Rose Card Oh Henry pattern. Find the kit, featuring fabric from Wild Wander, HERE. And Deanne’s other new pattern, Messages is just tons of fun, isn’t it?

Peking Duck is an awesome pattern by Heidi to showcase those gorgeous large prints you just cannot cut up. I’m thinking Charley Harper fabrics would look great in her pattern, what do you think?

Molly’s fast and fun pattern Underline would also look great with larger prints or novelties paired with an accent. This is a good size for a kid’s quilt. You can find the kit HERE.

And don’t forget Farmhouse Blues, my new November pattern. I was sew inspired by the blue and white Moda collection, Blueberry Delight, that I just had to design a quilt around it. I had the most fun photographing it on my Dad’s vintage tractor. I think this is one of my best cover photos ever.

Here’s the original uncropped photo for the Farmhouse Blues cover. Definitely one of my favorite covers ever!

Molly created a sample using the red, white, and blue collection, Patchwork Americana by P&B. You can find the kit HERE.

Molly’s version of Farmhouse Blues, available as a kit.

I’m sorry that we don’t have a table runner for this month — there just wasn’t enough time to get everything ready and to press before Market and Festival. We will have a runner coming for December, though, so hang in there.

Now let’s get back to Quilt Market and Festival!

Quilts of Quilt Market and Festival

During Festival, I was able to spend quite a bit of time enjoying the quilts on display. Oh my goodness, talk about amazing and inspiring! I was really blown away with the creativity and skill. Truly amazing! Pair all of the quilts with all of the shopping and you have an amazing experience. If you haven’t attended Festival, I really urge you to go to one sometime, you won’t be sorry. I do suggest that you plan for at least 2 days, although staying for the entire show would be awesome. There is absolutely no way you can see and experience everything in just one day. It really is sensory overload, so a couple days is a must so you don’t get too overwhelmed.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the amazing quilts on display. In the image after each quilt, I’ve included the maker information. Please enjoy my little slide show!

Well, that’s it for me this week. I hope you stop in next week for another little slide show and my favorite finds from Quilt Market and Festival. Until then, spend some quality time with your sewing machine!

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

quilt market · Quilt Stories · villa rosa designs

Villa Rosa Designs Quilt Market NEWS, Quilt Festival, and the Quilt that Followed Me Home

November 2, 2023November 1, 2023 rosecards9 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

As I sit and write this post, sadly, Quilt Market is over. I must apologize that I did not pop onto the blog to talk about anything going on here at Market in Houston, TX. But it just all went so fast!

Working in the VRD booth was lots of fun! I just loved chatting with folks when they stopped by the booth and I spent a lot of time hustling to pack up patterns (we all did!). And time just zipped by. By the end of each day, I put on well over 10,000 steps and I was plumb worn out.

I also must admit that I only took maybe 2 photos during the whole of Quilt Market. Sad, sad, sad, I know. It’s okay, you can roll your eyes at me, I don’t mind….

Here’s a photo of Market looking down from the second floor back in the good ol’ days before the Pandemic.

Here’s an old photo of the VRD booth from 2018. This year’s booth was set up a little different, but still had all the same components — current quilts on display, fat quarter bundles and kits, and our patterns (of course).

One of the very best things about Quilt Market is getting out there and networking with real people. It was great meeting lots of new folks and catching up with people I work with online so we could actually meet face to face.

Of course, it’s also a great time to connect with old friends. I had lunch with my pal Cathey Laird from Cathey Marie Designs. Catherine of Running Doe Quilts (one of our VRD designers) stopped by — it was so nice to see her again. I also met our newest VRD designer, Deanne Moore of Creative Sewlutions. An old quilt guild friend, Sondra Raby of Art Quilts by Design, was here doing demos and I at least got to say hi as she was running off for her next demo. I caught up with Christa Watson of Christa Quilts, a favorite machine quilter, author, and fabric designer and Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique, who is also a fabric designer and author. This is what Quilt Market is all about — meeting people and making connections. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a Quilt Market, I totally say “Go For It” — you won’t be sorry.

Although Market is over, the good news is that we’re rolling right into Quilt Festival and I promise to take lots of photos, including of the VRD booth, too. If you’re coming to Quilt Festival here in Houston, TX, don’t forget to stop and shop at our Villa Rosa Designs booth #801. You won’t believe the “dump” table which is piled sky high with fat quarter bundles. Oh. My. Goodness. It’s a quilter’s paradise.

One of the coolest things about Festival, besides that it’s my first one, is that I finally get to meet Villa Rosa Designs designers Molly and Heidi Cook (it’s Heidi’s first Festival too) in person! Yay! Oh, the mischief we could get into together…. Sigh…..poor Pat.

And here’s a really funny thing — my friend, Gaynel, from my neck of the woods, is coming to Festival on Friday. What a long way for us to come just to meet for lunch, huh? LOL!!!

Now, let’s move on to some awesome announcements we made at Market about what’s NEW at VRD!

Villa Rosa Designs NEWS

I am happy to share some great new stuff coming soon with Villa Rosa Designs with you!

Designer News

Kate Griffin will be returning to Villa Rosa Designs. Some of her wonderful patterns are coming out of retirement, so stay tuned for more information….

Deanne Moore, designer of Creative Sewlutions patterns, is joining the VRD Family! Check out her 2 patterns coming in November, Oh Henry and Messages. You can visit Deanne’s website HERE.

New Pattern Collections

Coming in November, we will have 2 brand new exclusive 12 pattern collections!

We are delighted to announce we are partnering with the Quilts of Valor Foundation to bring you a collection of existing VRD patterns that meet the size requirements for QOV quilts. A portion of every sale will be donated to QOVF.

We will also be offering a brand new “12 Quilts of Christmas” pattern collection just in time for the 2023 holidays! This collection will feature 12 new holiday patterns for projects ranging from table runners to place mats to throw quilts and more featuring designs of many of our wonderful VRD designers.

Coming in 2024

Back by popular demand!

Coming in January/February 2024, we will host our second Fast and Even More Fun Blog Hop. More information to follow soon!

The Quilt that Followed Me Home

You know the saying — “what happens at Quilt Market (or wherever you are), stays at Quilt Market”? Nope, not this time — this story is meant to be shared.

Every time I attend a Quilt Market, the first place I literally visit besides our Villa Rosa Designs booth is Quilts from Mulberry Lane and my friends Carolyn and Don Springer. You can visit their website HERE.

I think I met these dear folks way back at my first Market in 2010 when my first book, Orphan Block Quilts, debuted (psst — this was also when I met Pat Fryer, our VRD Rose Queen, and you know how that turned out).

As most of you know by now, I personally LOVE antique and vintage quilt and textile stuff, so of course I found my way to Mulberry Lane. Anyway, when I stopped to check in with Carolyn and Don, they couldn’t wait to tell me about this interesting quilt that had found its way to them. The quilt had opened feed bags on the back of it and one of the bags was still very easy to read. They knew of my love for feed sacks and knew I’d be interested. Sadly, there was no provenance.

It really warmed my heart that they thought of me! They are such kind people. Don showed me the quilt back first. What an interesting find, for sure. I’d heard of people using opened feed bags for utility purposes such as quilt backs, sheets, underwear, etc., but I’d never really seen it in person. Until now. Then Don finally showed me the front and it had humble Snowball blocks in plaid and stripe shirtings with a few Indigos thrown in for good measure set side by side. I’m thinking perhaps circa 1920’s-1930’s. As a reference point, I have my grandpa’s Nine Patch quilt which was made by his mother when he was a young man and it also features shirtings and such. Very similar quilts. Also as a reference, printed design feed sacks weren’t available until the late 1930’s.

It definitely needed a good bath, but Don said they were concerned about washing it because of the printing on the back feed bags and they were concerned it might fade or wash out. It’s well-loved with typical wear and tear and could use a new binding. But all in all, this quilt still has a lot of love to give.

The Springers gifted this quilt to me. I was so so touched by their desire to put this quilt into the hands of someone (me) who would love and cherish it. We named him Harold (I have a quirky habit of naming everything).

Then the weather turned chilly here in Houston and Harold fulfilled his purpose once again and warmed me during the cooler nights — I definitely did not bring any cooler weather clothing with me (by the way, Wednesday morning we had 8 inches of snow on the ground at home in Pennsylvania — way way too early). Thank you Harold! And thank you to my dear friends, the Springers, for their kind generosity.

Now to figure out how best to get Harold back home to Pennsylvania….

I did grab a few quilt blocks and feed sacks from the Springers, too. Adding to my stash, of course because one can never have enough stash. I bought the blocks because they had feed sack fabrics or other interesting vintage fabrics in them.

Here I come, Quilt Festival!

See you next Thursday right here. Same place, same time —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · quilt market · villa rosa designs

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

October 26, 2023October 25, 2023 rosecards9 Comments

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.

Timing is everything, isn’t it? Phyllis was one of the original Chicago ladies way back when and she just so happened to be visiting her sister, Mary Lee, when we had our first Jelly Roll Race. Coincidence???

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!

Robin’s Autumn throw sure is cozy, isn’t it?

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

Not only are you our current Speed Queen, Donna, you’re also the Fastest Finisher!

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……….

Yup, that’s me grinning like a crazy quilter from behind my Jelly Roll flimsy.

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