A Sneak Peek, Our Shoofly Challenge, and Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

July 31, 2025July 30, 2025 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

The forecast for today is sum-sum-summertime with a strong chance of quilting! SEW much to do today, so let’s get started.

Before we jump into this week’s Quilt Design adventure, though, I want to share a fun SNEAK PEEK with you from our friends over at QT Fabrics. You might recall that VRD has been working closely with QT to pair their new fabric collections with our patterns. Here is our latest collaboration:

Image featuring the logos of QT Fabrics and Villa Rosa Designs, highlighting their collaboration for Fall 2025 collections.

You can check out the catalog HERE.

These upcoming fabric collections are being shown to quilt shops right now and will ship in late 2025/early 2026. If you see something you like — ask for the collection (and VRD patterns, of course) at you local quilt shop.

Churn Dash Challenge Winner

As part of my Quilt Design series last week, I offered up a challenge to you – see what you could do with the Churn Dash block.

First, I want to thank those of you who shared your ideas, creations, blocks, and quilts.

And the winner is………………………..

Lisa from KY

Lisa won with her charming Churn Dash quilt, below, featuring multiple sizes of her Churn Dash blocks with the added fun of novelty farm panels and prints inside each block. Way to go, Lisa!

A colorful quilt featuring various farm animal-themed blocks framed with bold borders in different colors, displayed against a brick wall.

Log Cabin Inspiration

Folks were really inspired by last week’s Courthouse Steps block quilt design party and suggested we stay in the Log Cabin zone. Thank you for those suggestions, but I want to keep addressing different kinds of blocks to maximize your inspiration when it comes to designing quilts. There are entire books written about Log Cabin blocks and quilts and a few blog posts just can’t do the topic justice, I am afraid.

In lieu of more Log Cabin blocks, here is a short list of Log Cabin books for you to explore. I tried to choose a variety to show you here on the blog, but believe me – there are tons more out there just waiting to inspire your next Log Cabin quilt.

A colorful quilt featuring curvy log cabin blocks and a floral border, showcased outdoors in a natural setting. — Find it HERE

Book cover titled 'Log Cabin Improv: Quilts with a Twist on Tradition' by Mary M. Hogan, featuring a colorful patchwork quilt design made of various Log Cabin blocks. — Find it **HERE**

Cover of the book 'Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts' by Judy Martin, featuring colorful quilt designs including traditional log cabin patterns. — Find it **HERE**

Cover of the book '101 Log Cabin Blocks' featuring various log cabin quilt block designs and patterns. — Get it **HERE**

Cover of the book 'Creative Log Cabin Quilts' displaying a quilt with various Log Cabin block designs in a garden setting with flowers and a wooden fence. — Find it **HERE**

After enjoying your Log Cabin comments and quilt photos, it occurred to me that I have not done a Star block yet……..so today’s the day!

The Sawtooth Star Block

I chose an oldie, but a goodie for today – the Sawtooth Star.

Sawtooth Star is known by many names and has a lot of different variations. Apparently, it first appeared in print in the 1880’s or 1890’s in popular publications such as Farm and Fireside Magazine as well as in the Ladies Art Company catalog in 1895. The Sawtooth Star block was block # 5. Like most quilt blocks, however; Sawtooth Star blocks were probably being made long before they ever appeared in print.

Here is our classic 2 color Sawtooth Star block.

A simple quilt block design featuring a red Sawtooth Star pattern with a solid center and white background.

So, let’s make a quilt. Here are 20 blocks set side by side. This makes a lovely classic 2 color quilt, but of course we’re not going to stop there.

A quilt layout featuring a repeating pattern of red Sawtooth Star blocks interspersed with white squares.

Here it is with sashing in between the blocks. Again, super classic. I do like how the sashing gives the stars room to breathe, plus this layout would be a lot easier due to not having to match up all those points. Win, win….

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks in red and white, arranged in a grid pattern.

Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a little bit, shall we? Let’s change the solid center block into an Hourglass.

A quilt block design featuring a Sawtooth Star pattern in vibrant red and white colors, arranged in a grid layout.

Here are the blocks set side to side. I find it interesting that I’m not seeing the stars so much now, but rather, all the triangles seem to jump out at me now. And I see “V” shapes, too. Huh.

A quilt layout featuring red Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid, alternating with white squares.

Let’s tweak the block again by adding Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the 4 corners.

Quilt block pattern featuring a red and white Sawtooth Star design.

Okay, now let’s set the blocks side by side in a quilt. Wow! There is so much more movement – almost to the point of being distracting. Really cool, though.

Quilt pattern featuring a repeating design of red and white Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s add a 3rd color to the blocks now.

Classic Sawtooth Star quilt block design featuring red, blue, and white fabric triangles arranged in a star pattern.

Here is the same layout as above, but with the added 3rd color. It looks totally different and not as dizzying.

Quilt design featuring a pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red, white, and blue colors arranged in a grid layout.

What if we add sashing again? Cool – we now have a Shoofly block where the sashing square meets the blue HSTs – this adds a lot of interest to the design. Liking this, but not quite there yet. Let’s keep tweaking.

A quilt design featuring a classic Sawtooth Star block layout in red and blue, arranged in a grid with white spaces between the blocks.

I think the blocks look a bit heavy, so I’m going to lighten them up a bit by changing the inner blue triangles back to white. Yep, liking this one more.

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid pattern. The stars are colored in red and white with blue squares in between, creating a striking contrast against the white background.

I’d call this a finished design, so let’s add some fabric. Here it is featuring fabrics from QT Fabrics’ American Tapestry collection.

A quilt design featuring a repetitive pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red and navy, with a neutral background and small star accents.

It’s a bit too vertical for me, though, so let me make one more tweak by alternating the direction of the blocks. Yes, I think that does it. This one’s a wrap!

A quilt featuring a repeating Sawtooth Star block design in red and white, with dark blue star-patterned corner pieces and a light beige background.

But wait – I’m not done yet. I’m having way too much fun to stop now. Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a bit more by adding blue triangles on the sides only.

Illustration of a Sawtooth Star quilt block featuring red and blue triangular segments arranged around a central white square.

Here’s our updated block set side to side in a quilt. You totally lose the star block, don’t you? I like the horizontal repetition of the triangles, too.

A quilt design featuring a pattern of interlocking red, blue, and white triangles arranged in a grid layout, with a central diamond shape in white.

Let’s add fabric! Here it is using the QT fabrics from American Tapestry again. Love it, yet……

Quilt featuring a repeated pattern of red, white, and blue fabrics arranged in a geometric design with star motifs.

One more tweak……let’s rotate every other block. Yup, that’s the one. Finished. Great movement – I can’t even see the stars now, can you?

A colorful quilt featuring a Sawtooth Star design with red, white, and blue fabrics embellished with stars, arranged in a grid pattern.

Do you remember where we started? A classic 2 color Sawtooth Star.

A graphic illustration of a classic Sawtooth Star quilt block, featuring a central square in red surrounded by triangular points in red against a white background.

YAY! This has been another fun quilt design adventure! Sew glad you came along.

If you’ve missed any posts in our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up below:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Stay tuned for next week when we explore another block in our Let’s Design a Quilt series. Any thoughts on another great block to explore?

See you next time!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD Augustina Quilt Tutorial – Perfect Summer Project

June 26, 2025June 25, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

WHEW! If you’re like me, you are having a heatwave right now. 90’s every day. It even hit 100 on the thermometer on Monday! YIKES! I’m sooooo not ready for these temps. It’s like we went straight from 50’s to 90’s in a couple weeks.

90’s are definitely not normal for this time of year here in northwestern Pennsylvania. AND we have high humidity to go with the heat which makes me want to just melt into a puddle on the ground every time I have to step outside. I literally had to scramble on Sunday to get the window AC units in, but we’re all good now. I just don’t want to go outside anymore.

A woman in a floral dress appears distressed while crawling on a sunlit street, with water droplets visually distorting around her, creating an impression of melting. — **I’m melting into a puddle………!!!!**

Luckily my dungeon studio is still cool enough (sadly, it is not air conditioned) to work in comfortably. I have several fans on to keep the air moving, but when the heat finally infiltrates my space, it’ll get quite uncomfortable. That usually isn’t until August and September, though, but we’ll see what summer brings this year. Northwestern Pennsylvania is an interesting place to live – record amounts of snow and cold in the winter, a wet and cold spring, then – POOF! – record high temps in June. Only the strong survive……..

I finally got a little quality time with my sewing machine this week so I decided to put together a new tutorial for you. Augustina is a such great project for summer!

Of course Augustina is fast and fun – it’s a VRD pattern, but it’s also not so big that you feel like you’re wrestling an alligator while your body is dripping with sweat. I promise you, this quilt really is quick – I made the top in a couple hours and that included both cutting and photographing my step-outs for the tutorial. It’s a very satisfying afternoon project.

VRD Augustina Quilt Tutorial

Augustina is a great sized quilt for a small throw or a juvenile quilt. And this is a pattern you are going to turn to over and over again for a beautiful quilt with little effort, yet it looks like a million bucks (sorry, it’s late and I couldn’t think of another phrase to use). So don’t forget to get your own Augustina pattern if you don’t have it yet.

A vibrant quilt pattern titled 'Augustina' featuring colorful fabric blocks in shades of purple, yellow, and orange, with floral and geometric designs. The quilt is displayed on a warm orange background, showcasing its cheerful and lively aesthetic.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Let’s get started!

The first thing we need to do, of course, is round up our fabrics. Augustina is a fat quarter project, so you can march right over to your stash and find some coordinating fat quarters or you can use this project as an excuse to visit your local quilt shop to buy new fabric. Yeah, I know, we quilters really don’t need an excuse, but it is handy to have one anyway, isn’t it?

For this tutorial, I am using Flower Shoppe fabrics from our quilty friends over at Hoffman Fabrics. The flower fabrics are all amazing Hoffman digital prints – have you seen these in person yet? The colors are so bright and clear – I feel like I could pick these flowers right off the fabric. We’ve paired a few Hoffman batiks to balance out the gorgeous flower prints.

Please remember when using digital prints, that they do not react exactly the same as regular quilting cottons. Always start with a new needle in your machine so you are not pulling threads when sewing as well as a new rotary cutting blade so you are cutting cleanly through the fabric instead of sawing at it, which can damage the fibers.

A collection of fabric pieces featuring floral patterns, including sunflowers and roses, stacked with an Augustina quilt pattern booklet on a cutting mat.

Next up…..cutting.

SHHHHH! The secret of this quilt is that the pieces are big. Big pieces mean you don’t have to spend loads of time cutting little squares, rectangles, or triangles. Big pieces are a huge time saver! Big pieces also mean you can use bigger prints (when you use big prints in small pieces, the design gets all chopped up and you tend to lose what you loved about the print to begin with). Yay! Let’s GO BIG!

In the photos, below, we’re cutting our accent fabric into strips and then into rectangles.

A rotary cutter, a cutting mat, and a ruler placed on top of a blue marbled fabric in preparation for cutting.

A rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler placed on a green cutting mat with yellow grid lines, with a strip of fabric in the background.

Below, we’re cutting our FQs into strips and then into 2 different sized rectangles.

A rotary cutter and ruler placed on a floral fabric with orange poppies, laid on a green cutting mat, ready for cutting.

A rotary cutter rests on a floral fabric featuring orange poppies, positioned on a green cutting mat marked with measurements.

VIOLA! Cutting done. Easy peasy. Here’s all the pieces we need to make Augustina.

A selection of colorful quilting fabrics featuring vibrant floral patterns, including poppies and roses, arranged on a green cutting mat with a ruler and rotary cutter nearby.

Before we can sew Augustina together, we have to lay out our fabrics. I’m going to put them up on my handy dandy flannel board which consists of a flannel-backed table cloth clamped to the tops of my fabric storage unit doors. As I’ve mentioned before, this idea came from my pal, Mary Lee. Kudos to you, Mary Lee! It’s a great option if you don’t have a spare wall to put up a more permanent quilt wall solution. I can simply take it down when I need access to my yardage stash. I’ve actually had this tablecloth for years now, so it’s even an economical option.

A colorful quilt top featuring sunflower and poppy floral patterns, laid out for sewing with a light blue background and various fabric strips.

A layout of quilt fabric pieces showcasing bright floral patterns including sunflowers, poppies, and abstract designs, arranged in vertical strips with a green cutting mat below.

Hmmm……I think I need to move some fabrics around.

A colorful quilt top layout featuring floral fabrics in various patterns and colors, arranged in vertical stripes.

A vibrant patchwork layout of floral fabric squares and rectangles arranged in vertical rows, showcasing bright colors like red, yellow, and green against a light background.

After several switcharoos, I think I’m happy with the layout now.

Let’s sew!

This quilt is sewn together in vertical rows. I took my time, only taking one vertical row off of my board at a time. I worked from the top down to sew the pieces together. It doesn’t matter whether you sew your strips top down or bottom up, just be consistent with all of your rows or else you might get your fabrics out of kilter.

A sewing machine with colorful fabric pieces, including floral and orange prints, laid out for stitching.

A partially assembled quilt top featuring colorful floral fabrics in various patterns and colors, arranged in vertical strips against a crafting workspace.

Okay, all the fabrics are now sewn into vertical rows.

Vertical strips of colorful floral and solid fabrics are laid out for a quilt project, with a cutting mat visible below.

Now I’m going to sew the vertical rows together into pairs. As this quilt has an odd number of rows, the last row will have to hang out all by itself for a while.

Vertical strips of colorful floral fabrics arranged on a flannel board in preparation for quilting.

Next, I’m going to sew the first 2 pairs together into a foursome. Then I’ll sew the third pair and the last row together into a trio.

Two vertical quilt sections showcasing a colorful patchwork of floral and solid fabrics on a cutting mat.

One last seam to sew the 2 sections together and the Augustina top will be finished. Fast as can be! There isn’t a lot of matching seams, but you do want to make sure your accent pieces are relatively even-looking across the quilt.

And here it is! Our completed Augustina quilt top.

Colorful quilt top featuring floral and solid fabric blocks arranged in a vertical pattern.

Although it was hot, I decided to take Augustina outside for a glamour photo. Sigh…….it was a little breezy out and I couldn’t get a photo with it hanging nicely for you. Bummer. But I do love how it looks surrounded by all the green – the flowers look like they are about to burst right off the quilt! That’s digital fabric for you – the number of colors that can be printed on fabric is phenomenal and creates stunning designs.

A colorful quilt featuring floral patterns and various fabrics, hanging on a clothesline outdoors with green grass and trees in the background.

And that’s it! Finito! Next I need to layer, quilt, and bind it…….someday, anyway.

If you’re looking for another great summer quilt pattern, check out the Jubilee tutorial from a few weeks ago. It’s also a super go-to project.

That’s it for me today, gotta go have me some summer……..in the air conditioning. LOL!

See you next week, same time same place —

Sew. Laugh. Stay Cool. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilt Shows and Trade Shows · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

H&H Americas Show in Chicago

May 15, 2025May 14, 2025 rosecards3 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I’m now back home after the H&H Americas Show last week in Chicago and I’m trying to get everything caught up, which to be honest, I probably never will completely, but I’m sure going to try.

H&H was a really busy show. The show vibe was very vibrant and youthful with a unique blend of quilting, wool, fiber arts, and cosplay. I found it really interesting to see one area spill into another such as quilted garments in cosplay.

One of my favorite parts of the show was the opportunity to work with our VRD owner and Rose Queen, Pat. As I live in Pennsylvania while Pat and the VRD shop are in California, we usually only get to work together in person in Houston for Quilt Market. So, some extra time this year being face to face was amazing!

A booth display at the H&H Americas Show featuring colorful quilts and fabric designs by Villa Rose Designs, with a table showcasing various quilting products.

The VRD booth was insanely busy during the show and I want to thank everyone who stopped by. We LOVE our shops! Here’s a big thank you hug to all of you who came by the VRD booth to chat, share stories, and show quilts. Your energy is what keeps us going!

About H&H

H&H Americas is a relatively new trade show in the US for handmade industry businesses and professionals. The Americas show stemmed from the H&H Cologne (Germany) show. Let me share some of the numbers from this year’s show:

Over 550 booths
5000+ professionals attended
48 countries, 50 US states, and 2 US territories

Awesome applesauce!

Good news! In 2026, H&H is adding a Fiber+Fabric Craft Festival for consumers from April 30-May 3 in Chicago. So that’s something new to look forward to next year.

Upcoming Shows

Of course, in October 2025, Fall International Quilt Market will be in Houston, TX. It will be followed by Quilt Festival October 9-12, also in Houston. If you’ve never had the chance to attend a Festival, I highly recommend it. It’s the perfect place to see hundreds (or more) quilts on display along with tons of great vendors. It is overwhelming and wonderful at the same time!

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the Road to California show? Well, to make everything even more exciting in 2026, Road to California is debuting their Road to California Quilter’s Conference & Showcase event in January.

Spring International Quilt Market will return in April 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. So far, I haven’t heard anything about Spring Quilt Festival for 2026, but if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.

Wowzer! Sew much is happening in the world of quilting!

Cool Stuff

Whenever I attend a show, I always like to share cool stuff I find, booths I visit, folks I see, and any trends I notice with you. Please enjoy!

Here are the booths of a few of our quilting partners. I apologize, but I didn’t get a lot of time to snap photos of our quilting partners.

A vibrant quilt display featuring colorful fabric and quilted items at a trade show booth, showcasing various patterns and designs. — **Hoffman Fabrics**

A booth at the H&H Americas Show featuring colorful quilt displays, with a woman sitting at the table and attendees browsing nearby. — **Hoffman Fabrics**

Display of various quilt blocks featuring colorful designs and patterns at the Banyan Batiks booth. — **Banyan Batiks**

The fun thing about the Banyan display is that it includes a quilt block from our VRD pattern, Waverly (top left block). Also in the display are 2 blocks from my friend, Cathey Laird of Cathey Marie Designs (the Bumblebee on the left of the sign and the House block to the right of the sign). What fun!

I stopped by to see my pals at Best Press and get some of their new Lemon Mist scent. I cannot find it anywhere around here, not even on Amazon so I bought the rest of the Lemon Mist bottles they had and also grabbed a refill bottle of Peaches and Cream. I should be set with Best Press for a while.

A booth display for Mary Ellen's Best Press at a quilting show, featuring colorful quilted decorations, various sizes of spray bottles, and a floral tablecloth.

I even caught up with a few quilty pals –

Here I am with Swan of Swam Amity Studios, who is the designer of my favorite machine quilting gloves. Swan also designs patterns and teaches classes. She kindly took the time to show me the Designers Showcase section at the show which featured 18 different designers.

Two smiling women posing for a selfie in front of a colorful quilt display at a quilting show.

Here is Swan’s mini booth at the Designer Showcase.

A colorful quilting booth featuring designs by Swan Amity and Larkspur Lane Designs, showcasing various quilted items, including wall hangings and pillows, with a vibrant display of fabrics and patterns.

I also got some time to chat with Christa Watson of Christa Quilts. Christa is an amazing machine quilter, teacher, pattern designer, fabric designer, and author. We are standing in front of Christa’s booth in the Designer Showcase area. She has a fun modern aesthetic and is definitely NOT afraid of color. LOL!

Two women smiling together at a quilting show, standing in front of colorful quilts and quilt patterns displayed on a wall.

I found this really fun designer booth, Whole Circle Studio, in the showcase section, too, and I just had to snap a few photos to share with you. Sherri, the owner, created an amazing miniature quilt shop featuring teeny tiny patterns and quilts (all her designs, of course). What a showstopper!

Display of Whole Circle Studio showcasing colorful quilt patterns, embroidery kits, and a miniature quilt shop setup.

A colorful quilt display featuring various mini quilts and quilting supplies on wooden shelves, showcasing vibrant patterns and designs geared towards quilting enthusiasts.

I stopped by the Purple Moose Designs booth in the Designer Showcase and I discovered a cool new quilting card game called Quilter’s Block Party. It’s kind of like Pictionary for quilters. Can’t wait to try it out with my Friday gals.

Cover of the Quilter's Block Party card game, featuring colorful quilt block designs and a playful typography that states 'Quilter's Block Party!'

I must admit that the show layout was a lot different than I am used to and I got lost frequently, trying to find specific booths or simply the ladies room – LOL! On one of my meanders, I found a fabulous Kaffe Fasset display with his quilts and knitted items. I couldn’t tell you where I found it – by that time I had no idea where I was. Kaffe and Brandon Mobly were there at the show, but I never really got a chance to say hi. Please enjoy.

A colorful quilt display by Kaffe Fassett featuring various patterns and fabrics, beside a poster for the Kaffe Fassett Glorious Colour & Design Exhibit.

A vibrant display of quilts featuring colorful patterns, including a wall quilt with floral designs and a garment hanging among the fabric backdrop at a quilting show.

During the show, there was a cosplay contest as well as a cool cosplay display. Check out these awesome costumes. Which one is your favorite?

Two colorful costumes displayed at a cosplay event, featuring a glamorous pink gown adorned with stars and a rich red dress with intricate details.

Two mannequins dressed in elaborate cosplay outfits, one in a pink traditional-inspired costume with a decorative headpiece and holding a large umbrella, and the other in a Victorian-style dress with ruffles, showcasing intricate design details.

What’s Trending

Whenever I am at a show, I try to see what’s new and upcoming and what’s trending. Here is a list of the things I noticed at the show:

Mini, Mini, Mini — mini quilts, mini animals, everything is getting smaller
Quilted jackets and wearables
Combining different crafts such as cosplay and quilting or wool and quilting
Small handwork projects and kits everywhere — handwork is hot!
Animals — stuffed, patchwork, knitted, quilted, etc., etc.

One thing I was quite fascinated with was the use of puffy batting in machine quilted quilts on display at the Art Glass Fabric booth. Not sure if this is going to be trending or if it was just to catch attention (which it did). Have you seen or heard anything about puffy batts making a comeback?

Well, I guess that’s it for me this week. My final photo is an aerial view of Chicago and Lake Michigan as I was headed back to Pennsylvania.

Aerial view of Chicago featuring a mix of buildings, green spaces, and Lake Michigan in the background.

Take care and make time this week for some quilting. With all the inspiration from the show, I hope to get some quality time with my sewing machine, too.

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Be inspired. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD Stepped Quilt Tutorial

April 17, 2025April 16, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I’ve got a fun and happy quilt tutorial for you today – Stepped by Running Doe Quilts for Villa Rosa Designs.

But before we get into the tutorial – I have an AMAZING announcement for you!

Drum roll, please!

Cue the confetti! Or how about a balloon drop from the ceiling this time?

Our Rose Queen and owner, Pat Fryer, has done it again!

She has a new batik fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs coming this October!

It’s called Kalinda.

WOOHOO!

Here’s a sneak peak –

Kalinda is simply perfect for all your autumn projects! You can download the collection PDF with all the fabrics and skus below.

Kalinda Download

Guess what????? There will be another collectible pattern storage tin for the Kalinda collection, too! I can’t wait! I love love love my tin from Pat’s first collection, Bedazzled. I can’t wait to collect them all as she designs new collections in the future!

Mark your calendars for October – when Kalinda makes its debut. Don’t forget to ask your local quilt shop to order the collection if they haven’t already.

Now I’ve spilled the beans about Pat’s new collection, it’s time to jump into our tutorial.

VRD Stepped Quilt Tutorial

Stepped is a fun modern Rose Card pattern designed by Running Doe Quilts for Villa Rosa Designs. It is a large quilt, finishing at 66″ x 78″ and is fat quarter friendly – yay!

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

For this tutorial I chose a wonderful warm and sunny collection from our friends, Hoffman Fabrics, called Sunset Hour. I chose the bright blue as the frame and binding for a wonderful pop of color against the warm sunset tones.

As usual, the first thing I’m going to do is cut the pieces for the blocks. Since this quilt doesn’t have a border (which is common for modern quilts, by the way), we don’t have to worry about that.

I’m wondering – do you cut your borders when you cut the fabric for the blocks or do you wait until after the center of the quilt is assembled? For me, I usually cut the border strips when I cut the block fabrics, but I don’t piece and cut the borders to size until after I finish the blocks.

Oops, let me get back to the cutting. LOL!

Here are all the pieces I need to make the whole quilt top. Isn’t that blue striking?

Now we’re ready to rock and roll at the sewing machine! The Stepped block goes together really quick (of course, it’s a VRD Rose Card pattern!). I like to put the large rectangle to my left and the blue frame strip to my right so I can grab a rectangle, place a frame strip on top, and zip it through the sewing machine. Then I repeat this same step for all the blocks, using chain piecing (meaning I’m not cutting the thread between blocks as I sew).

Working with batiks is lots of fun – you don’t usually have to worry about right or wrong sides because they are dyed the whole way through.

I could just flip the frame strip over, give it a finger press, and add the 2nd frame strip on, but I want my blocks to be nice and crisp, so I’m going to head to my ironing board to press the blocks before adding the 2nd frame strip.

Now I’m ready to sew the 2nd frame strip on the side of each block. Easy piezy – just the way I like ’em!

Then it’s back to the iron to press the blocks one more time. I warn you – there are a lot of blocks! Seriously!

Next I’m heading to my flannel board, which is actually behind my pressing station, to lay out my blocks. SHHH! My flannel board is really a flannel backed tablecloth hung in front of my fabric storage wall. To hang it, I clip the tablecloth to the tops of my storage doors with big binder clips. That way, I can take it down whenever I need access to the fabric cubbies (these particular cubbies hold my yardage and fat quarters by color).

Now the fun begins. As I lay out the blocks, I’m moving them around to spread the colors and fabrics out over the whole quilt. Laying out your blocks is an important step in making a quilt because you don’t want all the same fabrics or colors clumped together in the same area by accident.

Yikes! I’m actually running out of flannel board for this quilt because it’s big, so I think I need to sew this section together before I can add the final 4 rows. Off to the sewing machine I go…..

All right, here’s the section sewn together. Sorry, just noticed in this photo, I have it turned upside down from the previous photos. Mea culpa.

Finally, I can lay out the final 4 rows and add them to the quilt top. Ugh, you can’t see the bottom section I just added because my ironing station is in the way. Did I mention this is a BIG quilt???

I know! Let’s go outside so I can show you the completed quilt top!

I LOVE the warm and sunny colors of the sunset and the blue plays nicely. I reminds me of photos of the sun setting over the ocean. I say photos as I’ve yet to actually see an ocean. Someday…….

OH! Rats!

Take a look at the bottom of the quilt, I ended up with too much light colored fabrics bunched together. This happened because I couldn’t lay out the entire quilt on my flannel board all at once before I stitched the blocks together. ARGH!

Looks like I will be doing some un-sewing with my trusty seam ripper sidekick, Jack. Then I can relocate some of those light blocks from the bottom towards the center. Sigh……definitely a project for another day. Sorry about that.

Have you ever made the Stepped quilt? If so, I’d love to see your quilts on our VRD Facebook group.

Well, that’s it for me. Have a great week! Find some time to do a little sewing this week. Or maybe some un-sewing……

Until next time –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW VRD April Rose Card Quilt Patterns and A Fabulous Catalog by our Quilting Partner, QT Fabrics

April 10, 2025April 9, 2025 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Guess what today is??? It’s the Thursday after the first Friday in April, which means………..NEW PATTERNS!

If you are a new blog follower, you might not know that at Villa Rosa Designs, we add 5-7 NEW Rose Card patterns each and every month, all year long. New monthly patterns are usually launched the first Friday of the month on VRD’s Fry-Day Live event online. You can find Fry-Day Live events HERE most Fridays at 4:00 PM Pacific Time (7 PM Eastern time).

With 5-7 new patterns every month, that adds up to between 60-84 NEW patterns every year – WOW! Then add those to our over 700 patterns already in print! It’s almost mind-boggling. We really do have something for everyone!

I know you’re anxious to see this month’s patterns, so here they are –

Collage of five new quilting pattern cards for April 2025, including Butterfield, Dakota, Havenwood, Cadott, and Turtle Soup, featuring colorful quilt designs.

Get the set of 5 print cards HERE

As usual, our talented VRD designers do not disappoint!

Butterfield is by our own Rose Queen, Pat, uses a collection of fat quarters and goes together really fast. You can find the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE. We also have Butterfield kits (includes the pattern) featuring Tim Holtz Palette Yellow fabrics.

Dakota is also by Pat and is a quick to make fat quarter quilt. You can find the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE. And we have Dakota kits (includes the pattern) featuring Victory Garden fabrics.

Havenwood, designed by Rachelle, is Jelly Roll or scrap friendly. It works up fast with your favorite quick piecing techniques. You can find the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE. We have Havenwood kits (includes the pattern) featuring the Sweet Melodies collection (below).

A colorful quilt featuring a patchwork design with various patterns and fabrics, arranged in blocks of different colors including red, blue, yellow, green, and floral prints.

Havenwood in Sweet Melodies

Cadott is also by Rachelle and is a fun modern quilt with A LOT of visual appeal. It uses yardage or your stash. You can find the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE. Sorry, no kits for this one.

Turtle Soup by Heidi features a theme fabric or border stripe – and what a fun name! You can find the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE. Sorry, the kits are already sold out.

But Wait………there’s more! (Tehehe, you know how much I love writing this.)

Our NEW April Table Runner (by moi) is called Window Boxes. You can use panel squares or fat quarters for this pretty runner pattern.

Cover of the quilt pattern 'Window Boxes' featuring a quilt with hexagonal shapes in yellow, turquoise, and pink fabrics, surrounded by floral prints, set against a peach background.

Get the Digital pattern HERE or the Print pattern HERE.

That’s it for the new patterns this month. Which one are you going to make first??? I can’t wait to see your April projects on our VRD Facebook Group.

Now let me tell you about QT Fabrics and VRD.

Quilting Partner – QT Fabrics

As many of you already know, Villa Rosa Designs has made lots of connections with other companies in the quilting industry in recent years. We call them our Quilting Partners. You can find our Quilting Partners over on the right side of the blog towards the top.

Are you familiar with our pals over at QT Fabrics? They are an employee-owned and operated company and have been in business for a long time. You can find QT fabrics at your local quilt shop AND you can check out VRD’s QT Fabric offerings on our website HERE.

We’ve been partnering with QT Fabrics for a while now and I’m really excited to share with you their recent publication featuring our Rose Card patterns and QT’s newest fabric collections, which will be out in quilt shops this Fall. Aren’t you the lucky ones to get a sneak peak???

Here’s the PDF version of the wonderful catalog that QT put together featuring ALL VRD Rose Card patterns paired with their new 2025 Summer Collection, which will available this fall.

I definitely have some of these on my to-do and look forward to sharing new tutorials here on the blog featuring some of these fun designs and fabrics. Woohoo!

VillaRosa_Friends_QTINK_Summer25Flip-1 Download

If you’d rather check out the really cool digital Flipbook version, you can find it HERE.

I hope you found a lot of inspiration in this catalog – maybe some new-to-you patterns and/or great upcoming fabric collections. If you see a collection you love, ask for it at your local quilt shop – the fabrics will be available this fall. All of the featured patterns in the catalog are available on our website, villarosadesigns.com.

Well, that’s it for me. Take care and do something fun this week.

Until next time –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

NEW March VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns and Lucky, a Quilt Tutorial for St. Patrick’s Day

March 13, 2025March 12, 2025 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I trust you’re all having fun with your Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) practice. We’re going to take a quick break from our Beginner FMQ series this week because I have NEW March patterns to share as well as a fun table runner tutorial just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. We’re all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, right?

NEW March VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns

Here are the new patterns for March – be prepared to be inspired….

Get the print set of all 5 patterns HERE.

The 5 main patterns are great, aren’t they?

Molly created a brand new St. Patrick’s Day throw-sized quilt called Clover Patch. I just love that she added a single Four Leaf clover to her quilt – can you find it in the Clover Patch?

Molly also created a second pattern this month called Jackknife. This clever block uses long quarters instead of fat quarters. We still have a few kits left, too, if you’re interested.

Get your Jackknife kit in Art Glass AbstrArt HERE.

Heidi wows with her new 24″ panel quilt pattern, Jerky. If you don’t already know, Heidi always gives her patterns a foodie name because she loves to cook.

Rachelle created a new modern pattern called Kenosha. I love the secondary design that happens in this striking quilt pattern.

Pat, our Rose Queen, has another fun and fast throw sized pattern for you called Zamora. If you didn’t know, Pat always names her quilts after a rose. Yep, Zamora is the name of a rose. Zamora only uses three main fabrics plus a binding fabric. Sew easy piezy. We still have a few Zamora kits left, too.

Get your Zamora in Indelible kit HERE.

We also have a new table runner pattern this month called Erin.

Get your digital Erin pattern HERE or your print Erin pattern HERE.

I’ve always wanted to make a green and white Double Irish chain for St. Patrick’s Day. I can now check that off my bucket list. The Double Irish chain looks complicated, but I promise you, it really isn’t when you break it down. Give it a try.

I guess I should have done a tutorial for today with Erin, but I’d already gotten Lucky stepped out and photographed before I even designed Erin. I’m sure I’ll do a tutorial for Erin sometime in the future – you’ll just have to stay tuned.

That being said, let’s move right along to our Lucky tutorial.

VRD Lucky Quilt Runner Tutorial

The first thing we’re going to do is gather up our fabrics.

I’m using a beautiful Hoffman batik collection called Forest Floor. Don’t you just love the greens? With a pop of orange? Love Love Love it!

The first photo shows the background and the greens for the blocks. The second photo shows the border and binding.

Grab your rotary cutter, board, and ruler and let’s start cutting out our pieces!

Now that our pieces are all cut out, let’s start sewing!

Layer a background square right sides together on the corner of a Clover square and draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. I love my Frixion Fineliner pens and my 1×6 little ruler for making my flippy corners and HSTs right at my sewing machine. What are your favorite tools for making yours?

Next we’re going to sew on the drawn line.

Let’s cut 1/4″ away from our drawn line. Did you knou can use these little cut off triangles for a scrappy little project? I’ve been saving mine for a long time, and have even started sewing them into HSTs, but I haven’t started making anything with them yet.

TIP: You might notice in the photo below that my seam is slightly to the right of the drawn line. This is actually on purpose because it gives a bit more room for the seam and my flippy corners are more precise. I learned this little trick from my quilty pal, Mary Lee. THANK YOU, Mary Lee!

Don’t forget to press that flippy corner open.

We’re not done yet! Go ahead and make flippy corners on 2 more corners of the Clover square.

Okay, now we’re talking! Let’s repeat these 3 flippy corners for the rest of the Clover squares while we’re at it.

Finally it’s time to make a Clover block. Yeah! Sew 4 matching Clover squares together with the 4th unpieced corners towards the center so they all meet for the middle of the Clover block. Such a pretty block!

Repeat to make a total of 4 Clover blocks. Don’t you just love that pop of orange???

The next thing we need to do is sew the 4 Clover blocks together with background strips in between the blocks and at each end.

Then we’re going to add top and bottom background borders. Lookin’ good!

Now it’s time to add the side outer borders and then the top and bottom outer borders. And DONE!

Yay! All that is left to do is layer it with batting and backing, quilt it, bind it, and label it.

I hope you enjoyed the Lucky runner tutorial and are super inspired by the new March patterns. Next week we are going to wrap up our Beginner Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) series by addressing borders.

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD 2M Junior Quilt Tutorial Featuring Pat Fryer’s New Fabric Collection, Bedazzled!

February 6, 2025February 5, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s OFFICIAL! Throw the confetti! Toot your party horns! YEAH!

Pat’s NEW fabric collection for Riley Blake Designs, BEDAZZLED!, is finally here and we are all SEW excited!

To celebrate Pat’s new fabric collection, I’m sharing another great tutorial with you this week – 2M Junior.

Next week, we’ll dive right back into the Free Motion Quilting Series, I promise.

VRD 2M Junior Quilt Tutorial

2M Junior is the little brother of 2M. Junior has the same block, only it’s a bit smaller so the quilt finishes as a throw quilt instead of a big bed-sized quilt like big brother 2M. It also uses a different block configuration, which gives it its own personality.

For the pattern cover quilt, I actually used samples of Bedazzled! and, boy, does it sparkle. And I mean that both figuratively and literally – don’t forget that Bedazzled! features glitter and glam. OHHHHH, SHINY!

Here’s another photo I took of 2M Junior.

Get your digital Junior HERE or print Junior HERE

I’m happy to say we have some kits made up for 2M Junior featuring Bedazzled! You can get your Bedazzled! 2M Junior kit HERE.

OH! I can’t forget big brother 2M, can I?

You may already know the story, but let me share it again. I designed 2M for my youngest niece, Morgan, as her high school graduation quilt. She asked for something modern. Yes, she loved it (and still does).

You can get your digital 2M pattern HERE or your print 2M pattern HERE

If you enjoyed the Baby Zip Tease tutorial last week also featuring Pat’s Bedazzled! collection, we now have kits for it, too. You can get your Baby Zip Tease kit HERE.

All right, back to our previously scheduled programming….2M Junior. Tehehe….

First thing we always do is gather up our fabrics for the project. The 2 teal batiks are from Riley Blake’s Expressions basics. And the fat quarters are, of course, from Pat’s Bedazzled! collection. Simply scrumptious, aren’t they???

Once I’ve gathered up my fabrics, I like to cut all the pieces out for the quilt before I begin sewing. Do you do that or do you cut your pieces as you go?

Okay, now we’re ready to sew!

Let’s add a background rectangle to the left side of a block center.

Next we need to sew a background rectangle to the top of the unit.

Then we’re going to sew accent strips to the sides and then to the top and bottom of the unit.

Now we are going to sew a background rectangle to the smaller block center rectangle and sew it to the bottom of the unit.

The next step is to sew another background rectangle to the longer block center rectangle and then sew it to the right side of the block. Our first block is done!

Easy Piezy, right? Now repeat to make the rest of the quilt blocks.

We’re going to lay out the blocks and move them around until we’re happy with how things look.

Warning – sometimes this step takes longer than actually making the quilt top (especially if it’s a VRD Rose Card pattern – they’re fast and fun, you know!). Yikes!

Okay, I like how the fabrics are distributed around the quilt now, so I’m going with this arrangement. Don’t you just love how the squares and boxes tumble down the quilt?

Hurry! Let’s sew the blocks together and then sew the rows together before any furry helpers make an appearance and rearrange the blocks when I blink.

And – guess what????? No borders on this one! Yippee!

It is my humble opinion that not all quilts need borders. What are your thoughts on borders?

Here’s another photo of the 2M Junior quilt top. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Now the top is finished, it’s time to layer it with batting and backing (or fleece for a cozy back). Quilt it. And please, don’t forget your quilt label! DONE!

Need a little help with batting, backing, and layering everything together? VRD to the rescue! Check out this post from our Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners series, Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners: Batting, Backing, and Preparing a Quilt for Quilting. You can find all the lessons in the Beginner series over to the right of the blog, under the Blog Topics Heading or down further as a heading with the lessons listed below.

Once everything is layered together, then it’s time to quilt! Yay! And we are right in the middle of a new series for 2025 — Free Motion Quilting. Lucky You!

We interrupted the series for a couple weeks to celebrate Pat’s new collection with a few new tutorials, but next week, we’ll be moving on to Lesson 3 in the FMQ series.

If you missed the first couple FMQ lessons, you can find them below:

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

You can also find the different series we’ve done over on the right side of the blog, farther down, each under its own heading. Have fun checking them out!

Bedazzled! Update

Since last week’s post, we’ve added some more fun Bedazzled stuff to the shop (physical and online). Here’s the 411 –

Fat Quarter and Half Yard Bundles!

This group of 9 is called Lilac Mint

9 Fat Quarters HERE or 9 Half Yards HERE

This group of 8 is called Prismatic Bliss

8 fat quarters HERE or 8 half yards HERE

This group of 9 is called Stardust Splash

9 fat quarters HERE or 9 half yards HERE

BUT WAIT! There’s MORE!

We do have a few more kits available besides 2M Junior and Baby Zip Tease.

San Julian (light) kit HERE

San Julian (black) kit HERE

And here’s the San Julian Rose Card pattern. Please note that the pattern comes in each kit, so you don’t need to order it separately. I’m adding the links below, though, in case someone needs it by itself.

Get your digital San Julian pattern HERE or your print San Julian pattern HERE

You can find all the precuts, yardage, fat quarter bundles, kits, and the exclusive Bedazzled! Rose Card storage tin HERE.

And this is the Bedazzled Rose Card pattern that inspired the whole Bedazzled! collection.

Get the digital Bedazzled pattern HERE or the print Bedazzled pattern HERE

Whew! That was a lot today, wasn’t it? Thanks for celebrating Pat’s new fabric collection, Bedazzled!, with us here on the blog. I can’t wait to see your new Bedazzled! quilts on the VRD Facebook page soon.

Well, that’s it for me today. Remember, next week we’re jumping back into our Free Motion Quilting series.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

Pat’s VRD Bedazzled Fabric Collection for Riley Blake Designs is HERE and VRD Baby Zip Tease Quilt Tutorial

January 30, 2025January 29, 2025 rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Pat’s new fabric collection for Riley Blake Designs, BEDAZZLED!, is finally here!!!

I’m so sorry, but I have to pause our new Free Motion Quilting series so I can celebrate Pat’s new collection. I promise to continue our FMQ series in a couple weeks because I have 2 new tutorials to share, featuring Pat’s Bedazzled! collection.

Here she is – Pat Fryer, owner and Rose Queen of Villa Rosa Designs and designer for Riley Blake Designs

Bedazzled

A yummy color-drenched batik collection with glitter accents because one can never have enough glitter!

Get the 5″ Stacker HERE

Get the 10″ Stacker HERE

Get the 2.5″ Rolie Polie HERE

Or you can find the Bedazzled fabric by the yard HERE

Although they aren’t ready yet, soon we will have kits for Baby Zip Tease in Bedazzled!, so check back soon. I’ll add the link HERE just as soon as it’s available.

BUT WAIT! There’s MORE!

There is one more piece to the collection – a one of a kind Bedazzled tin just the right size to store your VRD patterns! I’m not sure how many patterns it holds yet because I haven’t received my tin yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I find out. There’s no question about how to store your VRD Rose Card patterns now. Get yours ASAP, because I know they’ll sell out quickly.

Get the Bedazzled tin HERE

To celebrate Pat’s new fabric collection, here is the 1st of 2 new tutorials just for you!

VRD Baby Zip Tease Quilt Tutorial

Baby Zip Tease is a really fun and fast pattern that finishes 36″ x 38″, which is a nice size for a wall quilt or a baby quilt.

Get Baby Zip Tease digital HERE or print HERE

PSST! If you like Baby Zip Tease, you’ll love Zip Tease, which is a throw-sized version.

Get Zip Tease digital HERE or print HERE

I was at my pal, Robin’s house (Hi Robin!) the day I created this tutorial. We have sew days as frequently as we can. Robin has a lovely sewing room upstairs in her farmhouse with room for at least 2 people to sew.

In fact, I leave one of my sewing machines there all the time so I don’t have to drag one back and forth. Her husband, Rich (Hey Rich!), threatens to charge me rent. LOL!

Robin and her big kitty boy, Tigger. Tigger has a very important job — to hold down any project Robin tries to work on! LOL! Anyone else have one of these special furry helpers?

So let’s get started with our Baby Zip Tease tutorial!

Of course, the first thing we need to do is gather up our fabrics and cut what we need for the project. I’m using a 5″ stacker from Pat’s new Bedazzled! collection and a yummy Riley Blake Designs Expressions Batik basic.

Let’s make some Half Square Triangles (HSTs).

Photo 1: Layer a print square right sides together (RST) with a background square. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner.

Photo 2 and 3: Sew 1/4″ away from both sides of the line.

Photo 4: Cut apart on the drawn line.

Photo 5 and 6: Press open to make 2 HSTs.

Don’t stop now, go ahead and make the rest of the HSTs .

Square up and trim your HSTs. Cut off all the little “dog ears.”

At this point, you can sew your HSTs into rows and then sew the rows together. But where’s the fun in that???

I wanted to make sure the colors and fabrics were spread evenly throughout the quilt, so I put the HSTs up on Robin’s flannel wall and spent some time moving HSTs around to distribute colors and patterns. Argh! Sometimes this part of the process takes the most time.

This was actually a very important step for me because I kept turning the HSTs the wrong way. This was certainly one quilt project that being left-handed made more difficult. Of course, Robin pretty much just laughed at me every time I had to rotate a block in 90 degree increments until I got it going the right way. SHEESH!

Once I was happy with how it looked, it was time to sew the HSTs into rows. Finally!

Sigh…….I can’t tell you how many times I ended up turning a block on my way to the sewing machine. Time to unsew…….

What’s your favorite seam ripper? Mine is the Clover Ergonomic Seam Ripper seen in the photo below, but have you seen Clover’s latest seam ripper?

I just ordered one and I’ll let you know what I think after I try it out. If it’s as good as the one I already have, I’ll probably love it. Just sayin’……

Got that flipped HSTs fixed and survived sewing the blocks into rows – barely! Now it’s time to sew the rows together.

I’m really liking the cool zig zag effect! Let’s keep sewing those rows together! We are making progress!

YAY! Quilt top finished! Woohoo!

Now you get a chance to see how the fabrics of Bedazzled! play together. Aren’t they really great with the dramatic purple background fabric?

Next week I’ll have another Bedazzled quilt tutorial for you. The week after that we’ll continue on with our FMQ series. So please stay tuned!

Be sure to tune into our Fry-Day Live Sale tomorrow for more information and a closer look at the Bedazzled collection. You can find the Live Sale HERE on Fry-Day from 7-8 PM EST. You can also find the Live Sale on Facebook HERE.

See you there!

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

A January Top A Long with VRD’s Running Doe Quilts and The 12 Quilts of Christmas Quilts

December 19, 2024December 18, 2024 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Are you ready for the upcoming holidays? I certainly am NOT! As of writing this post, I’ve yet to get my tree decorated. My cookies are not baked. And I’m hoping the gifts will magically wrap themselves. And maybe the cleaning fairy will have a little time to stop over during the night and do a tidy up? Funny enough, though, everything seems to get done just in time, even if I have to forgo some sleep to get there. How do you get everything done? Thank you, any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve got an exciting event coming in January for you!

One of our VRD designers, Catherine @ Running Doe Quilts, is starting another Top A Long in January 2025 and it will go for six months.

If you plan to make a New Year’s Resolution (or a goal in my case) of busting your scrap stash, you will want to sign up for Catherine’s Top Along, which features some of her VRD Rose Card patterns. It’s a great way to get in some sewing in the New Year, hang out with other quilters in the Facebook group, and use up some of that stash. It’s a win-win-win situation!

This is such a great idea to get us motivated for winter sewing, isn’t it?

You can go HERE to sign up for the Top A Long.

I thought about doing a curated list of Holiday patterns for this post, too, but when I looked back, I saw I did that in 2022. Yep, we’ve added a lot of new patterns since then, but instead of doing that topic again so soon, I decided that I wanted to show you ALL 12 of our 12 Quilts of Christmas patterns. You can get the whole collection of 12 print patterns HERE or you can get them individually as either digital or print patterns.

The 12 Quilts of Christmas

Get your Baking Day digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Chili digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Color Mittens digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Dinner Party digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Gerome digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Get your Gifted digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Gnomie digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Homecoming digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Hot Cocoa digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Into the Trees digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Poinsettia digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Get your Wreathed digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE

Recently on Facebook, we did the 12 Days of Christmas and offered a kit for each of the patterns, a new one each day. We do have some of the kits still available, but in limited quantities, so get yours now before they’re gone!

Baking Day in Kaffe kit HERE

Chili with Red Nose Kit HERE

Color Mittens in Brights Kit HERE

Dinner Party Place Mat Kit HERE

Gerome Kit, makes 2 blocks, HERE

Gifted in Klimt kit HERE

Gnomie Kit, makes 2 blocks, HERE

Homecoming Kit HERE

Hot Cocoa Kit HERE

Into the Trees Kit HERE

Wreathed Kit HERE

Here’s hoping your holidays are merry and bright and filled with lots of love and laughter.

Happy Holly Jolly Holidays to you and yours from all of us here at Villa Rosa Designs.

Until next time —

Sew. Laugh. Celebrate. 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

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So cute. Thanks for sharing.