Villa Rosa Designs Holiday Themed Rose Card Quilt Patterns

December 22, 2022December 21, 2022 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Can you believe it’s December 22nd???

I can’t! I feel like it should still be sometime in June. Where did 2022 go? I’d like to find it, please, so I can get more done before the end of the year. LOL!

This post is going to be shorter than usual because I have to get back to wrapping, baking, and decorating the tree as I am sure many of you are also trying to do.

Of course you already know that you can turn any of our Rose Card patterns into holiday quilts just by using holiday-themed fabrics, but did you know we have some actual holiday-themed Rose Cards?

I know, I know — it’s too late to whip up a new quilt for the holidays, but you can always start early for next year (after this Christmas, of course).

Let me show you. I bet this time next year, we’ll have even more holiday-themed patterns to add to this list, so stay tuned in December 2023 because I know our family of designers is already cooking up a bunch of new patterns for you to enjoy for 2023.

Holiday-Themed Rose Cards

Fa La La says Christmas — what more can I say??? Go HERE to buy the pattern.

First Night is a fast to make pattern using 10″ squares. I just had to include it in this Holiday pattern list because not only does it makes me think of the 12 Days of Christmas, but it also makes me think of the 8 Nights of Hanukkah if you use blue, gold, and white fabrics. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Gift Wrapped is one of our new December patterns. And it’s a real cutie! Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Happy Hollies is also a new December pattern and is perfect for your modern holiday celebration. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Merry Trees is a jolly table runner that will bring a smile to your face. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Peppermint & Holly is sure to be your new holiday classic runner. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Season’s Greetings will decorate your table with holiday cheer. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Splendor is a reminder of all the happy shiny-bright memories of this holiday season and holiday seasons yet to come. Go HERE to buy the pattern.

Background Image by Freepik

Well, that’s it for now. We here at Villa Rosa Designs wish the Happiest of Holidays to All and to All a Good Night.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat. And Celebrate with Those You Love.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

A Quilty Christmas Party and Perfect Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas Quilters Can Make

December 15, 2022December 21, 2022 rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Today is December 15th — 10 days until Christmas!

Are you ready yet?

Gulp — other than shopping, I have yet to even get started. Oh wait! I put out a couple decorations in the living room and got the outside lights on. Hmm. That’s it.

Yikes! I’d better get moving, there’s only 10 days until Christmas…..

Background Image by Freepik

December Quilt Class Christmas Party

Recently, I wrapped up (pun intended) my 2022 Table Runner a Month class with a festive December Christmas party/class. What a lot of fun we had — we met an hour earlier than usual so we could do a pot luck lunch. YUM! I don’t know why, but quilting and food always go together. And chocolate — you have to have chocolate!

It was a soup and sandwich pot luck — we had 2 soups, sandwich wraps, meatballs, and an awesome assortment of everything else! Way too much food, but OH SO DELICIOUS! I tried my hand at potato soup. I ended up mashing 3 different recipes together. I made it on the stove top and then transferred it to a crock pot. I was amazed at how good it actually turned out, considering I’d never made potato soup this way before. In the past, I always started with a white sauce, but this time I started with chicken broth — I didn’t even have to add any flour — the starch in the potatoes thickened up the soup when I squashed them up with a spatula once they were soft. Of course, the cream cheese and shredded cheddar didn’t hurt any either! Here is one of the recipes I mashed up: Easy Potato Soup Recipe.

We did a 1 yard fabric exchange, too. For my group, that means we each brought the equivalent of about a yard of fabric in a gift bag or box (could be 4 fat quarters, 8 fat eighths, 1 charm pack, 2 half yards — you get the idea). To do the fabric exchange, we sat in a circle and played a Christmas game using a Right Left version of Frosty the Snowman.

Don’t know what a Right Left Gift Exchange is? You can go HERE for more information and 5 fun Right Left stories. Or just search “Right Left Christmas Game” on the Internet and you will get lots of different story options so you can choose your favorite! What I love about this game is that it doesn’t take a lot of time, you can do it with any size group, and no one’s feelings get hurt.

I also went over our December project and introduced the group to the Disappearing Nine and Four Patch blocks. Are you familiar with these? I just love all the different ways you can do them and how each time, your quilt looks completely unique even though you are using the same concept over and over. Lots of fun! If you are new to Disappearing Nine and Four Patch designs, you can go HERE for more information.

Our 2022 class was a Table Runner a Month theme this year (I try to choose a different theme or project each year). We began the class in March and met once a month through December. We skip January and February because those are usually the worst winter months in our area, but sometimes March and April can be worse than January and February. Oh, jolly Pennsylvania….. Each month in 2022, we made a different Villa Rosa Rose Card table runner pattern.

One of my quilty pals, Sherry, had been after me for a couple years to do a class on my VRD runners. I finally agreed to do a year of my VRD table runner Rose Cards for 2022 — it felt kind of weird to do an entire year of my own patterns, but Sherry was right — it turned out to be an awesome group/class.

Here is the list of the Rose Cards we did for 2022 (I added the links to the VRD website just in case you want to know more or purchase the patterns) —

March — Ice Jam

April — Belle Amie

May — Pinwheel Picnic

June — Unfurled

July — Whirly Bird

August — Lattice

September — Leaf

October — Dapper

November — Peppermint & Holly

December — Coffee Break

Now for the fun! Here are photos of some of the table runners made by members of the group.

Awesome runners, aren’t they??? And these are only some of the numerous runners!

I love how each person showed their own styles, used their own fabrics, modified the design by adding or subtracting borders, made the runners smaller or larger or even a square, and even made some runners extra special by piecing extra fabric into the backing. These ladies are not only talented, they are a great group of people.

I was so inspired this year using my Villa Rosa patterns, we are going to do a Year of Panels and Novelties in 2023, using — you guessed it — Villa Rosa patterns.

Villa Rosa Designs has over 500 patterns in our VRD catalog, so I could seriously go for years without using the same pattern twice. How cool is that? Besides, VRD releases 5+ NEW patterns every month — that’s over 60 NEW patterns EACH YEAR.

You might wonder why I am taking so much time to talk about the Table Runner class, but it leads right into my next topic!

Perfect Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas Quilters Can Make

Table Runners!

Yep — table runners are my go-to solution for a quick last minute handmade gift.

Let’s break this down:

Table Runners are….

quilts
handmade
a very personal gift
a lot faster to make than larger quilts
easy to personalize to the recipient
less expensive to make because they require small amounts of fabric
precut and stash-friendly
a great gift for practically anyone on your list
special
AWESOME!

Of course, any small quilt or project that can be finished quickly makes a great last minute gift — table runners, place mats, wall quilts, table quilts, doll quilts, mini quilts, pillows, and more.

Villa Rose Designs has got your back, I promise you!

A stack of VRD Rose Cards makes an amazing gift for yourself or your favorite quilty pals, too…..just sayin’……..

If you don’t have time to make a runner or other project before the holidays, consider gifting a quilt kit — pick a fun pattern and add the required fabrics for the top and binding. A kit for your fav quilty friend will give that person something new and fun to do during the winter months. Or gift a kit to a non-quilty person with a note saying you will complete it for them after the holidays.

However you do it, here are some great Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card patterns to inspire you:

Table Runners and Place Mats

Amen uses pre-printed panel squares or a theme fabric which means some of the work is already done for you before you even get started.

Griddle uses stash or scraps so there’s no need to head to the quilt shop (unless you really want to…).

Ripple Runner is super fast to make and finish. Short on time? Use a light, medium, and dark fabric instead of making it scrappy. Or go Christmas scrappy — what fun!

Season’s Greetings is a no-brainer — really. Don’t have fat sixths (12″ x 22″)? Dive into your scraps and stash instead!

Sugarplum is a super simple and cute pattern that goes together in a snap. 1 fat quarter and a bunch a scraps. Sew sew sew! Presto! DONE!

Let’s Eat is a fun set of place mats that uses pre-printed panel squares or a theme fabric which means of course that some of the work is already done for you.

Small Quilts

Baby Goose is a great versatile quilt at 42″ x 58″ and can be backed with only one width of fabric. It would take longer than a table runner to make, but it still goes very fast because the focal fabric does most of the work.

Blue Girl — just 3 fabrics….

Cabin Fever is the perfect size for a baby quilt or a wall quilt or a small lap quilt AND it goes really fast.

Cat City for your favorite feline lover. Go HERE for a 2 Cat City quilt block mini cat quilt tutorial.

Dainty Machines has directions for multiple sizes, including a 26″ x 26″ mini quilt with 4 blocks. You can check out my interview with Sewl Sister HERE.

Mod Tiles and Mod Tiles Too — got charm squares???

Fun Stuff

Did you know we have a whole VRD collection of Accessory Rose Cards? Accessories make great gifts for anyone and everyone. I’ll show you some of my favs, but you can click on the link above to see the whole collection.

Olivia Jane — a Charm Square Patchwork Tote

Savannah Jane — Cool pieced scarf. Add a fleece backing to make it cozy for winter.

Belinda Jane — Pillow Sham

Petula Jane — Roll & Go Place Mat and Napkin

Emmalina Jane — Eyeglass Case

I hope these great projects have not only inspired you but give you the desire to whip up those last minute holiday gifts. There’s still time, but you’d better hurry!

Well, that’s it for this week.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat. And SEW some more.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW December VRD Rose Card Patterns and Great Reads for Quilters

December 8, 2022December 7, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s hard to believe we’re another week closer to Christmas! Are you making any gifts this year? I have a couple table runners to finish up, but I haven’t taken on any big projects for the holidays for years — not since the one year my plans were far more ambitious than the time I had to make them. Most likely, I didn’t start early enough, but then again I remember getting sick before the holidays, which totally blew my plans. My pal, Isaac, received unfinished gifts that year. I did finish them in January in time for his birthday, though.

I bet you’ve never taken on more projects than you could possibly get done for the holidays, right??? Like I believe you — LOL!

Guess what??? It’s after the first Friday of the month which of course means — NEW ROSE CARDS! YAY!

Cue the music! Toss the confetti!

Here are December’s VRD Rose Card Patterns hot off the press:

Wow! Aren’t these fun? Crab Cakes uses printed panel squares or you could even use your favorite novelty fabric while Fish & Chips is another great panel quilt. And who doesn’t LOVE a panel quilt pattern? Tehehe….

I find Illumination kind of intriguing — just imagine the different looks you could get with different fabrics — ombre, batiks, solids, oh my!

Columbia makes me think of my ol’ college days for some reason (wink, wink) even though I didn’t attend Columbia — it just has a collegiate feel to me.

And Happy Hollies is sew adorable and cheeky.

The great news for you is that you can order the December set of 5 patterns for the great price of $8.95. This set of patterns makes a great stocking stuffer for you or for your favorite quilty pal!

You can go HERE to order the December set of Rose Cards.

BUT WAIT! There’s more (you know how much I love saying that)!

We have 2 — count ’em — TWO table runners this month and they are both picture-perfect for December!

This is Molly’s cute table runner pattern, Gift Wrapped. Don’t you just love the Christmas-y plaid binding? I really like how the gifts are not only pieced but show up in the machine quilting too — sew clever!

You can order Gift Wrapped HERE.

And finally, but not lastly, here’s my latest table runner pattern, Season’s Greetings. If you need a fast to finish gift for someone on your holiday list, this is definitely the runner for you! This pattern only uses 5 fabrics so it’s a great one for raiding your Christmas fabric stash, but who says it has to be made with Christmas fabrics???

You can order the Season’s Greetings pattern HERE.

Who wouldn’t want to find these new patterns tucked into their stocking or as a surprise from a Secret Santa?

Speaking of Christmas, let’s take a look at some fun reads to add to your Christmas list or maybe just a good reason to take a few minutes for yourself during this busy holiday season.

Great Reads for Quilters

I love to read. In fact, I love books so much, I was a librarian for over 10 years at a small-town community library. One of my favorite things besides organizing and doing the children’s programs was helping to match readers to books — it didn’t matter how old the reader was, I loved the challenge to help them find the perfect book. Sometimes it took a couple of tries, but it was always a very rewarding experience.

Reading is my go-to escape from the stresses of my day to day life and especially during the holiday season!

Let me share some fun Quilting and Sewing themed books with you in case you, too, need to slip away from your surroundings for a little while this holiday season. Books also make great gifts for yourself or someone else.

Give the gift of reading this Christmas!

Southern Sewing Circle Mystery

Right now I am working my way through the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery series by Elizabeth Lynn Casey. I’m currently reading the 5th book out of 12, but so far I am really enjoying the fun and quirky characters. The main character, Tori, just so happens to be a librarian who sews. This is not really a quilting series, but rather a sewing-themed series.

You can find more information and the book titles in the series HERE.

Cobbled Quilt and Too Much, Texas

Have you read any of the 6 books in the Cobbled Court series or the 2 books in the Too Much, Texas spinoff by Marie Bostwick? I devoured this series years ago when the first book, A Single Thread, came out and I couldn’t wait to read each new book as it was released. I loved the location of the quilt shop and the descriptions of the the town. These books are brimming with delightful characters who you will wish were your friends and neighbors.

You can find more information and the book titles in the series HERE.

Elm Creek Quilts

Who can forget Jennifer Chiaverini’s wonderful 27 book Elm Creek Quilts series? I love that this huge series moves between the present and the past. The books are stand alone reads, but they are all threaded together. I am pretty sure I have read every single one of the Elm Creek Quilts books. I think the historical ones, particularly the Civil War ones, were my favorites.

You can find more information and all the book titles in the series HERE.

Annie’s Fiction Clubs

Did you know that the publisher of Quilter’s World Magazine, Annie’s, has many fun book series in addition to the magazine? The various book series are set up like clubs where you get books delivered to you, which is fun and very convenient. They have a series for pretty much any reader, most are cozy mysteries, but there are Amish romances and feel-good books too.

Last year they even started new read-along books with a mystery quilt project. You read a chapter and make the quilt block then at the end of the book, you would get instructions to finish the quilt. Fun idea, huh? Something to watch for 2023.

Here are the series they have to offer:

Victorian Mansion Flower Shop

Antique Shop Mysteries

Amish Inn Mysteries

Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library

Chocolate Shop Mysteries

Annie’s Quilted Mysteries

Annie’s Mysteries Unraveled

Annie’s Secrets of the Quilt

Scottish Bake House Mysteries

Mysteries of Aspen Falls

Museum of Mysteries

Annie’s Attic Mysteries

Creative Woman Mysteries

Hearts of Amish Country

Love in Lancaster County

The Inn at Magnolia Harbor

Rose Cottage Book Club

You can find more information on each book series/club HERE.

Sandra Dallas

Sandra Dallas doesn’t have a specific quilting or sewing book series, but she has written some great books with quilting and sewing themes. These are stand alone books and many are rich in historical details. The Persian Pickle Club was recommended to me by my friend, Melanie, and it was a great read. Since then, I’ve read some of the author’s other books, too. Sandra writes books for adults and children.

The Persian Pickle Club

Alice’s Tulips

The Quilt Walk

A Quilt for Christmas

The Patchwork Bride

You can find more information about Sandra Dallas and her books HERE.

Shipshewanna Amish Mystery

This trilogy by Vanetta Chapman is a great quilt shop/Amish cozy mystery series, and who doesn’t love that? The writing is well-done and the characters are well-developed. Sure to be on your favorite quilt series list.

You can find more information and the book titles in the series HERE.

Patchwork Mysteries

If you are looking for an interesting and inspirational series about quilts and how quilts can tell us clues if only we look closely, then you might want to try Guidepost’s Patchwork Mysteries series. There are 26 books in the series. The books are stand alones, which is good, since I skipped around through this series as I found the books and read them in no particular order.

You can find the series HERE.

Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club

This trilogy of books by Wanda Brunstetter is a real keeper. The first book brings together a very disconnected group of people who sign up to take a quilting class with an Amish quilter and teacher. A great addition to you quilting fiction collection.

You can find more information about Wanda Brunstetter and her books HERE.

Quilting Cozy

I haven’t actually started reading this series yet, but I do have several of the books in my personal library. Someday soon, I hope, I will get the chance to dive into this series. But I don’t know if I will ever get through my backlog of books when there are new books being published everyday — I just can’t read fast enough. LOL! Carol Dean Jones wrote this series and it has 12 books.

You can find more information and the book titles HERE.

Ann Hazelwood

Ann Hazelwood has written quite a few different series of quilting books, so you’ll want to check them out. I was intrigued by the titles of a couple of her books when I saw them online and I just had to buy them. I mean, really — who wouldn’t want to read books with titles like The Funeral Parlor Quilt or The Jane Austen Quilt Club? I must confess, though, that I haven’t started reading yet….

Here are her series:

Colebridge Community

East Perry County

Wine Country Quilts

Door County Quilt

You can find more information and the book titles in each series HERE.

Someday Quilts

It took me a while to remember the name of this quilt mystery series, but I did finally remember — guess I’m getting old…. This series includes 7 books and is written by Clare O’Donohue.

You can find more on this series HERE.

Quilting Books for the Kiddos in Your Life

Maybe you have children to shop for on your “nice” list! Here are a great selection of quilting themed picture books and chapter books. Some are fiction and some are nonfiction.

The Little Ghost Who was a Quilt by Riel Nason and Byron Eggenschwiler

Ages 3-6

You can find the book HERE.

Mooshka by Julie Paschkis

Ages 4-8

You can find the book HERE.

The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Jeff Brunbeau

Ages 3-8

You can find the book HERE.

Stitchin’ and Pullin’: A Gee’s Bend Quilt by Patricia McKissack

Ages 5-9

You can find the book HERE.

The Quilting Bee by Gail Gibbons

Ages 4-8

You can find the book HERE.

The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola

Ages 3-5

You can find this book HERE.

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson and James Ransome

Ages 3-7

You can find the book HERE.

She Stitched the Stars by Jennifer Harris and Louise Pigott

Ages 5-8

You can find the book HERE.

The Patchwork Path by Bettye Stroud and Erin Susanne Bennett

Ages 5-8

You can find the book HERE.

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

Ages 3-10

You can find the book HERE.

The Quilt by Ann Jonas

Ages 4-8

You can find this book HERE.

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy and Jerry Pinkney

Ages 2-6

You can find the book HERE.

The Canada Geese Quilt by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and Leslie Bowman

Ages 9-12

You can find the book HERE.

The Quilt by Gary Paulson

Ages 8-12

You can find the book HERE.

Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Ages 4-8

You can find the book HERE.

The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil and Anait Semirdzhyan

Ages 4-6

You can find the book HERE.

The Flying Sewing Machine by Nancy Zieman and Phillip Ashby

Ages 5-6

You can find the book HERE.

The Quilt Walk by Sandra Dallas (yes, I listed this one twice on purpose)

Ages 9-12

You can find the book HERE.

Well, I guess that wraps up my list of great reads for today. Of course, there are tons more out there — this is just a short list of some of my favorites or favorites to be.

If you have a quilt or sewing themed book or series that you love, please share in the comments. Thank you!

Until next Thursday —

Read. Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Panel Quilts · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD Splendor Panel Quilt Tutorial

December 1, 2022November 30, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day last week. Did you get a chance to make the Talking Turkey Quilt block yet? If you didn’t stop by and read last week’s post with my cute Thanksgiving turkey block tutorial, you can find it HERE.

On another note, I just finished making the quilt top for the Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card pattern, Splendor, so thought I’d share another panel tutorial for you. Then beginning next week for the rest of December, I’m going to blog about Christmas-y quilty fun things, but we’ll probably go back to tutorials again in January when you are all itching to start some new projects.

This is Splendor. It is an AWESOME pattern — who knew you could take a panel, some fabric for sashing, and a handful of fat quarters and come up with a quilt as big as this one turns out. It’s an incredibly clever pattern by our VRD designer, Molly Cook, and uses the whole fat quarter to build the sections around the quilt. I was so amazed to see how slick everything went together and how nicely everything fit.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this pattern! If you don’t have it, you need to get it! You can buy the Splendor pattern HERE:

Great quilt, huh? I can already see visions of sugar plum quilts using the Splendor pattern dancing in your head. Don’t you just love how the panel is offset? Isn’t that unique? And everything truly goes together like magic!

Let’s get started!

Splendor Panel Quilt Tutorial

Time to gather up your panel, sashing, and fat quarters. I had this great winter panel in my stash and thought a blue and white version of Splendor would be fun. I grabbed the blue tonal for my sashing and then “shopped” in my blue fat quarter bins. As a final thought, I added the white on white fabric from my yardage drawer to represent the snow. Looking back, though, I think I could have skipped the white on white and just went with shades of blue, but that’s okay. I think the quilt will still turn out just fine. Let me know what you think once you’ve seen how the top turned out down below.

I did end up swapping out the light silvery blue fabric you see in the photo because when I opened it up to cut, the fabric had some fading. I didn’t think I could cut around the faded areas and have enough fabric to cut the pieces I needed so I found a replacement. No worries.

Next you need to measure your panel, because panels come in all different sizes these days. My friend Mary Lee and I were just talking about this. 24″ x 42″ used to be the standard size for panels, but now they come in 36″ x 44″, 44″ x 44″, and everything in between!

So take the time to measure your panel. You may need to trim your panel to the size noted in the pattern. Or if your panel is a bit narrower, you may need to add a bit to the sashing so your center ends up the correct size. If you don’t want to trim your panel, you can also adjust the size of the sashing if needed.

I can’t stress enough how important these measurements (for the panel plus the sashing) are. This is what makes the whole quilt work so if your measurements are off, you will have problems sewing the sections to the center of the quilt. Isn’t it better to take your time right now and get the measurements correct right up front? You know the saying, “measure twice, cut once?”

Once you’ve measured your panel and decided whether you need to trim it or add a little extra to the sashing, then it’s time to cut out your sashing strips. My panel was a bit too narrow so I ended up adding a half inch all the way around to the sashing in order to get the correct size. Then I was ready to sew on the sides and the top and bottom.

Tricia’s Tip: When I add borders to a quilt, I take my time. First, I find the center of both the side of the quilt and the border strip. Then I match my centers and pin (see the lime green circle in the photo). Next I pin the ends and I add a pin perpendicular to the edge of the quilt/border in order to keep things all nice and square (see the red circles in the photo) — I do this at both ends of the border. Finally, I add pins spaced between the middle and each end. Sounds like a lot of work, but it really helps me to keep my borders straight. Who wants borders that stand up and wave?

Here is my panel with the sashing around it. I love how the mottled blue really brings the color out of this mostly monochromatic panel. It reminds me of winter here in Pennsylvania.

Let’s keep moving! I promise you, this is the fussiest part of the quilt. Once you get the right measurements, it’s a breeze from here out.

Time to cut out the pieces from the fat quarters. Follow the cutting diagram in the pattern. If you feel comfortable, you can stack a couple fat quarters together to reduce some of your cutting, but it’s perfectly fine to take your time and cut each fat quarter individually.

Something to think about — as all fat quarters are NOT cut a true 18″ x 22″, it’s not a bad idea to have an extra coordinating fat quarter around just in case you can’t get all four rectangles out of each fat quarter or in case you make a cutting mistake. Extra fabric are not bad words in my vocabulary. Besides, it will go into another project……..someday……..

So the next thing to do is to sew each group of rectangles together into strips. There are a couple options here:

You could organize your fabrics and keep them in the same order in each section — wouldn’t it be cool to organize your pieces from light to dark or dark to light?
You could sew your rectangles together and make sure that each section has a different arrangement of fabrics, making your quilt look scrappy and relaxed.

I chose to do the second option (big surprise to those of you who know me!!! LOL!), which takes a bit more time, but I really like the finished result. Either option will turn out great, so just pick one.

I sewed the pieces together for the right side section first. I just did it randomly at my sewing machine. Then I pressed the seams, folded the pieced strip, and found the center of the strip. Next I folded the sashed panel and found the center on the right side of it. Finally I matched up the centers, pinned the pieced section to the sashed panel, and sewed them together.

After I got the right side section on and I pressed it, I laid out the pieces for the left side. Pinned. Sewed the rectangles together. Pressed.

I was totally excited when I realized how fast the sides went on the sashed panel. Like magic!

I did find I’d somehow made a mistake when I went to match up my centers and pin my left side section to the sashed panel. My pieced section was too long. Huh! What was going on here?!?

I reread the instructions and looked closely at the cover quilt and diagrams. After a couple minutes, I went back and remeasured only to discover I had cut each of my pieces a half inch too big, so of course the pieced section was too long when I went to pin it to the panel.

What do you think I did?

I matched up my centers and ignored the excess fabric sticking out beyond the sashed panel. I pinned and sewed like normal and then I trimmed the excess off of each side with an acrylic ruler and my rotary cutter (with a cutting mat underneath), making my left pieced section flush with the sashed panel.

You might notice in the photo that my top and bottom rectangles on the left side are a bit narrower than the other rectangles. But that’s okay. Everything will still fit together great and I really doubt it will make much difference in how the quilt looks in the end because of the different-sized pieces all around the sashed panel.

I wouldn’t have even mentioned my oops, but I like to point out my mistakes and how I handle them. Sometimes my mistakes are just happy accidents — or good things in disguise. It helps to share my mistakes with other quilters so they don’t do the same thing I did. Just ask the members of my Friday group (BIG Shout out to Gail, Mary Lee, Robin, Sherry, Gaynel, Missi, Deb, Anita, Jean, Donna and Kim).

Now it’s time to sew the top and bottom sections together. Again, I did each one separately to make sure I liked my random fabric placement — I didn’t want any fabrics to be touching the same fabric in another section of the quilt.

So here it is — my completed Splendor quilt top. What do you think?

This was definitely a FUN and FAST quilt project and I hope that you will give it a try! If you’ve made Splendor before, I’d love to see your pictures. You can email them to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com or post them on our Facebook page.

Before I go, here’s a fun video tour at Quilt Market recorded by Jaftex, just click the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/jaftexpresident/videos/813565436398044

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

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

A Thanksgiving Turkey (Quilt Block) For You!

November 24, 2022November 23, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Huh! It just occurred to me that our weekly Thursday blog post will happen on Thanksgiving Day!

I was planning to return to my Panel Quilt series, but then I thought it would be fun to design a little project just for Y-O-U as a Thanksgiving gift, because we here at Villa Rosa Designs couldn’t exist without the loyal support of you, our enthusiastic VRD fans and supporters. We are sew thankful for you.

Image by Freepik

What are your traditions for Thanksgiving? Do you cook a big family meal? Go out for Thanksgiving dinner? Watch football? Attend or watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Do you celebrate alone or with a big boisterous family? Do you celebrate at someone else’s home or does everyone come to yours? Do you get a head start on your holiday shopping?

Thanksgiving is generally a small quiet affair with my family. Sometimes we cook and eat in, but in the past we’ve gone out, too. Usually there are just three of us but occasionally my sister and her family will stop by later for pumpkin pie. Depending on which teams are playing football on Thanksgiving, I usually find a little time to get some quilting in while my family is cheering on their team.

My favorite Thanksgiving holidays have been spent at my Aunt Helen’s house with my many cousins and their families. My Aunt’s house is usually bursting at the seams with people and dogs. Squabbling, laughter, enough amazing food to feed an army, and lots of good conversation and memories. Football on the television in the living room. Sometimes cards or board games after dinner at the kitchen table. Good times and new memories in the making.

All of these warm fuzzy feelings and memories made me want to design a special Turkey Quilt Block as a way to say “Thank You” to all of you! I was inspired by Lori Holt’s Tom Turkey Quilt Block tutorial, but I created my own turkey block, based on a humble Nine Patch because I wanted my Talking Turkey block to be happy and plump.

My Talking Turkey block finishes at 16″ high by 22″ wide.

Below is my sample Talking Turkey block. Isn’t he a handsome fellow????

Now that you’ve seen how yummy this block turned out, let’s get started on the tutorial!

Talking Turkey Quilt Block Tutorial

Supplies

12 assorted charm squares (5″) for the feathers/body

1 fat quarter for the background

1 fat eighth brown for the head/neck

Scrap of red for the wattle, approximately 2″ x 5″

Cutting

Background: 3 5″ squares, 1 4 1/2″ square, 3 2 1/2″ squares, 1 2 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ rectangle, 1 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle, 1 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle, 1 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle , and 1 1/2″ square

Red Scrap: Trim to 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″

Brown: 1 2 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ rectangle, 1 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle, and 1 2 1/2″ square

Making the Block

Step1. Trim 9 assorted charm squares down to 4 1/2″ and sew them together into a Nine Patch block.

Step 2. Layer a print 5″ square right sides together (RST) with a background 5″ square. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner. Sew 1/4″ away from both side of the drawn line. Cut apart on the drawn line. Press units open to make 2 Half Square Triangle blocks (HSTs). Repeat to make a total of 6 HSTs. Trim your HSTs to 4 1/2″ if needed.

Step 3. Sew 3 assorted HSTs together into a row with the top point to the right as shown.

Step 4. Sew the remaining 3 HSTs together with the top point to the left as shown. (You are making a mirror image of the unit in Step 3.)

Step 5. Sew the HST unit from Step 3 to the top of your Nine Patch block.

Step 6. Sew a 4 1/2″ background square to the left end of the HST unit from Step 4. Then sew the HST strip to the right side of the Nine Patch block.

Step 7. Layer a background 2 1/2″ square RST on the end of the brown 2 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ rectangle. Draw a diagonal line from the top left corner to the opposite corner. Sew on the line. Trim away the waste piece 1/4″ beyond the sewing line. Open and press.

Step 8. Layer a background 2 1/2″ square on the other end of the brown 2 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ rectangle. Draw a diagonal line from the top left corner to the opposite corner. Sew on the line. Trim away the waste piece 1/4″ beyond the sewing line. Open and press.

Step 9. Layer a background 2 1/2″ square RST on the end of a brown 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle. Draw a diagonal line from the bottom left corner to the opposite corner. Sew on the line. Trim away the waste pieces 1 /4″ beyond the sewing line. Open and press.

Step 10. Layer a background 1 1/2″ square RST on the end of a red 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle. Draw a diagonal line from the bottom left corner to the opposite corner. Sew on the line. Trim away the waste pieces 1/4″ beyond the sewing line. Open and press.

Step 11. Sew a background 1 1/4″ x 4 1/2″ to the Step 10 unit. Then sew a 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle to the bottom of the unit as shown.

Step 12. Sew the brown unit from Step 9 to the end of the unit from Step 11.

Step 13. Layer a brown 2 1/2″ square RST on the end of a background 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle. Draw a diagonal line from bottom left corner to the opposite corner. Sew on the line. Trim away the waste pieces 1 /4″ beyond the sewing line. Open and press. Then sew the unit on the right end of a background 2 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ rectangle.

Step 14. Sew the units from Steps 8, 12, and 13 together to make the turkey head, wattle, and neck.

Step 15. Sew the front of the turkey from Step 14 to the back of the turkey from Step 6.

Voila! A plump and yummy Talking Turkey block for you to enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving to you!

As per our Copyright for Quilters post last week, I give you permission to use my original Talking Turkey quilt block for personal and commercial use, as long as you provide proper attribution that I am the designer of the Talking Turkey quilt block.

Add a narrow border, quilt and bind for a little wall or table quilt.

Enjoy!

Until next Thursday —

Eat. Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

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

VRD Hillside Charm Quilt Tutorial and the NEW November Rose Card Patterns

November 10, 2022November 9, 2022 rosecards1 Comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

After talking about our VRD Rose Card patterns featuring quilt panels a couple weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to do a series of Panel Quilt Tutorials for you. You can find the Panel post HERE.

There’s no way I would be able to do ALL of the Rose Cards I featured in the Panel post, but I thought it would be fun to do some of my favorites. I hope these Panel Quilt tutorials will inspire you to reduce your own stash of panels by making quilts — what an unusual thing to do with fabric, right???

So let’s make Hillside Charm! I just really love this Panel pattern — it looks great with whatever panel and fabrics you use. Don’t have 5″ charm squares? Cut fat quarters, scraps, or even yardage into the number of squares you need. Want to make it bigger? Add another border? Want it smaller? Don’t add the extra border. LOVE LOVE LOVE Hillside Charm! You can buy the pattern HERE.

Right now we even have some great Hillside Charm kits for sale on the website — Halloween, Christmas and more — so check them out HERE.

Before we jump into the tutorial, I have to do a SHOUT OUT to Hoffman Fabrics and a big thank you to them for providing the fabrics for this Hillside Charm Quilt. The collection is called Wading with Water Lilies. Isn’t it beautiful? In addition to the gorgeous digitally-printed panel and coordinates, I also used some of the basics from the 1895 Watercolors collection and 885 Dot Batiks collection.

YAY! We have the panel and some of the coordinates on the website. You can find them HERE. Grab them now because when they’re gone, they’re gone!

The gorgeous panel. Just look at the amazing array of colors that digital printing can create!

Here are the accents I used from 1895 and 885.

Now you’ve seen the fabrics, lets get to the tutorial!

Hillside Charm Tutorial

The first thing I did was trim the panel to the dimensions listed in the pattern. Sigh……I really hated cutting anything off this amazing panel but if I wanted to make the quilt, it had to be done. So I did it. I also cut out the squares and the strips. The pattern actually calls for a pack of charm squares, but since I didn’t have an actual charm pack, I went ahead and cut the squares I needed. I won’t have as much variety as I would have with a charm pack, but it will still be beautiful. Sometimes, less is more.

Next I sewed the side strips on to the panel. Then I sewed squares to the ends of the top and bottom strips before sewing them into the panel. It’s already taking shape. I’m really excited about this quilt — it is going to be really gorgeous!

Time to sew my charm squares into strips for the next border. I just had to make sure not to sew 2 of the same fabric side to side. Easy peasy.

Here you can see that I took the time to pin the pieced charm square strip to the framed panel. This is an important step because I don’t want my quilt to be a funny shape. Nope, I like ’em squared up as much as I can as I go along. And one of the best ways to do that is to match your centers and your ends and pin generously.

Yay! Let’s sew the pinned charm square side borders on. Sigh….I must admit I hate removing my pins as I sew and I am guilty of sewing over my pins. Mea culpa.

Here are the pieced charm square borders added to the sides. I am so excited how this quilt is coming together.

Now let’s add the top and bottom charm square pieced strips. Pin, pin, pin. Sew, sew, sew. I really like how the pieced border is giving the look of Four Patch blocks in the corners. Tricky, tricky!

More side borders to add. This time I have to be more careful with the placement of the squares so that I don’t accidentally line up 2 of the same fabric, especially since I’m not using as much variety as a charm pack would provide (although, nowadays there are lots of duplicates in a charm pack because fabric collections are a lot smaller than they used to be).

Here are my last borders — the top and bottom pieced borders. Now you can see the rectangles of the blue/green marbled fabric at each corner, mimicking the inner blue/green marbled inner border. Cool detail!

DONE!

I can’t wait to see your Hillside Charm Quilts! You can email your Hillside Charm photos me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com and I’ll share them on the blog and Facebook.

Thanks for sewing along with this tutorial. Stay tuned for another tutorial next week.

**Wait! I can’t go yet without showing you the NEW November Rose Card patterns.**

Check out these awesome new patterns. If you attended Quilt Market or Festival last week, you already had a sneak peak. Lucky you!

Oh look! Another Panel quilt! You can buy the November set of 5 Rose Cards HERE for $8.95.

This is my new table runner, Baskets, for this month:

You can buy the Baskets pattern HERE.

As always, shipping is free.

I hope you find a little time to get sewing because the Holidays are right around the corner and if you are like me, you have a long list of quilty gifts you want to make even though you know you’ll never get them all finished. The New November Rose Cards could help you jump start your holiday sewing! Just sayin’….

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Welcome to International Quilt Market Fall 2022!

November 3, 2022November 2, 2022 rosecards8 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Here it is — a little peak inside International Quilt Market by moi just for you.

I remember before I attended my first Fall Market in 2010, “Market” was a term that conjured up all kinds of quilt mystique. We talked about it in hushed voices tinged with awe. What exactly was it? How did you get to go? Why was it such a mystery?

Twelve years later and although the mystery has unraveled over the years, I am still amazed by every Quilt Market I attend.

This year was different from all the others — I came to Market with a whole new purpose. In the past, I either attended Market in order to promote my latest book or as an independent designer associated with a publisher or other business. This time I came as part of the Villa Rosa Designs team and would be working at the VRD booth for the first time. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I was so excited to go. I had a lot to learn and had great teachers in Pat, our “Rose Queen”, Bonnie who manages the retail shop in California, and Leann, Pat’s daughter and the VRD computer whiz.

So what exactly is International Quilt Market?

Since 1979, the show has been the trade show for the quilting and textile industries.

Market is a wholesale trade show, open only to credentialed attendees and those in the business. Here, you’ll be able to visit more than 1,000 booths to see all kinds of products both new and familiar ranging from fabrics, book, and patterns to sewing machines, notions, and supplies. You can also learn in dozens of Take & Teach classes and Business Seminars, and take that knowledge or class skills back home to your shop or business!
From the Quilts, Inc. website.

This year’s Houston Quilt Market might not have been as big as the last pre-pandemic Houston Market in 2019, but everyone there was excited and energized to be there.

Let me take you on a little tour of Quilt Market by visiting some of the booths and vendors.

First up, of course is our Villa Rosa Designs booth!

Nice, huh? All the quilts you see hung around the walls of the booth are all cover quilts for Rose Cards of the last 6 months. Oh! The table runners were there too — draped down on the table fronts. Bright, colorful, and fun! We even had fat quarters bundles and kits.

So many great shop owners/workers, designers, and lots of other folks in the industry stopped by to see the latest patterns and catch up. Everyone was so kind and excited about our Rose Card patterns. I met a lot of super people and really enjoyed chatting and talking Villa Rosa Designs with everyone.

When the booth wasn’t too busy, we all took turns going to appointments, meeting up with contacts, and walking the floor, seeing all the other booths, and checking out displays to see what was new and trending. Of course, when we were swamped, it was all hands on deck!

News Flash!

One of the things we were really excited to share with everyone who walked into the booth was our NEW Villa Rosa Designs fabric collection with Blank Quilting. The collection is called Xanadu. Yep, like the 1970’s movie. And the collection has a wonderful 70s feel that is fresh, fun, funky, and flirty with an updated color palette. It was designed by Pat’s sister, Nancy Lorene, who does most of the art for the Villa Rosa Designs Rose Cards. There are 12 completely different fabrics in the collection. It should be shipping to your local quilt shops in April 2023.

Here it is! Isn’t it great??? My absolute favorite piece is the one that looks like paper snippets (I love them all of course, but that one really sparks my imagination).

We were even able to make up a few quilts using Xanadu samples! The real fabrics are even better than the digital images.

On the left is Addison and Honey Bouquet is on the right.

I checked in with some of my favorite vendors and also met some new ones this year.

One of the first places I checked out was the “Toy Department,” Graphic Expressions, where you can find all kinds of fun, useful, and quirky little goodies.

My next stop was to see my old friends, the Springers at Quilts from Mulberry Lane. I met them at my first Quilt Market and at every one I’ve attended since, I make sure to stop to shop and catch up. They always have a great selection of antique quilts and textiles. This year they even had some feed sacks, but I was already familiar with the patterns, so I shopped through their antique quilt blocks and brought a great selection home with me.

It took me a little while to find the Swan Amity booth, but after the second attempt, I found them. Boy was I glad too! They were on my to-do list for Market because I needed a new pair of machine quilting gloves. I found their gloves when I attended Market in 2019 and I never quilt without them now, but after 3 years, my gloves are starting to show some wear (see my 3 year old pair on the left in the photo below). Swan Amity gloves are a lot like a leather golf glove with touchscreen fingertips and padded palms. Love them!

I had a great time shooting the breeze with the ladies at the Mary Ellen’s Best Press booth. Devi and the gang were so much fun! I personally can’t make a quilt without Best Press. My favorite scents are Peach and Citrus. What’s your favorite?

I stopped by the Hoffman California Fabrics booth and got the chance to meet up with Sandy, who I’ve been working with on some projects lately. It was so awesome to finally meet her! That’s one of my favorite things about Quilt Market — meeting people in person, especially if you’ve only been in contact with them through email.

At Market, the fabric companies display quilt samples featuring their upcoming collections so it’s a really good opportunity to see upcoming trends in fabric colors and quilt styles. Look at these gorgeous quilts on display at Hoffman.

I checked in with my pals at Choice Fabrics, too, and introduced them to Villa Rosa Design Rose Cards. Sorry, I never did get around to taking a photo of their booth, we were too busy gabbing! LOL!

I was on the lookout for new products and other cool stuff when I walked around the show.

I met Rosanna of Rosanna Diggs Embroidery. This was her first time at Quilt Market, showing off her great embroidery kits. The kits had absolutely everything in them you needed except scissors! And the designs were just adorable. The Hexagon quilt block kit grabbed my attention on the front table, so I stopped in the booth to say hi.

I stopped to visit with the designer, Lori, of From My Heart to Your Hands, to tell her how much I love her gorgeous miniature quilt patterns. I have collected quite a few of her Fat Quarter Quilting patterns, which have 9 mini quilts in each pattern pack. I love the mix of piecing and applique, although I’m definitely a piecer and not an appliquer — I still haven’t finished my first mini applique quilt from one of her patterns from years ago. I really loved her display of the mini quilts pinned with clothespins to clotheslines. So fun and eye catching! Wish I’d thought of it!

I visited with another pattern designer, Dawn, at the Sew Cherished booth. Her wool applique was simply amazing. Wool applique is something I really admire, but haven’t done much of it yet. Someday……

A new friend I met at lunch introduced me to the ladies at the booth next to hers, Trailhead Yarns. Their threads are truly amazing and there are so many colors to choose from — even variegated! I’m thinking I might want to try some Sashiko again sometime.

Everywhere I turned there were QUILTS, QUILTS, and more QUILTS! Here are some of the great quilts I spotted at Market.

Well, that just about wraps up my visit to International Quilt Market. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I saw. My head is swimming with visions of quilts and fabrics. Time to spend some quality time with my sewing machine.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Panel Quilts · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD Hypnotized Quilt Tutorial

October 27, 2022October 26, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I was so excited after last week’s post about Panels and our Villa Rosa Rose Card patterns that work for panels, I just had to play with my stuff! I decided to go ahead and get the top done for Hypnotized, using my adorable Halloween Gnomes,. Who doesn’t love gnomes???? I just had to, I didn’t want to wait until next year, although I might not get it quilted and bound until next Halloween.

If you missed last week’s Panel Post, you can find it HERE.

Here’s the Hypnotized Rose card pattern:

You can buy the Hypnotized pattern HERE.

Let’s get started with our tutorial!

The first thing you need to do is to cut out your pieces. I used this adorable Halloween Gnome novelty fabric from Northcott instead of a panel. The cool thing about quilt patterns made for panels is that you can usually substitute a novelty print as long as you cut it to the right dimensions.

YAY! GNOMIES! (That’s what my sister, Tracy, calls them.)

I did not cut the pieces for the inner and outer border out yet. I like to wait until I have the center of the quilt made because sometimes my measurements don’t exactly match the measurements given in the pattern.

If this happens to you too, don’t cut the border strips until you can measure your quilt center. That way you can cut the border strips (and piece the strips together if needed) to your specific measurements, not someone else’s.

Remember when we talked about the “perfect” quarter inch seam allowance? Go HERE if you need a refresher. There really isn’t one. Basically, everyone’s quarter inch seam is a touch different, either a bit smaller or bigger than that elusive quarter inch. Anyway, as each of us use a slightly different quarter inch seam, the dimensions of our quilts are going to be slightly different too. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

So sew with your best quarter inch seam — accuracy is more important than a perfect quarter inch seam in most cases — and measure your quilt before you cut the borders.

Let’s keep moving!

After you’ve cut your pieces, sew strips to the sides of the small square. Then sew strips to the top and the bottom.

You know, I photographed every step of this process, but for some reason all my photos are not on my iPad. Methinks my cat Griffin might have deleted photos when he was painting on his iPad cat painting app.

A cat that paints? No, that’s not strange at all……. What’s strange is that he scratches at my iPad (covered with a protective screen cover) and gets out of his painting game and into other apps somehow. Kids….

Anyway, sew strips to the sides of this block and then add the strips to the top and bottom. Voila! This is your center square. Make 1. (Sorry for the EQ images, but the photos are gone!) Silly Griffy!

Now sew strips to the side of your other 8 squares. Then add the longer strips to the top and the bottom. Make 8.

Here are all my blocks ready to go. Aren’t they fun???

Wow! This quilt is coming together fast. Now to add some background rectangles to our quilt blocks.

Sew a background rectangle to the top of a Framed block. Make 3.

Please Note:  If your fabric is not directional, you can skip adding background rectangles to various sides of the Framed square blocks.  Instead, sew background rectangles to one side of each of the 8 Framed square blocks.

Sew a background rectangle to the bottom of a Framed block. Make 3. (Sorry, these photos are gone, too.) Argh….Griffin…….

Now sew a background rectangle to the left side of a Framed block. Make 1.

Lastly, sew a background rectangle to the right side of a Framed block. Make 1.

Whew! That was a little confusing, I know, but now we get to put things together!

Sew 2 top facing background rectangle units with a bottom facing background rectangle unit in the center. Then sew a long background rectangle to each end of the row. Make 1 row.

Make the bottom row pretty much the same as the top row, above, but reversed — sew 2 bottom facing background rectangle unit with a top facing background rectangle unit in the center. Then sew large background rectangles to the ends of the row. Make 1 row.

Now for the middle row — sew a right facing background rectangle unit, the single center block, and a left facing background rectangle unit at the end. Make 1 row.

Next sew the 3 rows together.

Isn’t this quilt top adorable so far? The orange frame in the center block really pops, don’t you think? Can’t wait to get the borders on next!

Now sew the inner border strips to the sides of the quilt center. You’ll probably have to piece the strips so they’re long enough. Add the top and bottom inner border strips, piecing them too.

Almost there! It’s time to add outer border strips to the sides — piece those border strips carefully, please. Finally! Our last step for the top — sew on the top and bottom borders, piecing your strips.

Houston….we have a problem!

I just discovered I don’t have enough border print fabric to sew borders on all 4 sides of the quilt.

Whatever can I do???

Why, just add borders to the top and bottom of the quilt! Good solution on the fly. That’s how I roll.

Yay! Mission accomplished — adorable Halloween Gnomies quilt top completed before Halloween! (Sorry the photos of the quilt as it gets put together aren’t very good — I am limited on space for working with larger quilts, so here I’m hanging the quilt top on a clothesline strung in the basement. Hey, we do what we have to do, right?)

What do you think?

As I write this post, I’m crazily packing my stuff to head to International Quilt Market in Houston, TX. I haven’t been to Market since 2019 — before the Pandemic. I’m really excited as this will be my first time being part of the Villa Rosa team.

If you’re headed to Market, stop by the booth, we are Booth #747, right behind the center Info booth on the main walkway. VRD is also doing 2 Schoolhouse lectures on Friday, Oct 28th. If you’re headed to Quilt Festival, Villa Rosa Designs will have a booth there, too. We’d love to say “hi.”

Sigh….Back to my packing.

Stay tuned — next week’s post will be all about my Quilt Market trip. The sights, the sounds, the food….

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Panel Quilts · Quilt Play · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

What Can I Do with a Quilt Panel?

October 20, 2022October 19, 2022 rosecards8 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

After our 8 week Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners series, I find I’m ready for something new. How about you???

I thought it would be fun to talk about quilt panels and what quilts you can make with them. I must admit that I have a big stash of quilt panels. I know that admitting you have an addiction is the first step to recovery, right?

SHHHHH! My super secret stash of panels!

I’ve collected panels for a long time, but I rarely seem to use them or make anything out of them. Sure, I’ve slapped borders around some of them and whipped up a quick baby quilt or simple wall hanging, but does that really count? When I taught free motion quilting classes in the past, I even used a panel as a project so students would actually be quilting a “real” quilt, but not something they’d worked on for hours and hours.

If the quilt police showed up at my front door and asked me about my fabric stash and all my panels, I would say: Who me?? I have no idea where these panels and all this fabric came from. I think fabric is like rabbits and multiplies when you’re not looking. That makes sense, doesn’t it? But would it work?

Well, I’m hear to tell you that Villa Rosa Designs has a lot of GREAT patterns specifically for quilt panels — for vertically printed panels, horizontal panels, and even panels with printed “quilt squares.” Yay! Villa Rosa to your rescue — and mine, too!

Let’s take a look at some of the panel quilt Rose Card patterns. You can find ALL of these patterns on the website, www.villarosadesigns.com

Vertical panels seem to be the most common type of quilt panel and we have quite a few Rose Card patterns to choose from.

One of my absolute favorite Rose card patterns for vertical panels is Hillside Charm! I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but it is an awesome pattern and I have to show it off again! You’ll probably read about it later in the future too. Sorry, not sorry.

You can buy the Hillside Charm Rose card HERE

Isn’t this just the coolest pattern? Aren’t you already mentally going through your panel stash to see what you can use for Hillside Charm? I know I am….

Another one of my favorites is Daring Spirit — the perfect quilt for a Quilt of Valor as long as you add a narrow border around it to meet the minimum width requirement for a Quilt of Valor. You can check out my Daring Spirit tutorial HERE and my Quilts of Valor presentation post HERE.

Take a look at these terrific Rose Card patterns for vertical panels. Grab ’em while they’re hot!

Did you know Villa Rosa has Rose Card patterns for horizontal panels, too? This is awesome because patterns for horizontal printed panels can be hard to find!

October Sky is one of our most popular patterns. I bet you can see why! The really cool thing is that the top and bottom star sections are made with half square triangles, which go together like a snap when you take a little extra care to place your colors correctly.

Shh! Don’t tell anyone and when you make your October Sky quilt, everyone will be in awe at seeing your amazing quilting skills. I can’t wait to make one of these for myself.

Here are some more Rose Card patterns for horizontal panels. Nice!

We even have Rose Card patterns for quilt panels with printed blocks or squares!

Hypnotized is one of our new Rose Cards this year. I just love the look of this quilt — it looks difficult to make, but I know it won’t be because it’s a Rose Card pattern.

I’m all set to make Hypnotized. The only problem is that by the time I get to my project, it will be too late for Halloween this year so I guess I’ll have to say it’s early for next year.

Here’s my fabric for the Hypnotized Rose Card pattern — don’t you love it??? Instead of panel squares, though, I’m going to cut the squares from the gnome print and I’m going to use the stripe for my border. You’ll have to stay tuned for this quilt coming soon, or at least some time before Halloween 2023. LOL!

Yay! More Rose Card patterns for panels with printed squares/blocks. Of course, you can always substitute squares of any novelty fabric you love in these patterns, which makes them very versatile.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

I think you know me by now (and how much I like saying that phrase), so of course there’s more.

You know those really big panels that measure roughly 36″ x 42″? Well, we even have a couple patterns for these big panels, too.

And if you know anything about Villa Rosa Designs, you can bet we’ll be adding new patterns for panels in the future. In fact, I have a few ideas of my own.

That’s it for today. I’m off to play with my panels.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Basic Quilting Skills Series · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners: Squaring Up Your Quilt

September 29, 2022September 28, 2022 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

First, I want to give each of you a great big THANK YOU hug!

Thank you for reading our Villa Rosa Designs quilt blog, Villa Rosa Quilts. This past week, the number of views has exploded and we’ve added new followers, too. And it’s all because of you, our VRD fans and followers. We are thrilled that you find our blog to be informative, fun, and worthwhile.

Did you know you can follow our blog and never miss a Thursday Post? All you need to do is type in your email address and click the subscribe button just to the right of the blog post towards the top and you’ll get each new post delivered right to your email inbox every Thursday!

Now let’s hop right into this week’s Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners post — Squaring Up.

You cut, you sewed, you quilted, and now it’s time to square up your quilt. I was planning to do both Squaring Up and Binding in this post, but I decided it would probably be better to separate the two topics, otherwise the post was going to be too long, too wordy, and probably too boring and we can’t have that.

Forgive me, but you’ll have to wait until next week for Binding.

Squaring Up

Before you can do the binding, you first must square up your quilt.

Why should I square up my quilt? Can’t I just slap on the binding and be done?

That’s a good question — sure, you could just slap on the binding, but you probably wouldn’t be satisfied with the results. Things can get distorted as you handle your quilt, press (or maybe you iron), quilt it, tug, pull, crumple it up and throw it on the floor — well, you get the picture. Think of squaring up like pre-binding.

My quilt “volunteer” today is a new Halloween version of my Ice Jam VRD pattern. I made this runner a couple months ago as a sample project in my 2022 Villa Rosa Rose Card Table Runner a Month class, but never finished it.

BIG SHOUT OUT to all my awesome class buddies — Mary Lee, Sherry, Missi, Debbie, Anita, Robin, Kim, Gaynel, Jean, Donna and Gayle (the owner of my local shop, Homespun Treasures, where my class meets). Homespun Treasures, of course, has lots of Rose Card patterns in stock. Just sayin’….

Here’s the Ice Jam Rose Card pattern. It’s a super fast and fun table runner which measures 18″ x 54″ and uses 5″ charm squares. It’s a very versatile pattern and will look great in any style or theme. So, try it out.

Here’s the pattern cover with the original wintery blues.

What!?! You don’t have the pattern? You can order it HERE.

Just a quick note about the machine quilting. If you missed our Quilt As Desired post last week, you can find it HERE. I added my wiggly lines free motion quilting video to last week’s post and I just wanted to point out my fun wiggly squiggly lines on this table runner.

Okay, okay……let’s get back to squaring up.

You might want to press your quilt before squaring it up. Pressing your quilt will help everything lay nice and flat.

Next lay your quilt out on your cutting mat, centering one corner of the quilt on the mat because we will square up the corners before cutting the sides. If you are working on a large quilt, it helps to support the weight of the quilt on a table or chair. The problem with larger quilts is that if the quilt is hanging off your cutting mat/table and down to the floor, the weight of the quilt can pull things out of whack . Oops! Gravity works. Now if you lived on the moon, you wouldn’t have to worry about this issue…. (wink, wink)

Use the biggest square ruler you have for cutting your quilt corners, the bigger the ruler, the easier it is to square up your corners. I personally love my 12 1/2″ square for working with table runners and smaller quilts, but I also have 15″ and 18″ square rulers to use for larger quilts.

Once you’ve smoothed your quilt out flat, lay your square ruler down on a corner of your quilt. Adjust the square as needed to make the corner 90 degrees, sliding a little this way and that way until it’s square.

Don’t worry if batting, backing, and even slivers of your top are beyond the edges of the ruler. If you see too much of the front of the quilt beyond your ruler edge, though, wiggle the ruler around some more until there is very little of the quilt top showing beyond the ruler. You don’t want to cut much from your quilt edges, especially if you have triangles all the way to the edge of the quilt because you will probably cut off your triangle points and that will not make you very happy.

Take your time here because once you cut, you can’t go back. Hold the ruler down with one hand using good solid pressure — be careful not to shift the ruler – and cut on the 2 outer sides of the ruler, thus making this corner square.

Let’s move on to the next corner. Line up the ruler, adjust it gently for another nice square corner, then cut. Repeat for corners 3 and 4. Yep — you’re going to have weird strips of batting/backing hanging off your quilt. That’s okay. We’ll take care of that in the next step. In the meantime, think of it like quilt spaghetti.

Now it’s time to position the quilt on the cutting mat so we can cut the long edges and remove all that quilt spaghetti. I use my 6″ x 24″ ruler for this part. Again, if you’re working on a big quilt, support the weight so the quilt doesn’t slide off your mat/table or skew your cutting.

Please be patient and take your time with your squaring up (I know it’s hard but trust me — I have the attention span of a four year old, so if I can do it, you can do it) because if you don’t square up properly during this step, your quilt will never be square, no matter how much you tug and pull later down the road. Wonky quilts don’t lay well on tables or beds nor do they look nice hung up on walls.

Start at one nicely squared up corner and line up the long ruler. Again, don’t worry if you see bits of your quilt top sticking out beyond the ruler edge as that is completely okay and to be expected. Once things are lined up to your satisfaction, cut with your rotary cutter along the ruler edge, stopping before you reach the end of the ruler so you don’t accidentally cut into your quilt. Gently slide the ruler across the quilt edge so you don’t distort your nice straight edge or your square corner. Make sure that the ruler is still lined up with your fresh cut quilt edge. Cut again. Continue doing this until you can line up your ruler from your freshly cut edge to your next squared up corner and cut. Yay you! Only 3 more sides to go.

Go ahead and repeat for the other 3 sides. Luckily with a table runner, I usually only have to cut the 2 long sides this way as the short sides get squared up when I use my 12 1/2″ square ruler for the corners. Not so lucky with big quilts — sometimes it’s like wrestling an octopus, but keep at it, you will be the winner.

Here it is! My squared up quilt. Yay!

Let’s do a quick check to make sure things are all square before we move on.

Fold your quilt in half, lining up the edges and corners as best as you can, use a few straight pins if you need to. If things are nice and square, everything should line up pretty well (there really is no such thing as perfect, so if things aren’t 100% exact, that’s okay). If corners or edges are not lined up, then you need to check the squareness of your corners with your large square ruler again and make any necessary minute adjustments to square up those corners. Then check the long sides again using your long ruler to make sure things are nice and straight, only cutting away slivers of quilt to make things more square and straight.

Fold your quilt again, lining up corners and edges, to check your squareness. Repeat until things are as square and straight as you can get them.