Category: Quilting Partners

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

VRD Pacific Grove Quilt Tutorial and Getting Ready for Our Villa Rosa Blog Hop

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Mother Nature sure has been trying hard to confuse us up here in NW Pennsylvania! We’ve had temps in the 60’s! Can you believe it? I wouldn’t, except I’ve been reading the temp on the thermometer. Yesterday, I even had peepers (tree frogs) on my basement window in the rain. This is WAY too early for the little dears to be awake! I’m wondering what Mother Nature has in store for us in March and April. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have snow in June?!?

I’ve been on a quilting roll since my curated list of Spring VRD Rose Card patterns a couple weeks ago (you can find the post HERE if you missed it). So I wanted to do another tutorial this week. I reached into my magic project crate and pulled out Pacific Grove.

But first, let’s chat about the upcoming Blog Hop!

Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop March 14-21

Well, it’s now officially 2 weeks until our VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop, which kicks off right here on March 14th. I hope you’re getting excited about it.

Prizes keep coming in — it’s like Christmas around here! Except it’s not for me at all, instead — it’s ALL FOR YOU.

So far we have 2 AWESOME Grand Prizes lined up. Nope, I’m not going to show them to you yet. You’ll have to wait until March 14th for our Blog Hop kickoff post. Everything will be explained at that time, I promise.

We now have 26 bloggers participating in the Hop. And who knows? Maybe more if anyone comes late to the party.

We’ve also got the most fantastic and generous Sponsors for the event — Hoffman, Moda, Jaftex, Timeless Treasures, Electric Quilt, Banyan Batiks, C&T Publishing, Hancock’s of Paducah, and Fox Chapel/Landauer.

So, are you excited yet???

Remember, the fun begins March 14th right here on the Villa Rosa blog. So make sure you stop by and hop along with us for the week.

Okay, now let’s get to the quilt tutorial!

VRD Pacific Grove Quilt Tutorial

I’ve been wanting a reason to make Pacific Grove for a while now. I’ve always thought the quilt on the cover of the pattern looked like a work of art. What do you think? Wouldn’t it look amazing framed and hung on a wall? On my wall???

Finally, today is the day to finally make my very own Pacific Grove work of art.

Get your own Pacific Grove physical pattern HERE or a digital pattern HERE.

I’m using some gorgeous fabrics from the Wildflowers Spectrum Digital Print collection by Hoffman. Did you know Hoffman did digital prints in addition to their amazing batiks?

Special thanks to Hoffman for providing the fabrics for this tutorial.

Before we get started, I do want to say that digital prints can be a little finicky so it’s important to start with a new sharp needle in your machine. If you use pins when you sew, make sure they’re sharp. Why? Because you don’t want to break any threads. Take a look at this photo. Do you see area inside the red circle? See the 2 broken threads? You don’t want this to happen to your quilt because it will probably be visible on the front, not just on the back. Lucky for me, this was in the seam allowance. Whew!

So, let’s get start by cutting the main print and the background fabric. I kind of don’t want to cut this lovely fabric up, but I know it will look fabulous in the Pacific Grove pattern.

Now that the pieces are cut and ready to sew, it’s time to assemble 2 side units. Easy piezy!

Next up is putting together the center of the quilt. I really like how this quilt is coming together into vertical rows. That makes it really simple to put together. And I’m not having to match up a bunch of seams. Yay!

Now that the sides and the center are made, I’m going to work on the purple background strips. Here you can see in the first photo how I creased the center of the side strip and the center of the sashing strip. Then I matched those creased centers and put a pin right there. After I found the centers, I went to the outside edges and lined them up. You’ll see in the second photo that not only do I place a vertical pin, I also place an horizontal pin . That horizontal pin helps to keep my strips straight instead of bowing as I sew (I learned this little trick a long time ago from a quilter friend when I was a new quilter). After the center and the outsides are pinned, I always add a few more pins in between to keep everything from shifting when I sew.

Yay! Here you can see the design taking shape now that I’ve sewed the purple strips to the sides of the quilt center.

Next I’m gong to sew the side units to the center. Again, I will crease and match my centers. I think it’s looking really lovely with these digital prints.

Time to add purple background strips to the sides. It has a bit of an Art Deco feel to it, doesn’t it? Or maybe a stained glass window?

Time to sew background strips to the top and bottom of the quilt. Isn’t it looking amazing???

The borders are next up. What’s cool about this pattern is that you add the top and bottom borders on first before the side borders. When I did the purple strips, I added the sides first. But it does make sense to do it this way because it uses the fabric more efficiently — you don’t have to piece the top and bottom borders if you add them first. Ingenious!

Here is the finished quilt top. It looks like an Art Deco stained glass window garden to me!

With so much open space, I’m just itching to starting machine quilting it, but that will have to wait for a while, I’m afraid.

Duet Quilt Tutorial Update

Last week I was debating whether to add a border or not to my Duet quilt top. Then I took a deep breath and just added that outer border. I chose a light batik because Duet felt a bit dark to me. The binding will frame it all nicely — it’s dark blue.

TWO WEEKS TO GO AND COUNTING DOWN……..until the Blog Hop. Get ready.

Take care and Happy Quilting.

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW February VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns and My Quilts of Valor National Sew Day Experience

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Here in NW PA, things are looking like spring! Punxatawney Phil (the Groundhog) did not see his shadow on February 2nd, which (hopefully) means an early spring. I started seeing some signs of spring even before Groundhog Day — on January 31st, I saw a groundhog awake and out of its hole. Next we started seeing some of our spring birds returning — starlings and bluebirds. We haven’t seen any robins in our yard yet, but other folks in our area have already seen them. Yes, we’ll probably see more snow before spring is completely sprung, but in the meantime I will enjoy winter days filled with sun and warmer temperatures.

Photo by Marian Brandt on Unsplash

Of course, true to living in NW PA, we did have a few weeks of very cold and snowy weather, but right now, we are enjoying the lack of snow and the sunshine with daytime temperatures in the 40’s with a few 50’s thrown in just to tease us. I hope you are just as fortunate as I am in the weather department right now. With all the sun, though, I am wanting to be outside to enjoy it, not down in my dungeon studio/office. Oh, the conundrums of nice weather……

On another note, do you know what day it is today??? It’s the first Thursday after the first Friday of the month which means NEW VRD Rose Card Patterns for February!

NEW VRD February Rose Card Patterns

YAY! Who doesn’t love NEW PATTERNS? Especially new patterns EVERY MONTH? And we’ve got some great new ones just for you this month, including several from our new designers Rachelle Handmade and Creative Sewlutions.

You can grab your set of February Rose Cards HERE for the special price of $8.95.

We also have 2 — count ’em — 2 table runners this month! One from Rachelle Handmade and one from yours truly.

Get your own Baraboo HERE.

Get your own Candy & Flowers HERE.

What a great collection of patterns, don’t you think? Lots of variety AND different styles to appeal to just about every quilter. Which one are you going to make first this month?

Quilts of Valor National Sewing Day

As I mentioned last week, I had signed up to attend my local QOV group, PA Stitcher’s of Valor’s National Sew Day event. Our event was actually 2 days, Friday and Saturday, instead of just Saturday. This meant we could get even more sewing in. But with 2 days of sewing, I still didn’t get my project completely finished. I should have looked over the pattern a little bit more and pre-made my almost 200 Half Square Triangles (HSTs) before the actual sew days. Then I probably could have gotten my project finished. Hey, I was just pleased that I got all the pieces cut out. And I did get the 12 blocks sewn together, so now all I have to do is sew the blocks together and add the 2 borders.

I pretty much spent the first day just making HSTs. My cuz and pal, Robin and I switched projects for a while that first day because her machine was giving her some issues and she was having a hard time sewing her blocks together (Yes, Robin made her quilt blocks ahead of time. Good thinking, Robin!). So she worked on my HSTs while I sewed her blocks together. Group effort, definitely! Robin’s top was finished the first sewing day. 

Here’s Robin’s top. Very patriotic, isn’t it? 

OH NO! I think I switched blocks in the upper right corner….do you think it looks weird???

Here I am with my “cuz crew” — Kim (left front), Lisa (left back), and Robin (right back) laughing and sewing the day away! I am the person on the right in the front — you know, the one with all the mess. LOL! That’s just how I roll, I guess.

Here’s Kim sewing her big HSTs while Lisa is reading her pattern.

Here I am (front) with Robin (back) sewing happily along while we chat and laugh. You can see my cute little gnome sewing buddy on the table beside my machine. Notice my mess isn’t too bad as this was taken on the first day and the photo above was from Saturday (insert eye roll here).

We had a total of 60 quilters in 2 locations over 2 day! Some of the sewers were able to get a project finished, or brought ones to donate that they had already finished. Here are some of the gorgeous quilts and tops turned in over the weekend.

Hats off to Collene, our fearless leader for PA Stitchers, who organized such an amazing sewing event! Lunch was donated both days and there was plenty of snacks to keep us going at full speed. One of the things I loved the best about the event was lending a hand to each other when we needed some help. It wasn’t a race and there was always time to take a break and wander around, seeing what each other were working on. I am smiling while I think about the experience. I look forward to doing it again soon. 

Our local PA Stitchers group meets once a month to work on quilts for QOV. Such a worthy cause — I’m so glad I have skills that can help others. Please contact your local QOV group and get involved — there are so many veterans and active military personnel who need to be covered by a special quilt. So get involved!

And don’t forget to grab your own set of our brand new 12 Quilts of Valor collection HERE. These 12 quilts will give a lot of different options for making your Quilts of Valor quilts, including multiple options for your patriotic panels! All the patterns fit the size requirements for a QOV quilt and a portion of the sales will be donated to the QOVF.

Well, I think that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed the quilt photos from our National Sew Day weekend for QOV. Don’t forget to find your local organization and get involved.

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

VRD Corners Quilt Tutorial

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope you are all staying warm and cozy, holed up in your sewing room making beautiful quilts! I am happy to say that I’ve been able to get some quilting in since the beginning of the year and thought I’d share a fun tutorial for a terrific small quilt, perfect as a baby quilt.

But before I get started with the actual tutorial, let me share a little bit about one of my favorite things about my job in the quilt industry. I actually wear many hats (don’t we all?) and one of the coolest ones is making sample quilts for fabric companies. Recently I whipped up this adorable Corners quilt featuring the Love and Learning collection by Hoffman. It’s a really sweet collection featuring a charming alphabet panel in your choice of light or dark background. I saw that darling collection and immediately thought it would look great in Molly Cook’s Corners Rose Card pattern.

Here is what the quilt looked like as a digital image before I actually made it:

Don’t you just love it? Yes, it has a little bit of pink in it, but don’t you think it would work for a boy or a girl? I do!

Anyway, I made a sample of this quilt for Hoffman and as I made it, I photographed the steps so I could create a new tutorial for the blog just for you, our loyal readers.

Do you have Molly’s Corners pattern yet? If not, you can get it as a physical pattern HERE or as a digital pattern HERE.

Let’s get started on our first quilt tutorial for 2024! Yay!

VRD Corners Quilt Tutorial

So the first thing you need to do is gather up your fabrics and your pattern. The first image shows the alphabet panel, the second image is the background and coordinates, and the last photo shows the binding, backing, and accent fabrics. Oh what fun!

After you’ve got your supplies together, then it’s time to cut each alphabet letter out of the panel one at a time. I don’t know if you can see in the first photo above, but each letter includes an item that begins with the specific letter as well as the item’s name. 

Time to cut! I used a square ruler the size of the square called for in the pattern (or at least I thought I was). That way all I had to do was center each design and cut around all four sides of the ruler. Unfortunately the letters in the last row of the panel were wider than the rest and I ended up having to cut some of the designs a bit, but made sure the letter was not cut off.

OOPS! Then I realized my ruler wasn’t the right size. Luckily it was a bit bigger, so I could trim those squares down to the correct size.

Whew! Done with trimming down 26 squares. That took me a little while. Make sure you cut your squares to the correct size the first time!

Moving on……….

Next it’s time cut a bunch of strips and sew them together before we cut the units for the half frames. Sewing long strips together is not one of my personal favorite things to do. What’s your least favorite part of quilting?

Okay, the strips are sewn into pairs with a background strip sewn to a colored strip. Next let’s cut all of the units out of the strip sets. To create the corner unit for the block, you will have to sew a rectangle to the squares as in the second photo.

All right, now the hard part — to achieve the same layout as Molly’s sample quilt on the front of the pattern (see above), we will be making 4 versions of the same block.

For most of you, this won’t seem like a big deal, but there will be a few quilters who have trouble getting the right block orientation. Well, I am included in this group, definitely. Blame it on being a lefty for me. 

I strongly urge you to use some kind of flannel board. Make one block at a time and place them in their proper order on your flannel board so you can more easily see the orientation of each block as you sew them together. 

I did try sewing a group of blocks together using my usual speed sewing method, but that ended up being a disaster. I had to do a lot of ripping out and rearranging the pieces of my blocks. So, after that, I made one block at a time.

Once I had all my blocks up on my flannel board and double checked their orientation, I started sewing the blocks into rows and then sewed the rows together into the quilt center. I was holding my breath the whole time………

Once I knew I had conquered the center, it was time to add borders. I added the side borders first and then sewed the top and bottom borders on last.

Woohoo! The top is done! Time to layer, machine quilt, do binding, and add a label. Oh! My last thing to do will be shipping the quilt to where it needs to go. It will come back eventually…………

Have you made the Corners quilt before? Do you have any tips to share?

Update on Decluttering

Before I go, I wanted to give a little update on my decluttering project. I started with my cutting table first. Lately it’s been more of a storage surface than a cutting surface. 

Holy moly! I found several groupings of fabrics paired with patterns as well as yardage and stacks of fat quarters. Some loose patterns, too. Ugh! Now I have to put the fabrics away and figure out where to house the projects. Decisions, decisions! This is why I avoid decluttering — I have way too much stuff and not enough space. 

I need to start pulling stuff out I don’t love anymore and finding it all new homes. Time to start purging my stash or I will never ever find an organization system that works for me because you can only stack so many plastic crates. Well, I’m going to keep plugging away, so stop in next week to see what else I’ve accomplished.

Sew. Laugh. Purge. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW January 2024 Villa Rosa Rose Card Quilt Patterns and Quilting Together

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope January is off to a good start for you. I’ll bet you have some great quilting plans for this year. Me too! In fact, I am already getting started on some. Yay!

What about New Year’s Resolutions? Do you make any? If you do, how hard is it for you to keep them? 

I don’t really make “Resolutions” anymore because they’ve always been so specific and of course, that just set myself up for failure — sigh…….I guess I’m just not disciplined enough. So, instead of Resolutions, I make “Goals” for the New Year. The great thing about Goals over Resolutions for me is that my goals are not carved in stone and can change over time, can become completely irrelevant, or even get carried over into the next year. Know what I mean?

That being said, here are my Goals so far for the New Year:

  • Eat more healthfully and get more active
  • De-clutter, downsize, and organize
  • Finish more projects
  • Use my stash more efficiently
  • Save more money
  • Stick to a regular daily work schedule
  • Find more time for creativity
  • Change what I can and accept what I cannot change
  • Be kind

I find that if I actually write my Goals down and review them once in a while, then I am more likely to accomplish them, or at least break them down into smaller steps so I am working my way towards the finish line. I keep a list of my Goals (written in pencil) in the front of my yearly planner. Sometimes I add more Goals throughout the year, change a Goal completely or even erase it if it no longer makes sense to me. Basically, I think it really all boils down to beginning and maintaining new habits.

Speaking of the New Year, it’s the Thursday after the first Friday of the month, which means NEW Rose Card Quilt Patterns! Yay!

January 2024 VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns

January’s patterns are awesome, aren’t they? Lucky you, you can get the set of 5 patterns for the special price of $8.95 HERE.

Please join me in warmly welcoming our newest designers, Rachelle of Rachelle Handmade and Deanne of Creative Sewlutions! Welcome Rachelle and Deanne! Hopefully soon, we’ll have Designer Spotlights here on the blog so everyone can get to know the two of you better. 

Yep, there’s a new table runner pattern for Janaury, too. It’s called Snowberry and you can get it HERE.

Did you know you can get the New Rose Card patterns delivered right to you mailbox every month? You can sign up to get just the 5 monthly patterns HERE or you can get the 5 monthly patterns plus table runner(s) HERE.

But wait — there’s MORE!

If you missed last week’s blog post, I debuted our very special NEW Collection of patterns in partnership with the Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOVF). The collection features 12 Rose Card patterns that meet the size requirements for a QOV quilt. And of course, they are FAST and FUN patterns! 

You can get the collection of 12 QOV patterns for the amazing price of $14.95 HERE. AND, a portion of the sales will be donated to the QOVF. It’s a win-win-win for you, for the QOVF, and for Villa Rosa Designs! 

This collection of QOV patterns is sew inspiring that I challenge you to get together with a group of your quilty pals and make some quilts to donate to your local QOV organization. You can check HERE to find your closest QOV chapter. Maybe you’ll join and support the QOVF’s mission to get quilts into the hands of veterans and active service members.

Quilting Together

I know I’ve talked about getting together with your quilt posse before, but with a brand new year, it’s time to make some plans to quilt together. Quilting together is not a new idea at all, our grandmothers and their grandmothers gathered together to make quilts as well as to work on hand-sewing projects. Quilting circles were very popular during the Civil War, while women and girls did their part for the war effort by sewing for the soldiers, often their fathers and sons, neighbors and friends. My point is that quilting together is an important part of quilting and sewing and has been for generations.

This vintage photo shows a group of women hand-quilting a Double Wedding Ring quilt in the 1930’s or 1940’s. See the young lady at the end on the left, she’s a lefty like me. Just sayin’!

Here are some great benefits we get when we quilt together:

  • Social Connection, Community, and Friendship
  • Sharing and Collaboration
  • Learning New Skills
  • Improving Existing Skills
  • Teaching Others
  • Self Esteem and Confidence
  • Stress Relief and Relaxation (for some quilters, anyway)

Quilt Guilds are a continuation of the quilting bees and sewing circles of the past. I’ve been a member of the Free Spirit Quilters for quite some time now. And I know I’ve talked about my Friday Quilt Class/Group here on the blog before and how important those ladies are to me. Additionally, I have several friends (yes, I have friends [eye roll here]) with whom I get together to sew. It might be hand-sewing hexies while watching tennis or mysteries on TV or sewing all day in a friend’s newly set-up quilt room. And as part of my decluttering, downsizing, and organizing goal, I hope to get a second workspace set up in my studio so I can have a friend over to quilt with me in my space, too.

When I was a Girl Scout a long time ago, I can remember singing the song “The More We Get Together.” Do you remember this song? 

The more we get together,

Together, together,

The more we get together,

The happier we’ll be.

For your friends are my friends

And my friends are your friends.

The more we get together,

The happier we’ll be.

Written by Irving King

This is Quilting to me.

Sew. Laugh. Quilt Together. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

The 12 Quilts of Valor VRD Rose Card Pattern Collection

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Image by starline on Freepik

I hope your New Year is off to a great start! I’m excited about all the cool stuff we’ve got planned for Villa Rosa Designs for 2024. All you need to do is stay tuned here on the blog. :)

Last week we wrapped up our 5 week December Accessory Sew Along (SAL). I hope you enjoyed the series, even if you didn’t get a chance to make your projects yet. As promised, I added links to the SAL along the right side of the blog along with a link to the collection. You can find the December SAL section right under our Quilting Partners. Now you can participate in the 2023 December SAL whenever it works for you. I hope you do because the projects are fast and lots of fun. Feel free to add your own touches to make them your own. I am looking forward to seeing your finished projects on our VRD Facebook page.

12 Quilts of Valor Collection

Drum roll please..…………………..

Cue the fireworks! 

Image by brgfx on Freepik

We are absolutely thrilled to kick off 2024 with the debut of our 12 Quilts of Valor Rose Card Pattern Collection in partnership with the Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOVF)! 

Get your QOV collection HERE.

It took a little more time to finish the collection than we had originally anticipated, but here it is — a super way to start off the new year! Yay!

We are partnering with the Quilts of Valor Foundation to help get more quilts made and into the hands of veterans and active service members. Each of the 12 quilts in the collection meet the size requirements for a Quilts of Valor quilt. AND, a portion of the sales will be donated to the Quilts of Valor Foundation!

If you’re a follower of the blog, then you already know how near and dear my local Quilts of Valor chapter, PA Stitchers of Valor, is to my heart. I’m SEW PROUD to say that the founder and leader of my local group, Collene Munn, was recently honored as a 2023 Difference Maker. You can read the article HERE.

Here is Collene’s overview of the past year on the PA Stitchers of Valor Facebook page:

2023 was a great year for PA Stitchers of Valor, we celebrated our 6th Anniversary with the Quilts of Valor Foundation in April and awarded our 500th Quilt of Valor in May and our 600th Quilt of Valor in November! We have been busy but have been honored to recognize almost 140 Veterans in one year!! We have help[ed] start a new group in Andover/Ashtabula Ohio and have another one looking to join after the first of the year in [the] Franklin/Oil City area. We have lost a few members due to these new groups starting but are happy for both of them. I am excited to see where 2024 takes us! If interested in joining or helping our group in any way please reach out to me. Happy New Year PA Stitchers of Valor thank you for a great year!!!

— Collene Munn, 1 January 2024

Thank you, Collene, for everything that you do!

And thank you to everyone who gives their time, supplies, and skills to recognize and honor our veterans and service members with a Quilt of Valor.

You can get involved! 

Here’s How:

  1. Find your local or closest organization HERE. There are 577 chapters in the United States, so chances are there’s one near you. Become a member and volunteer.
  2. Get your VRD 12 Quilts of Valor Collection for an amazing $14.95 HERE. Remember, all 12 quilts meet the size requirements for a Quilt of Valor quilt and a portion of every sale is donated to the QOVF.
  3. Make a quilt and donate it to your local chapter. Make sure you read the quilt requirements are HERE.
  4. REPEAT!

National Sew Day is February 3rd, so ask around your area to find out where you can help make quilts for QOV. My local chapter will have 2 different locations this year for Friday and Saturday. I’m making plans to be there. 

Sew. Laugh. Make a difference. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

VRD Beatrice Quilt Tutorial and the Fall 2023 Hoffman Project Catalog

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope you are all getting some sewing and quilting tucked in around your busy fall schedule. I don’t know about you, but if I don’t get regular access to my sewing machine, I get — well, grumpy. I am not kidding. I have found over the years that if I don’t get time to devote to my creative endeavors, I become out of sorts — you can ask my family. LOL! So when I get short-tempered, the best cure is sewing and quilting, even if it’s only a half hour here or twenty minutes there, I absolutely have to have time to be creative.

So I must say that using the excuse of creating a series of fall quilt tutorials with all these glorious Hoffman batik fabric collections, I am feeding my creative soul AND at the same time, I have rekindled my interest in getting back into quilting after basically taking the summer off. Of course, the next part of my making a quilt top or two a week, is to actually get them layered, quilted, bound, labeled — FINISHED. I have started this process by going to my local quilt shop, Homespun Treasures, to pin three of the recent quilts, and now they are ready for machine quilting. I use the tables in the classroom to layer my quilts and maybe I check out the new fabrics while I’m there….

But first, I have another Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card quilt tutorial, Beatrice, for you!

VRD Beatrice Quilt Tutorial

Ever since Beatrice came out earlier this year, I’ve been eager to make it. I love that it pairs two classic blocks — a Rail Fence and a Friendship Star (which is really a Nine Patch block in disguise) — together. You can check out our Rail Fence post and Nine Patch post, which are part of our Quilt Block Basics series, for more block fun and inspiration.

I also love how the Friendship Star blocks are arranged in diagonal rows cascading through woven Rail Fence blocks in a less-than-typical arrangement. Beatrice finishes at a generous 54″ x 72,” which is a very nice-sized throw quilt.

I hope you’ll give this one a try!

Get Beatrice HERE

Let’s take a look at the gorgeous Hoffman Bali Batik collection, Homestead, I am using for my Beatrice quilt. Ask for it at your favorite quilt shop or online retailer!

Isn’t this collection delicious? I added an 1895 Watercolor batik as my star fabric — can you find it?? (Hint: it’s the lightest fabric….)

Ready? Set. Go! Let’s get started on Beatrice!

1. We’re going to cut all of our fabrics before we start to sew. Do you do that or do you cut your pieces out as you sew? Or do you make a sample block before you cut everything out? For my VRD quilts, I feel totally comfortable just jumping in — no need to make a sample block to make sure everything fits together properly because I know that everything will fit together perfectly. Just another thing I love about our Rose Card patterns.

2. Now let’s sew some Friendship Star blocks! The first thing we need to do is make some Half Square Triangles (HSTs) for the star points. When I first started quilting, I did not enjoy making HSTs, but the more I made them (so many quilt patterns use HSTs!), the more I found I actually liked them. Of course, the more I made them, the more accurate my HSTs became, too.

Layer your squares right sides together (RST). Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. Sew 1/4″ away from both sides of your drawn line. Cut on the drawn line to make 2 HSTs. Press the blocks open. And don’t forget to trim off your little dog ears at the corners (this will help the accuracy of your piecing — trust me).

3. Next we’re going to lay out a Friendship Star block, which is a Nine Patch block with HSTs. That way, we know how the block should look. With Friendship Star blocks, it’s easy to turn the HSTs the wrong way, which makes for some wonky stars. I actually kept this block layout up on my flannel wall so I could use it as my reference as I sewed the blocks together.

4. Time to sew the blocks together. I am happy to say, I only stitched one block wrong, which of course meant that I had to unsew it and then sew it back together the right way. Mea culpa. Press your blocks. Stars done — yay!

5. Moving right along — let’s make some Rail Fence blocks. Now, the pattern walks you through sewing strip sets together and then sub-cutting the strip sets into the units for the Rail Fence blocks.

I prefer cutting my fabrics before sewing them together. I used to do the strip set method, but I always had a problem keeping my strips straight — mine would bow like a rainbow. This, of course, affected the accuracy of my piecing. This frustration is what led me to determining what the (unfinished) length of the unit would be and then cutting all my pieces before sewing the units. The easiest way to figure out the length is to look at the size of the unit you’re cutting out of the strip sets — usually that measurement is what you need.

Here are my rectangles ready to sew together into Rail Fence blocks.

6. Time to sew the Rail Fence blocks together. First, I sew the rectangles into pairs, then I sew the pairs into quads. Another thing I like better about sewing the rectangles together versus strip piecing is that I get a lot more variety in my blocks. After all the blocks are pieced, go ahead and press them. Rail Fence blocks done. Yippee!

7. All the blocks are finished!

8. Boy, am I glad that I have my handy dandy flannel backed table cloth already clipped up on my fabric storage cubes because the next step is to lay out the blocks according to the diagram on the pattern. Whoever discovered that fabric sticks to flannel was a genius! Thank you, thank you!

This quilt is big and I can’t get the entire thing arranged on my flannel wall so I will have to divide the quilt into sections and then sew the sections together. While the blocks are up in the first larger section, I moved a few things around so that the fabrics are well-distributed throughout and not concentrated in any one area.

I will say that these fabrics from the Homestead collection definitely make a gorgeous quilt! It just looks so warm and inviting, like a cup of hot apple cider. Where’s my doughnut??? Boston creme, if you please….

9. I sewed the blocks into rows and then I sewed the rows together into the top section of the quilt.

10. I folded the top section in half and moved it to the top of my flannel wall to make room at the bottom the last rows. That way, I will still be able to move blocks around in the bottom rows if needed. Next I sewed the blocks into rows and the rows into the bottom section. Finally I sewed the bottom section to the top section.

11. Here is my Beatrice quilt top, or flimsy. Yay! I am very happy with how it turned out. It is simply beautiful!

While I was sewing Beatrice together, I kept wondering how it would look in patriotic colors (the quilt diagram on the back of the pattern is done in red, white, and blue). But for this quilt to be large enough to be a Quilts of Valor quilt, you would have to add a border or another column of blocks because it’s not quite wide enough.

Adding a 4″ finished border all the way around would make the quilt 62″ x 80″ which is a wonderful size for a QOF quilt as well as a twin-sized quilt. You would need about 1 1/4 yards fabric for the border (cut strips 4 1/2″ wide) and a total of 5/8 yard for the binding for this larger size.

Who knows, maybe Beatrice will be my next QOF quilt project to make and donate. You’ll have to check back later to see if it is. LOL!

I look forward to seeing your Beatrice quilts! You can post them on our VRD Facebook page. Hope to see you there!

Speaking of Hoffman Fabrics, the new Fall 2024 catalogs have just come out. Check out the Project Book, filled with loads of inspiration and Villa Rosa Design Rose Card patterns featuring the latest Hoffman collections. Truly, a feast for the eyes. Ask at your favorite quilt shop or online retailer for the patterns, fabrics, or maybe even kits. ENJOY!

What quilt will you make first?

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

NEW Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Patterns for September, New Website Content, and VRD Ebb Tide Quilt Tutorial

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Welcome to September! Now that fall and back-to-school is in full swing, we all need to turn our thoughts to MORE QUILTING! In order to help you get sewing again, today’s post is brimming over with quilty goodness.

First up is our brand new collection of September Rose Card patterns.

NEW September 2023 Rose Card Quilt Patterns

YAY! By now most of you know that I just love the Thursday after the first Friday of the month because that’s New Pattern Day here on the blog. So, here they are — Candies, Icing, Elsie May, Delphinium, and Jolie.

Every month the VRD designers never fail to create a new collection of wonderful quilt patterns. I am sew blessed to be part of this VRD family. Just looking at the new patterns every month, I get inspired and can’t wait to spend some quality time with my sewing machine.

You can get all 5 patterns HERE.

But wait……..there’s more! Here is my new September table runner, Carousel.

Get Carousel HERE

I’m not sure if you can really see the background fountain in the cover photo, above, but I took this photo at Diamond Park, a lovely tree-lined park in the heart of my hometown. The land for the Park was gifted to the city in 1795 (Meadville was founded in 1788) by the city founder, David Mead. This gorgeous fountain was then gifted and constructed in the park in 1863 by the Shippen family. It still stands and functions today, after being renovated a couple times through the years.

Image from Meadville Calendar,
https://www.facebook.com/MeadvilleClub

Here’s a photo of the fountain with the park in the background. I didn’t even think to take any photos of the fountain itself when I was taking photos of Carousel. Silly me! Sorry for that. It truly is a beautiful fountain — and well over 150 years old.

As much as I’d like to keep talking history (another of my favorite things), we’d better keep moving or we’re never going to get to today’s tutorial. LOL!

Printable Fat Quarter List

Just this week, a new feature was added to the VRD website — a printable list of all the FAT QUARTER patterns in our VRD Rose Card catalog!

People and fabric companies have been asking for such a list for a while now. The fat quarter patterns on the list are thoughtfully organized by the number of fat quarters needed for each pattern — how ingenius! This awesome list will be updated monthly to include all new fat quarter patterns going forward, so the list will always be current and up-to-date. WOW!

You can find the printable list at the bottom of the website under Patterns (see the screenshot below). In fact, there is LOTS of stuff at the bottom of the website. If you’ve never scrolled down that far, you should. You might just be missing something good down there, like a directory of the tutorials on the blog, for example. Or maybe something important like Corrections.

Here’s a screenshot of the bottom of the VRD website, showing the things
you will find down there.

You can find the printable Fat Quarter Quilt List HERE.

Now on to our tutorial!

VRD Ebb Tide Tutorial

Keeping with our recent Fall fabric theme, I have another great VRD quilt tutorial for you today. You will want to add Ebb Tide to your collection of VRD Rose Cards if you don’t have it yet. So far, it’s the fastest and easiest VRD pattern I have made. It also looks great in any fabric, and can even handle large prints with ease. Ebb Tide will definitely become one of your go-to Rose Card patterns, if it hasn’t already.

Get Ebb Tide HERE

Today I’m working with Hoffman batiks again — more yummy luscious fall fabrics. Aren’t they beautiful??? This collection is appropriately called Shades of Autumn. Ask for it at your favorite quilt shop or retailer.

I want to point out a couple things about the fabrics I am using for Ebb Tide. It takes 6 fabrics plus a background. I chose 3 light fabrics and 3 dark fabrics. I liked the idea of a color-balanced quilt. Some other options might be to choose 6 medium or dark fabrics with a light background or 6 light fabrics with a medium or dark background. The fun thing about this quilt is that it really does go together lightening-fast and you’ll probably want to make more than, which will then give you more opportunities to play with different fabric options.

Let’s make Ebb Tide!

1. After you’ve gathered up your fabrics, it’s time to cut your pieces out. This doesn’t take very long, but keep in mind the pieces you cut out of the fat quarters will be large and you might need a bigger ruler. I used my 8 1/2″ x 24″ ruler to cut the rectangles out. This really helped to keep my cutting more accurate as I didn’t need to joggle multiple rulers around to get the wider strips. I also layered and cut three fabrics at a time, but don’t feel you have to layer your fabrics for cutting if you’re not comfortable doing that. Cutting one layer at time works just as well.

Don’t have an 8 1/2″ x 24″ ruler? You can find it HERE. You can find the my absolute favorite rotary cutter, the Olfa ergonomic cutter, HERE.

2. Now that my fat quarters are cut out, it’s time to cut the background pieces. For this part, I switched to a 2 1/2″ x 18″ ruler, which makes cutting my 2 1/2″ strips and rectangles a breeze. Don’t have a 2 1/2″ ruler? You can find it HERE.

3. I’m going to use my new handy-dandy design wall to lay the quilt out so I can arrange the fabrics before I sew everything together. The beauty of Ebb Tide is that because you aren’t piecing the quilt blocks, you can get right to laying out and arranging the entire quilt. Sew simple!

PSST! In case you didn’t know — my fancy-smancy design wall is actually a flannel-backed large rectangular table cloth clipped to the top of my fabric storage cubes doors with large binder clips. Here’s a great traditional plaid flannel backed table cloth that comes in multiple colors and sizes. What a HUGE improvement this has been for putting quilts together — so much easier than laying blocks out on the floor or on a bed to shuffle things around.

Here is my final layout for the Ebb Tide, not including the horizontal background strips in between each block row. What do you think of this layout? I really like how your eye travels down the quilt, following the light fabrics path, kind of like stepping stones.

4. Now that I’m happy with my layout, it’s time to sew the horizontal rows together. I just gathered one row at a time and took it right to my sewing machine (which is close to my flannel design wall). I sewed the large rectangles and the sashing strips together one row at a time, then I put the rows back on the flannel wall, so I didn’t get things mixed up as I worked.

5. Now I’m ready to sew the long sashing strips in between the pieced rows. One last look to make sure I have the rows in the right order, and back to the sewing machine. I sewed the rows and sashing strips into sections and then sewed the sections together, that way I didn’t have to struggle with the growing quilt top with each row I added.

6. One more step and Ebb Tide will be done (or at least the quilt top will be done). Did you know that a quilt top is called a flimsy in quilt lingo? Isn’t that fun??? Sorry, I’m easily distracted — did someone say squirrel??? Tehehehe……..

Now that the quilt center is finished, let’s sew the top and bottom borders on. But before we do that, I need to cut my border strips to the right size. I like to lay my border strips across the center of the quilt, trimming the strips to the width of the quilt center. I use the center because the edges can sometimes stretch out. By cutting my strips to the center width, I can bring those stretchy edges back to square. I know this sounds weird, but trust me, it works.

Next I pin my borders to the quilt top. I start by matching the center of the border to the center of the side I’m sewing the border to ( I fold them in half to find the centers, making a crease at the true center). Then I match and pin the outside edges. After the edges, I straighten and smooth the quilt and border, adding more pins between the center and outside edges to keep everything in place while I sew. Finally, it’s time to sew them together, knowing that my borders will be flat and not waving all over the place.

7. The side borders are the last thing to sew to the quilt. They will need to be pieced so the border strips are long enough. For this quilt, I used a straight seam to sew the strips together, but sometimes I use a diagonal seam (I do this when fabrics are busy in order to hide my seam a little better).

Yay! Ebb Tide is done. Eventually, I will back it with cozy fleece, machine quilt, bind, and label it. Hopefully sometime in the next 100 years. Ha!

By the way, I wanted to let you know that it took me about 2 hours to make the Ebb Tide flimsy — that included cutting the fabrics, laying it out, and doing the photography for this tutorial. I wonder how long will it take you to make it?

Here’s a “beauty” shot of my Ebb Tide flimsy — I really wanted to get a pretty picture with my Black-Eyed Susans. Sadly, the breeze wouldn’t cooperate with me, so the bottom of the flimsy kept blowing under the porch. Oh well…….

Thanks for sticking with me through the entire blog post, I know it was a long one, but I hope you enjoyed all of the quilty inspiration.

Take care and get quilting!

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia

Panel Quilts · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD October Sky Panel Quilt Tutorial

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Today is a kind of blah day — raining off and on, overcast, and grey — not what I’d call a typical summer day at all. It’s been looking more fall-like here in NW PA. In fact, I was looking at one of the maple trees in the back yard yesterday and I actually saw the leaves starting to change on ends of several branches. As much I hate to see summer going, I do love autumn. What’s your favorite season?

As I’ve mentioned before, I get fall fabrics on my brain this time of year! Then I can’t wait to start making fall quilts. What better day than a dreary one to share an awesome FALL tutorial with you? And you can’t get more fall than October Sky!

Get October Sky HERE

October Sky VRD Tutorial

Don’t let the name of the pattern fool you — you can use any kind of horizontal panel — any one your little hear desires. I’m not using actual fall fabrics for this quilt, but to me, it still feels like a fall quilt. I think it’s the jewel-tone colors. Take a look at these yummy fabrics from Hoffman California Fabrics, one of our quilting partners. The digital panel is called Nightshade and the fabrics are coordinating 1895 Watercolors batiks. Simply scrumptious!

Let’s get started!

1. Trim the selvages off your panel. Horizontal panels can vary slightly so it doesn’t hurt to do a quick measurement of your panel, then you’ll know how it compares to the pattern. You don’t really need these numbers right now, but if your panel is not as wide as the pattern, you will need to make a small adjustment a bit later in the construction process.

2. Cut your border strips for the top and bottom of the panel and sew them on.

3. Now we are going to cut out the squares for the pieced sections at the top and bottom of the panel. I just love these 1895 Watercolors batiks — they go with everything. The dark plum in front is my background.

4. Time to make some Half Square Triangles, or HSTs. Layer 2 squares right sides together, drawn a diagonal line from corner to opposite corner. Sew 1/4″ away from both sides of the drawn line. Cut apart on the drawn line and press open.

5. Having a flannel board — or in my case, the back of a flannel tablecloth clipped to my wall cube unit — to arrange the HSTs makes getting the arrangement right the first time much easier to accomplish.

6. Sew the HSTs together. Make 2 identical pieced sections. You will be flipping one upside down to sew t the bottom of the panel. It makes an interesting design even without the panel in the middle though, doesn’t it?

7. Refer back to your panel measurements. If your panel is not as wide as the panel measurement in the pattern, you may need to add a little extra width to the side background rectangles. To be on the safe side, I added an extra 1″ or so to the side rectangles just to make sure my pieced sections would be wide enough because my panel wasn’t quite the same size as the one listed in the pattern.

It’s okay if the side rectangles make the pieced sections a little wider than the panel — you can trim and square things up in a later step.

8. The most important part of this step is to find the centers of both the pieced sections and the panel. Then match those centers up before sewing because nobody wants off-center sunbursts! LOL!

Once you’re happy with your placement (I used pins to keep everything lined up just right), sew the pieced sections onto the panel. Lookin’ good!

9. Now it’s time to trim and square up the sides of the pieced sections. Ahhh! Much better!

10. Time to add top and bottom borders. I actually increased the width of my borders a couple inches to make the quilt just a little bit bigger as a throw. Do the same if you’d like. Just keep in mind, you might need more fabric if you increase the width of your borders.

11. Ready to add those side borders now? You will need to piece those side borders to make them long enough. VOILA! The top is done!

Since I couldn’t get the breeze to cooperate with me, I took another photo of the October Sky out flat. Gorgeous, isn’t it? The colors are so rich and yummy.

12. The next steps will be layering, quilting, binding, and labeling the quilt. And then….another VRD quilt DONE!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! I’d love to see your October Sky quilts — you can post them on our Facebook page HERE or drop me an email if you’d like. And there will be more fun VRD tutorials coming, so stay tuned!

Well, that’s it for me. See you next week!

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Hanging Out with our Quilting Partners!

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I thought it would be fun to share with you some behind-the-scenes VRD stuff. I know I’ve mentioned our quilting partners before and you can see a list of our partners along the right side of the blog along with links. Today I thought it would be cool to show you some of the projects we’ve been doing with our partners.

Hoffman California Fabrics

We’ve been working with Hoffman for a while now and I’m excited to share a recent Hoffman catalog where you can find some of our Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card patterns featured. Check out Addison and Bee’s Knees on page 18 and Beaded and Cross Stitched on page 21, all in the CongoBay collection by designer McKenna Ryan.

lookbook-congobaypotsDownload

You can check out our Villa Rosa Designs collection of Hoffman fabrics available on our website HERE.

Here are the links to the featured patterns:

Addison

Bee’s Knees

Beaded

Cross Stitched

And you can visit Hoffman fabrics HERE. Check out the fabrics in the CongoBay collection HERE.

The new Fall catalogs will be coming soon, so stay tuned. Don’t forget to ask for Hoffman Fabrics at your local quilt shop.

FreeSpirit

We’re working on a new and exciting project with FreeSpirit! And I’m thrilled to say it’s available at your local quilt shops right now! Here are the 4 VRD patterns featured with the Tim Holtz Abandoned Spark Pack. This Spark Pack includes a set of 10 fat quarters and you can use any of the 4 VRD patterns with the Spark Pack. How cool is that???

Here’s the vido showing the quilts and talking about Spark Packs.

You can get all 4 quilt patterns for $7.50 HERE and can shop our VRD Tim Holtz fabrics HERE.

You can visit FreeSpirit Fabrics HERE and get to know Tim Holtz and his collections HERE.

Keepsake Quilting

We’ve been working with Keepsake Quilting, to pair their fabric collections with our Rose Card patterns to make great kits. You can check out their current catalog to see our Fernanda pattern paired with the Hocus Pocus collection to create an awesome Halloween quilt kit on page 11.

You can find the Hocus Pocus Fernanda kit HERE.

There are many other VRD Rose cards available at Keepsake Quilting, so make sure you check out their current offerings HERE.

You can find our Rose Card pattern Fernanda HERE.

Blank Quilting

Recently, we’ve been pairing some of the new Blank Quilting fabric collections with our Rose Card patterns. What a lot of fun it is working closely with fabric companies to use our patterns to make their fabrics shine. Or maybe it’s using their new fabric collections to make our patterns shine? I think it’s a little of each. LOL! Anyway you look at it, it’s a win-win for everyone!

Check out these awesome quilts featuring fabric collections from Blank Quilting.

Al a Carte in Modern Abstraction

Splendor in Modern Abstraction

You can check out Blank Quilting’s Modern Abstraction fabrics HERE.

Bedazzled in Whimsy Daisical 2

Mountains in Whimsy Daisical 2

You can check out Blank Quilting’s Whimsy Daisical 2 fabrics HERE or visit the Blank Quilting website for more info HERE.

Studio E

Studio E is a fairly new quilting partner and we’re really glad to be working together! Like with Blank Quilting, we’ve been pairing some of our patterns with their new collections. Check out these awesome quilts!

Foxfire in Squeeze the Day

Check out Squeeze the Day HERE.

Eazy Piezy in Pollen Nation

Gingersnap in Pollen Nation

Check out the Pollen Nation fabrics HERE.

You can check out all the great Studio E fabrics HERE.

Benartex

We’ve been working with Benartex this year and it’s been really fun matching up our patterns to their fabrics. Here are some of our collaborative designs:

Grand Prize in A Heart Led Life

Waverly in A Heart Led Life

2M in Bali Tropical Retreat

Geneva in Bali Tropical Retreat

Dulcie in Bali Tropical Cove

Folklore in Bali Tropical Cove

Biscotti in Barnyard Rules

Candy Land in Barnyard Rules

Fish and Chips in Barnyard Rules

Planters (purchase)

Planters in Barnyard Rules

Gingersnap in Begins with Mum

Magic Show in Begins with Mum

Gingersnap in Cherry Hill

Discovery in Chillin’ and Grillin’

Pumpkin Pie in Chillin’ and Grillin’

Baby Goose in Cottontail Farms

Busy Bee in Cottontail Farms

Cherish in Enjoy the Ride

Cool Water in Enjoy the Ride

Foxfire in Enjoy the Ride

Kaleidoscope in Enjoy the Ride

Hartford in Gilded Feathers

Snow Ruby in Gilded Feathers

Lollipop in Happy Heart

Painted Moon in Happy Heart

Liberty Bell in Live, Love, Camp

Ahoy in Live, Love, Camp

Bear Hugs in Love You Fur-Ever

Kit and Caboodle in Love You Fur-Ever

Biscotti in Love Ewe More

Eazy Piezy in Love Ewe More

Grand Prize in Parrot Habitat

San Julian in Rooville

White Cloud in Rooville

Alassio in Sail Away

Fernanda in Sail Away

Ripple Runner in Sail Away

Estrella in Shangri-La

Honor in Shangri-La

Carnival Glass in Simply Blessed

Daybreak in Simply Blessed

Discovery in Simply Blessed

Playdate in Simply Blessed

Double Delight in Transparency

Lattice in True Romance

Beatrice in Venetian Marble

Cidermill in Venetian Marble

Addison in Whispering Lilies

You can visit Benartex HERE.

And please don’t forget to ask for these wonderful fabrics at your local quilt shop as well as our Villa Rosa Designs Rose Cards. Support your local quilt shops! If you don’t ask, you local shop owner doesn’t know, so ask away!

Just keep quilting!

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia

Quilt Block Basics · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards

Quilt Block Basics — The Y Block, Rose Card List, and Hoffman Fabrics + VRD

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Wow! We’ve got lots to talk about today — I hope you are ready!

Let’s start off with our Quilt Blocks Basics first — today we are taking a good look at the Y BLOCK!

I did the HSTs and QSTs before tackling the Y block because a Y block is a combination of a QST and an HST. Sounds weird, I know, but really, that’s what it is.

There are other names for the Y block unit, but for the purpose of this post, we’ll stick with calling it the Y block.

Let’s look at some blocks using the Y block unit:

Crow’s Nest
Mosaic # 10
Mosaic # 11
Queen’s Petticoat
Spiritus Mundi
Whirlwind

Bet you’ve never heard of most of these blocks — they were pretty new to me, too.

Now let’s play a little bit with this very versatile quilt block unit. We are going to use 4 Y block units together in a 4 Patch configuration.

Let’s see what happens when we flip the Y block units around in the block:

Wow! We can really come up with some fun blocks that will make interesting quilt designs!

I think you can see the versatility of the Y block unit in the block variations above. Just imagine what you could come up with if you started changing out the fabrics as well as moving the units about. This is only a 4 patch block frame — what about a 9 patch frame? What if you combined this unit with other units like HSTs, QSTs, or others?

It is simply mind-boggling, isn’t it???

Electric Quilt 8 Software makes it sew easy to play with these units! I can get lost for hours playing with blocks in EQ….

How to Make a Y Block

There are several different ways to tackle the construction of the Y block unit. I decided not to reinvent the wheel because there are so many different ways to make a traditional Y block.

Here’s a great traditional Y block tutorial from Scissortailquilting.com just like the way I would demonstrate how to make it. YAY MATH! They even include the math formulas for you as well as a cutting chart.

The traditional method works great for putting together Y block units, except for one little thing — you make 4 units with mirror images, which is terrific if you want mirror images, but what if you need a Y block unit but not its mirror image?????

Seriously, though, who wants to make twice as many blocks as they need to, which takes twice as much time and twice as much fabric???

My friend, Cathey Laird, of Cathey Marie Designs, was fascinated with the Y block unit and pondered the mirror image issue for a long time until she came up with a solution. Cathey invented a cool Y block ruler which eliminated the mirror image problem — instead of mirror images, you get 4 identical Y block units!

You can find Cathey’s ruler HERE.

Here’s a great Y block tutorial done by Cathey herself:

Y Block VRD Rose Card Patterns

I went through the entire pattern catalog and found only a few Rose Card patterns featuring Y blocks.

Get Crossed Paths HERE

Get Twisted HERE

Well, I see new Y block designs for VRD in the future! LOL!

Speaking of Rose Cards, I wanted to share something very cool with you!

Rose Card Tracker

Did you know VRD has a printable list of ALL the Rose Cards????? This might be new to you because it is actually located on the wholesale website, but the list is for everyone who loves Rose Cards.

It is updated every month to include each month’s new patterns, too.

You can find the VRD Rose Card list HERE.

Not too long ago, I finally got all my Rose Cards organized and alphabetized in small clear plastic crates with lids. Yay me!

So next I decided to figure out which Rose Cards I was missing in my collection.

I easily printed out the list (3 pages long as of right now) and sorted through all my Rose Cards to find out which ones I did not have. Then I ordered all the ones I was missing. LOL! As long as I keep up with the new cards, I will have a complete collection of VRD Rose Cards.

It really didn’t take me too long to go through the list because it is in alphabetical order, just like my Cards. Below, you can see that I used red Xs to mark the ones I had. Then, when I did my order, I just ordered all the ones without a red X. I put a small dot in the empty spaces as I went along so I knew which ones I had already added to my order (in case I had to stop at some point and go back to it later).

As of right now I have 3 of the plastic storage boxes almost full with my Cards, so I will probably be adding a 4th as soon as my new Cards arrive. I plan to keep my Cards organized that way, then it will be a snap to find any Card I am looking for.

Yay! Three cheers for organization!!!! How many Rose Cards do you have? How many do you need to complete your collection?

Check Out Our VRD Rose Card Patterns in the NEW Hoffman Spring Project Book

We’ve been working with Hoffman Fabrics for a while now. Their new Spring catalogs are out and I’m excited to share the new Spring 2023 Project Book with you. It is simply drool-worthy!!!!

Hoffman Project Catalog Spring 2023

Sew. Dream. And head to your local quilt shop to find Hoffman Fabrics and VRD Rose Cards.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD