Yep – you’re right, it’s not Thursday yet, but I had some important information to share with you about Villa Rosa Designs and it couldn’t wait until our usual Thursday post.
Please read on –
Moving Along
Pat Fryer is making changes – all toward scaling back her personal work load and concentrating on the Villa Rosa patterns.
California fabric shop and online fabric store –
All of the fresh new fabrics will be handed off to Heidi and Molly Cook. The location is the same and all of the good things will be there. They have a new name – 3 Aunts Quilt Shop. The website 3AuntsQuiltShop.com will be live October 1. There will be links on the VillaRosaDesigns.com website and in our newsletters. All of Villa Rosa Designs patterns will be available at the shop and on 3AuntsQuiltShop.com. 3 Aunts Quilt Shop will carry on as the California home of Villa Rosa Designs. Great things are in store!
VillaRosaDesigns.com –
The website will continue to have all of the Villa Rosa Designs patterns, and will still have close-out fabric and kits. There is much remaining inventory after years of buying and overbuying fabric.
Pat and company [me included!] are going to be adding much more in the way of videos, tutorials, challenges, social sharing. Let’s keep Villa Rosa Designs quilting and connected!
The new Texas home of Villa Rosa Designs –
A new East Texas location is opening in October. The location is a partnership between Pat of Villa Rosa Designs and Catherine of Running Doe Quilts. Running Doe Quilt Shop is expanding there – more machines, more fabric and notions, more classes. Running Doe’s new shop will be renamed Rose City Sewing. The location will have all of the Villa Rosa patterns available, along with close-out Villa Rosa fabrics. Great things are in store!
Wholesale Operations –
Austin, TX is still home to Villa Rosa Designs administration and print shop. Leann Fryer handles operations, web design, programming, wholesale ordering, and special orders. Wholesale orders for quilt shops can be placed on VillaRosaWholesale.com.
Pattern Shipping –
Central Missouri houses the patterns. Eric Aitken fills pattern orders – wholesale and retail. Nancy Aitken heads our art department from there.
With all these moves, Villa Rosa Designs continues to be scattered over 3 states. Centralizing contacts – phone and emails – will be a challenge we hope to simplify.
Contacts –
3 Aunts Quilt Shop – Molly Cook, Heidi Cook 3auntsquiltshop@gmail.com 530-509-5133 530-798-8506 530-755-6467 3AuntsQuiltShop.com 12438 Loma Rica Dr., Ste. A Grass Valley CA 95945
I hope you are enjoying this collection of VRD quilt tutorials to inspire you to leap back into quilting this fall. May these tutorials nudge you into making a quilt for someone special or maybe just for yourself.
We’ve got lots to do today, so let’s get moving.
First up, it’s the Thursday after the first Friday of the month, and you know what that means – NEW PATTERNS! Talk about fall inspiration!!!
Here’s the new collection of 5 VRD Rose Cards for September. Aren’t they super???
(Patterns are also available individually both as print and digital versions)
Awestruck by Molly uses 5″ squares and finishes at 44″ x 60″. There are kits still available HERE featuring Tula’s True Colors collection while they last. Totally loving the name!
Melissa wows us with her Pumpkin Parade throw quilt. It uses yardage (or your stash!) and finishes at 45″ x 56″. We still have a few kits left HERE featuring Riley Blake Seasonal fabrics, so grab one before they’re gone.
Pat is back this month with her latest Tim Holtz Palette quilt pattern, Edwina, featuring the Indigo Palette. Edwina finishes at 45″ x 60″ and is fat quarter friendly. Kits are still available, but going fast, so get yours HERE.
Besties is my new throw-sized quilt pattern this month. It’s fat quarter friendly and finishes at 48″ x 64″. We have kits featuring Anna Maria’s Iconic collection (see below) still available HERE.
Besties in the Iconic Collection
Viroqua is Rachelle’s latest smashing mod pattern. It finishes at 42″ x 48″ and uses half yards and yardage (stash friendly!). There are kits still available HERE featuring Windham’s Sketchbook 21 collection (see below).
Viroqua in the Sketchbook 21 collection (please disregard the 2 mistakes where we turned the HSTs the wrong way – it’s getting fixed as we speak)
Last, but certainly not least is this month’s new table runner, Beachcomber. I’m sorry I missed the deadline boat last month with this fun runner, but I think it’s not too late to have just a wee bit more summer before it’s officially autumn on September 22nd.
You can really use just about any fabric collection or your stash for this fun and clever runner. Beachcomber finishes at 18″ x 54″ and uses yardage. Autumn? Halloween? Thanksgiving? Christmas? And the list goes on. Have you ever thought about making a 2 sided runner with 2 different seasons….here’s your chance!
Get your digital Beachcomber pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.
Now we’ve covered all of the new September patterns, which one will you make first?
OH! One last little thing about the new patterns – Melissa’s new Pumpkin Parade throw quilt is a fabulous companion to our best-selling Pumpkin Hollow table runner.
Get your Pumpkin Hollow digital pattern HERE or print pattern HERE.
All right, moving on, let’s dive into this week’s quilt tutorial – Cinnamon Stix.
VRD Cinnamon Stix Quilt Tutorial
Cinnamon Stix is a great pattern for a favorite fabric collection. You can use a stripe or even a seasonal/novelty fabric in the long strips, so it’s really versatile. Then simply add your coordinating fabrics for the Stix, a sashing, and border. Cinnamon Stix is fat quarter friendly and finishes at a nice 46″ x 63″.
Get your Cinnamon Stix digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.
I promised you a few weeks ago that I was going to have another quilt featuring Hoffman’s Rodeo Dreams digital collection – well, here it is! Today we’re using the border stripe in the collection along with fun coordinates, including a few batiks.
First up, we’re going to cut out the Stix for the 3 pieced Stix rows.
Once we’ve gotten all of the Stix cut, we’re going to slap them up on the design wall so we can arrange and rearrange them until we’re happy with the fabric placement.
Heads up – because the Stix are cut different widths, each row might look a bit different, depending on how you arrange your Stix.
Now we’re happy with how the Stix rows look, so it’s time to sew them together. I like to sew them into pairs, then sew the pairs into quads, and so on until all the pieces are stitched together into a row. Then repeat for the next 2 rows.
Okay, all the Stix are sewn together into 3 rows. Lookin’ good!
Next let’s work on prepping and cutting the Rodeo border stripe fabric. My pal (and cousin), Robin, is helping me out with this tutorial today – we’re working on it in her sewing room.
Hey Robin!
Once the stripe is cut, we’re going to work on cutting the narrow sashing, which is this gorgeous blue 885 Dot batik. LOVE IT!
Let’s sew the sashing to both sides of our pieced Stix rows.
Now we’re going to lay out the sashed Stix rows with the stripe. My tip is to find the center of the sashed Stix row and the center of the border stripe. Then match and pin the centers together and pin outward towards the ends to keep the quilt nice and square. We’re ready to sew the rows together. And then we need to add sashing all the way around as our first border.
Yay! The center of the quilt is finished. Easy peasy!
Okay, time to cut the final border, which is a wonderful red bandana print from the Rodeo Dreams collection. Then we’re going to sew it to the quilt. Yay!
And here it is – the finished Cinnamon Stix quilt top in Rodeo Dreams. Isn’t it really fun???
Here it is outside for a straight-on shot. It was really breezy so we ended up taking the photo in front of one of Robin’s hubby’s farm toys so it blocked the wind, instead of in front of the old barn (our first choice). Thank you Mary Lee and Robin for holding the quilt and fighting the wind for me. Perfect!
I bet you’re already thinking about border stripes in your stash (or something new at your local quilt shop) to use in this fun and fast VRD pattern. We’d love to see your Cinnamon Stix quilts on our VRD Facebook page.
Now that the top (or flimsy) is done, it’s time to layer it with batting and backing, quilt it, bind it, and lastly add a label. Eventually…..
Stay tuned next week for another great VRD tutorial.
I hope you enjoyed last week’s tutorial, Morning Tea, with Molly. It was wonderful that she could stop by the blog and visit with you. Things have been super busy over there at the VRD shop in Grass Valley, CA, so she just hasn’t had a lot of extra time to hang out with us on the blog. What a great quilt she made, too, huh? Blue and white Australian fabrics – wow! If you missed last week’s Morning Tea tutorial, you can find it HERE.
High British Tea and a Quilt Exhibit/Tour
Last Friday, I was delighted to attend a High British Tea and Quilt Program/Tour at the Gibson House Manor Museum in Jamestown, PA. I was invited by my sister’s aunt-in-law (is this even a word???), Anita, to attend as her guest. Anita is not only a quilter, she also volunteers at the Museum.
The Gibson House Manor has had a very interesting history, indeed. It was built by a local doctor, William Gibson in the 1850’s. It is also known as the Mark Twain house because Mark Twain actually stayed there after the Civil War. He liked the house so much, he even included it in one of his stories! But even more interesting, it was a vital stop on the underground railroad with hidden secret rooms and so much more! You can visit the website HERE for more information.
Here’s the museum – isn’t it gorgeous???
Lucky me – not only was the new quilt exhibit debuting, the curator was giving a tour of the quilts, AND it was the monthly High British Tea day. What fun!
Here’s a few photos of the exhibit, showing some of the quilts on display.
You can see this lovely exhibit (and the museum!) until October. It’s called Quilted Layers: Piecing Together History and it is curated by Jill Mezaros. You can make reservations on the website to see the exhibit. While you’re there, you might want to take the Underground Railroad tour and maybe have High British Tea, which is usually the last Friday of the month. Yum!
Now let’s get started on this week’s quilt tutorial to help you restart your quilting this fall.
VRD Midnight Pathway Quilt Tutorial
Midnight Pathway is another great VRD pattern by our own Molly Cook. It finishes at a big 52″ x 72″ and makes a good-sized throw quilt. Want it bigger? Simply add a border.
To me, this pattern has a more masculine feel to it. It’s very straightforward without any extras. I think you’re going to like it!
Don’t have this pattern yet? Then get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.
Today we’re using a rich earthy fabric collection. This collection is called Into the Woods and is a Hoffman Fabrics digital fabric collection with companion batiks.
Sadly, this collection is an older one, so you might not be able to find it anymore. This time of year, though, you’re bound to find something with a fabulous autumn woodsy feel that would work equally well like the Jason Yenter collection Falling Leaves or maybe Deb Tucker’s Forest Flora collection.
The first thing we’re going to do is to cut a lot of strips from our prints.
Then we’re going to cut more strips from our contrast fabric.
Once we’ve got all of our strips cut, we’re going to cut our strips into different sized pieces. It’s important to keep all the pieces from one strip together. I folded the smaller pieces inside the longer pieces so I wouldn’t lose them.
We’re heading to the sewing machine next so we can add contrast rectangles between the small and larger pieces of the strips. You could mix and match your pieces for a really scrappy look (or even shop out of your stash and scrap bins), but I’m sticking with the pattern and going to keep each original strip together.
As there are three different pieced strips, I’m going to sew the strips together in 3 sections, then I’ll sew all the sections together.
I’m going to pin all the same pieced strips together to stay organized as I work on each group.
Now that all my strips are pieced, the fun can begin! Time to arrange the strips on my flannel board. Because I have my strips already divided into 3 groups, I’m also going to work on sewing the pieced strips together into 3 sections.
You can really have some creative license with this design because you can arrange the strips any way you want! There are so many ways you can put these strips together, so make sure you play a little bit before you commit.
Okay, I’m happy with my first section, so I’m going to sew the pieced strips together – first into pairs, then into quads, then finally sewing the quads together into one section. This helps me to keep from mixing up the strips as I sew.
I added this piece of paper to the top left corner so I wouldn’t flip things all around as I went.
Great! Time to move onto the second group of pieced strips. I’m going to continue using the same technique as I did with the first section (twosies and foursies) after I’ve decided how I want this section arranged.
Now onto the last section. Because the quilt top is getting so long, I’m pretty much standing on my head to arrange the last pieced strips. LOL! I can barely show you the entire quilt top now – my pressing counter is in the way and I’m running out of flannel board.
So I’m going to take the top outside for a photo so you can see the whole thing. And here it is! I really like how warm and cozy it looks and how any guy or gal would love it!
Now all I have to do is layer it with batting and backing (or fleece as I plan to do), quilt it, bind it, and put on a label. Ho hum…..I’ll be adding it to my mountain of projects that need finished, I’m afraid. Seriously, I have no idea how many flimsies (quilt tops) and layered quilts I have on my pile – so, what’s one more???
Fingers crossed I’ll get some time this winter to work on them. Of course, the more tutorials I do, the more flimsies I add to my teetering pile. What a delightful conundrum.
Bet you don’t have any WIPs or UFOs (works-in-progress or unfinished objects) in your sewing space, do you???
See you next week for another great tutorial and NEW September patterns!
Long time no see! I’m stealing the blog from Tricia this week – it’s been a while since I snuck in here and did a tutorial. Sorry it’s been so long, but things have been awfully busy at the VRD shop and I’ve been working hard to create new patterns for you, too.
I heard Tricia’s doing a bunch of tutorials to help everybody get back into quilting this fall, so I thought I’d add one to the mix – Morning Tea. Yup, another Tea quilt. LOL!
Anyway, let’s get back to today’s tutorial, Morning Tea.
VRD Morning Tea Quilt Tutorial
Here’s Morning Tea, designed by our very own VRD Rose Queen, Pat. It’s a fat quarter (18″ x 21″) friendly pattern plus you need to add a background fabric. And of course, it’s fast and fun!
If you don’t have the pattern yet, you can get your print copy HERE or digital copy HERE
I wanted to play around with some of our Aboriginal fabrics in the VRD shop again and decided on this range of blues. Fun, huh? The squiggly light fabric towards the bottom of the photo is my background and the one in front if it is my binding.
Lucky you! We even have some kits left, and you can get yours HERE. Your kit comes with the fat quarters (FQs), background fabric, binding, and the pattern. I do have to say some of the fabrics have been discontinued but we did add some great replacements and they work perfectly too.
Let’s rock this quilt!
First step is to divide your fat quarters into 2 piles. From the first group, we’re going to cut them into 2 different widths.
2. From the remaining smaller group of FQs, you’ll cut the strips all the same width.
3. The background strips are all cut the same size by the width of the fabric, then we’re going to cut the long strips in half so our strips are the same length as our fat quarter strips. Genius!
4. Sew a background strip to each of the largest FQ strips. Next cut each of those strip sets into segments. I’m going to name these Unit A so we can keep everything straight as we go along.
5. Sew the remaining background strips between the small and the medium FQ strips. Subcut them into segments. These strip sets, I’m naming Unit B.
6. Are you following along? Because now we are going to sew our A and B units into blocks. Taking 2 of unit A and 2 of unit B, sew together with As on the outside and Bs in the middle. You’ll need to flip the last 2 units.
7. You will now make a reversed block with 2 more of each A & B units, turning the last 2 units as shown.
8. You should now have the same number of each block. Time to play! You can lay your quilt out just like the pattern or you can play around with the layout and create some fun variations.
Here’s the original layout.
And here’s some cool variations to try out.
I bet you can even come up with your own block arrangement, so have fun!
9. When you’ve decided how you want to arrange your blocks, it’s time to sew the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together into the quilt top.
For my Morning Tea quilt, I’m going to stick with the original layout. Totally loving how it turned out!
10. Next up – layer, quilt, bind, and label your quilt.
Don’t forget to post your quilts on our VRD Facebook page or tag us on Instagram, #villarosadesigns. We love seeing your creations!
Thanks for stopping by and sewing with me!
Next week, Tricia will be back with another great tutorial for you.
After our super fun Let’s Design a Quilt series (if you missed it, please check out the right side bar on the blog to find all of the links for the series) wrapped up last week, I promised a new group of tutorials to jump-start your autumn quilting.
You know how this time of the year is filled with local fairs and such right before the kiddos go back to school? Well, this week we’re off to the rodeo! Yippee!
Have you ever been to a rodeo? I have a vague memory of going when I was a kid. My Grandma (my Dad’s mom) was always crazy about horses and always had at least a couple on the farm (my Grandpa always had his cows). I spent a lot of time on the farm as a kid as my grandparents’ farm was just down the road from our house. I have lots of good memories on the farm from when I was a kid. Baby animals were probably my favorite. Of course, running through the fields at midnight in the summer chasing down stray cows or horses was always fun, too. Good times.
Let’s slap our cowgirl (or cowboy) hats on our heads, put on our boots, and get started!
VRD Tea With Mara Quilt Tutorial
Tea With Mara is designed by Deanne of Creative Sewlutions, one of our talented VRD designers. This quilt finishes at a generous 58″ x 72″ and it can handle those large prints we are so loathe to chop up. Use printed panel squares……or not down the center. Sew many options……..sew little time!
PSST! Don’t forget, patterns always ship free, so grab a few more while you’re perusing the VRD patterns at the online shop.
For today’s tutorial, I’m using fabric from our friends over at Hoffman. It’s a digital-printed collection called Rodeo Dreams. When I saw this collection, I loved it! Maybe because it brought back fun memories from my childhood? So I’m letting you know right now that you’ll be seeing a couple more tutorials featuring Rodeo Dreams.
Just a quick word of caution when using digitally-printed fabrics – start with a brand new needle because if your needle is dull, you run the risk of damaging the fabric and we certainly don’t want to do that.
The first fabric I’m going to cut is the running yardage of the rodeo vignettes. I’m very glad I have a ruler the same size as the required block size in the pattern so I can fussy cut the squares easily and accurately.
Having the right sized ruler makes it a lot easier to fussy cut these vignettes than trying to cut strips and then cutting the strips into squares. This type of fabric makes strips and squares kind of tricky because the vignettes aren’t all the same size nor do they line up in a perfect grid.
Love quilting rulers! Boy, they do make quilting so much easier, faster, and more accurate.
Mostly, I rely on my 6×24 and 6×12 rulers for cutting, but it’s always a great idea to have a collection of square rulers in the most common sizes, which are not only good for fussy cutting, but also for squaring up blocks.
The only problem with fussy cutting is that your fabric will look like Swiss cheese when you get all done! LOL! Check mine out below. I can still fussy cut more pieces out of the fabric, but there is definitely more waste doing it this way than cutting strips into squares. Just something to think about if you’ve never fussy cut before.
Now I’m finished making Swiss cheese, it’s time to cut the rest of my fabrics. Loving this red bandana print – it looks like the real thing (digitally printed, of course)!
Here are all my fabrics cut and ready to sew.
But before I start sewing, I’m going to lay out all of the pieces on my flannel wall. I want to make sure I like the placement of the rodeo vignettes before I commit to their positions permanently.
I really like the nice big pieces in this quilt, even if I have to layer pieces on the floor because the quilt is going to be longer than my flannel wall. It’s going together surprisingly fast, though.
Of course, you don’t have to fussy cut your fabrics like I did – you could use any fabric you wanted for the center squares. Or you could even scrap this quilt up and use some of your stash. Such a versatile pattern – I could totally picture this quilt in a great collection of fall or harvest fabrics! Hmmmmmmmm….
You could even add a 6″ finished border, which would make the quilt a big 70″ x 84″!
Now I’ve got all my pieces up on the flannel wall. I switched a couple of the rodeo vignettes around, but other than that, I think it’s ready to sew. I like how it looks.
Yippee-ki-yi-yay! Let’s sew this little dogie together! I really like how the fabrics alternate in placement from side to side – it definitely helps to keep your eyes moving around the quilt. The red and blue bandana fabrics really make this quilt in addition to the rodeo vignette squares. LOVE IT!
And here it is outside on the clothesline. All I need is a horse or 2 grazing in the backyard, right? I’ll be binding this quilt with the dark blue batik you see in the fabric and pattern photo way up at the beginning of this tutorial. I think it will frame the quilt nicely.
Now to get this quilt top layered, quilted, bound, and labeled…….some day, anyway. Right now I’m going to add it to my teetering pile of flimsies and UFOs. I’m hoping to make a good-sized dent in that pile this fall and winter. It’s just been way too hot this summer to machine quilt and do binding.
Here’s to autumn with its warm days and cool nights. And the brilliant colors of the season…. I can’t wait!
What’s shakin’? Me, just sitting here thinking about which quilt block we’re going to feature today to wrap up our Design a Quilt series. I’m kind of bummed that today’s the final post in this series, but it is true that all good things must come to an end. That makes sense, because, if they didn’t then we would never have the opportunity to find new good things.
I’ve also been thinking about how you, dear readers, can utilize what we’ve covered in this series. The biggest thing that occurs to me, of course, is designing your own quilts using common quilt blocks. Common quilt block designs (like Nine Patch, Irish Chain, Four Patch, Sawtooth Star, etc., etc.) would most likely be considered in the public domain.
Want to find public domain quilt block designs? Just Google it! Pretty much all quilt block designs (and everything else in print) from publications before 1923 are considered public domain. Another idea is to look up quilt block history to see if the blocks were used before 1923. You can also invest in a quilt block reference or 2.
For those of you who may not have heard of Barbara Brackman – she is probably the most well-known quilt historian in the USA, if not the world. Her book is meticulously researched and includes a reference section with original publications for the blocks in the book. Believe me, you will never run out of inspiration – there are over 4000 blocks in the book!
Another oldie but goodie block reference is The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America by Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger. This book was published in 1935 and is actually in the public domain itself. It includes A LOT of old pieced and appliqued quilt blocks and quilts along with historical notes. You might be able to find a used copy as its out of print, or I’ve included a link to an e-book version above.
What does all this mean, really?
If you want to sell quilts, the best way to do that is to design your own instead of using someone’s copyright-protected pattern, which, as we’ve previously explored, has the potential to cause you legal issues down the road.
Want to be a quilt designer?
Create/sell your own patterns?
Design quilts for quilt magazines?
Write a quilt book?
Easy peasy, use public domain/common quilt blocks to create your own designs. Then your designs would be copyright protected, too.
Huh. Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it? That doing something so simple – and FUN! – can become your own copyright-protected work.
Just something for you to think about….
Let’s move on to today’s block: Drunkard’s Path.
Let’s Design a Quilt: The Drunkard’s Path Block
Here is a basic Drunkard’s Path block unit.
The Drunkard’s Path block has a very interesting and rich history with roots in ancient Egypt. The block was popular with the Underground Railroad and the Women’s Temperance movement in the US. For a more and detailed history, please check out this article on the AccuQuilt blog: A History of the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Patterns.
Today, we are going to explore some of the interesting ways you can arrange this humble block unit, add sashing or not, and using color to tweak the design.
Before we can design a Drunkard’s Path quilt, we need to explore some of the many many different Drunkard’s Path variations. Believe me, these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few books to explore more Drunkard’s Path designs.
Here are different ways to arrange the units in a 2 x 2 layout. Which one is your favorite?
Okay, let’s try a 3 x 3 grid.
Now let’s see what a 4 x 4 grid looks like.
So I think you get the idea about the endless possibilities of the Drunkard’s Path block unit. Why don’t you try a 5 x 5 grid or a 6 by 6 grid to see what you can create?
Now let’s play with the color arrangement by swapping reds and whites in order to create new and different designs from the ones above.
Let’s add more colors to our blocks, shall we? That way we can get even more interesting variations. You can see how adding more color can change a block design or even add a secondary design. Never underestimate the power of adding more color.
Okay, now it’s time to create quilt designs using some of the variations above! Let’s start with this bird variation.
I like this bird quilt arrangement very much, but I don’t love how all the birds are facing the same way.
Let’s turn the birds in different directions. Hmmm. I only see a small difference here. Let’s keep going.
Better with sashing and sashing squares, but I’m still not too excited by it.
Okay, let’s remove the sashing and turn the birds some more to see what happens. AHA! Yes, this is more like it.
I think we can call this a finished design. Let’s add some fabric. It would definitely make a bold 2 color quilt as long as you have strong contrast between the colors like the red and white example above. But let’s add more than 2 colors.
Yup, this one rocks. I’m using fabrics from QT’s American Spirit collection. I took a chance and flip flopped the fabrics in the centers and it really sets this design off.
Now let’s try a different Drunkard’s Path block variation from above.
I like this interesting block arrangement, especially with the checkerboard behind the blue circles. Very 3-D. But I bet we can tweak it to change it from an okay quilt to a WOW quilt.
Just a quick turn of some blocks and we get this design with lots of movement. Kind of fun, huh?
Let’s add some fabric to this one. Can’t wait to see it! Here’s a selection of yummy Hoffman batiks. This super mod design has a lot going for it!
Let’s play with another block.
All right, let’s see what this block looks like in a quilt. Gosh, I’m really liking this one. It reminds of a tile floor. But I think we can tweak it a bit to make it outstanding.
YES! This is the finished design. Adding sashing and sashing squares was just the tweak I needed, which added a wonderful secondary design.
Yippee! Time to add fabric! I think this design is spectacular!
Let’s do one more!
Let’s see how this variation plays in a quilt. I really like this design – it makes me think of Halloween bats flying in front of a full moon. But I think we can tweak it a bit more.
Let’s try sashing again. Sometimes this is the way to go and sometimes it isn’t. This one improves with sashing, definitely! I love the diagonal movement the design has now. What do you think?
Only thing left to do is to add FABRIC! I’m using assorted Hoffman batiks again and I played up the Halloween moon idea by making the background grey like twilight. Totally loving this!
Sadly, that wraps up our 5 part Let’s Design a Quilt series. I have had SEW much fun with this series. I hope you did too. I can envision adding more to this series down the road. Maybe I will focus on on-point quilt designs….
If you missed any posts in the series, you can find them all right here:
I know I say it every month, but our VRD designers are totally outstanding! Every month, they exceed the previous month’s designs. Let’s take a look at each pattern this month.
Grated by Heidi
Grated uses a stack of fat sixths (which are between a fat eighth and a fat quarter, measuring 12″ x 21″) or 10″ squares. This is a big quilt measuring 65″ x 75.” There are still kits available, which feature Klimt fabrics like the pattern cover. You can get your Grated kit, which includes the pattern, HERE.
Lady Banks by VRD (Pat)
If you are following along with the Tim Holtz Palette collections then Lady Banks is for you. It features the blue palette and finishes at 45″ x 60″. You can find the kit (including the pattern) HERE.
Catherine is back with 2 new mod patterns this month! Jasper is FQ friendly and finishes at 36×48, which makes a nice baby quilt or lap quilt. You can find the kit HERE featuring the Camp Canine collection at Running Doe Quilts.
Jolene is Catherine’s second quilt this month. It uses FQs and finishes at a generous 63″ x 84″. You can find the kit HERE at VRD featuring the Thirty-One collection or HERE at Running Doe Quilts featuring the Camp Canine collection.
Snap Shot by Molly
Snap Shot is another one of Molly’s creative panel quilts. It is FQ friendly and finishes at a nice 45″ x 54″, which could be a wall quilt or a throw. Sorry, but VRD is out of Snap Shot kits already.
Apologies, but there is no table runner this month. Stay tuned for next month’s runner!
SEW, which NEW pattern are you going to make first?????
Now let’s turn our thoughts to our ongoing Quilt Design series.
Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block
Here is the traditional Farmer’s Daughter block. According to Barbara Brackman, this block was first published in Clara Stone’s 1906 booklet, Practical Needlework: Quilt Patterns, which was part of a needlework booklet series by C. W. Calkins & Co. in Boston. Of course, like most quilt patterns, it was probably being made long before it was published. One of our readers suggested this block last week and I just couldn’t resist it. Thank you, dear reader! I hope I do the block justice for you!
Yikes! See how the four corners of the block feature set-in seams? Well, the first change to this block we are going to make is to change the four corners to be much friendlier by using Half Square Triangles (HSTs) instead of set-in pieces. Ahhhh! That’s more like it!
Now we’re ready to play — er, design! Let’s put Farmer’s Daughter blocks in a quilt. Huh! When you set the blocks side to side, you lose the block and a whole new design emerges. Pretty cool!
Now let’s add some sashing to see what that looks like. Neat-o! Sashing shows off the block. I just love the secondary design where the block corners (with the green squares) meet the sashing squares. Both designs have a lot of movement already and I haven’t done anything except the HSTs.
Wowzer! Look what happens when I change the colors to black, grey, white, and red. I’d call this a finished design right now, wouldn’t you???? It almost has a 3D effect. Cool beans!
Here’s the same design, but I changed the red to white. Holy cow, Batman! It’s really eye-catching and the black negative space is just itching for some really cool machine quilting.
Here’s the same design again, but I changed the grey to red. Oh my! It just about leaps off the screen. Just by playing around with the colors.
This is only ONE of sew many reasons why I love my Electric Quilt 8 software. I can tweak some tiny little thing and if I don’t like it, I can go back or keep tweaking. If you haven’t ever tried EQ8, you really should. It is a total game changer for quilters everywhere!
But wait! We’re not done yet. Let’s go back to the block and split the corner sections into 2 colors, instead of just 1 color. I also changed the center square to blue, which gives it an interesting pinwheel design in the center.
Let’s see what it looks like in a quilt. Hmmm. Not very interesting. At least not yet.
Let’s add some sashing. I’m gong to introduce black for the sashing squares. Better, but no way near finished. Let’s keep going.
Let’s flip the black and white for the sashing and sashing squares. WHOAH! I am loving this sashing idea – it is incredibly graphic! But now we need to tweak the blocks some more.
Before we work on the blocks some more, it needs a border to frame it. It just looked a bit unfinished without it, don’t you think?
That’s it! Okay, on to the blocks. Let’s swap the blue and yellow in the 4 corners back to 1 color, red. And change the blue center to white so it repeats the white sashing square. I love how graphic it is. Your thoughts?
One more tweak. Let’s change the center square in the blocks to black. Yup! That’s it! Love the plus sign in the center of the blocks! This design has a clean modern look yet it feels traditional, too. It is totally the best of both worlds.
All right! Let’s add some fabric. Again, I’m using batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. I did make one more tweak by changing the sashing squares to match the plus signs. Don’t you just love it in pinks? The black has a slight bluish tinge for added interest. Again, it has a bit of a 3D effect. Done and done!
Do you remember where we started? A Classic Farmer’s Daughter block.
How far we came just by changing the colors, playing with the fabric placement, and adding sashing/border.
How are you going to explore these ideas with your quilts???
Well, that’s it for me for our 4th week in our Let’s Design a Quilt Series. If you missed any posts, you can catch up here:
The forecast for today is sum-sum-summertime with a strong chance of quilting! SEW much to do today, so let’s get started.
Before we jump into this week’s Quilt Design adventure, though, I want to share a fun SNEAK PEEK with you from our friends over at QT Fabrics. You might recall that VRD has been working closely with QT to pair their new fabric collections with our patterns. Here is our latest collaboration:
These upcoming fabric collections are being shown to quilt shops right now and will ship in late 2025/early 2026. If you see something you like — ask for the collection (and VRD patterns, of course) at you local quilt shop.
Churn Dash Challenge Winner
As part of my Quilt Design series last week, I offered up a challenge to you – see what you could do with the Churn Dash block.
First, I want to thank those of you who shared your ideas, creations, blocks, and quilts.
And the winner is………………………..
Lisa from KY
Lisa won with her charming Churn Dash quilt, below, featuring multiple sizes of her Churn Dash blocks with the added fun of novelty farm panels and prints inside each block. Way to go, Lisa!
Log Cabin Inspiration
Folks were really inspired by last week’s Courthouse Steps block quilt design party and suggested we stay in the Log Cabin zone. Thank you for those suggestions, but I want to keep addressing different kinds of blocks to maximize your inspiration when it comes to designing quilts. There are entire books written about Log Cabin blocks and quilts and a few blog posts just can’t do the topic justice, I am afraid.
In lieu of more Log Cabin blocks, here is a short list of Log Cabin books for you to explore. I tried to choose a variety to show you here on the blog, but believe me – there are tons more out there just waiting to inspire your next Log Cabin quilt.
After enjoying your Log Cabin comments and quilt photos, it occurred to me that I have not done a Star block yet……..so today’s the day!
The Sawtooth Star Block
I chose an oldie, but a goodie for today – the Sawtooth Star.
Sawtooth Star is known by many names and has a lot of different variations. Apparently, it first appeared in print in the 1880’s or 1890’s in popular publications such as Farm and Fireside Magazine as well as in the Ladies Art Company catalog in 1895. The Sawtooth Star block was block # 5. Like most quilt blocks, however; Sawtooth Star blocks were probably being made long before they ever appeared in print.
Here is our classic 2 color Sawtooth Star block.
So, let’s make a quilt. Here are 20 blocks set side by side. This makes a lovely classic 2 color quilt, but of course we’re not going to stop there.
Here it is with sashing in between the blocks. Again, super classic. I do like how the sashing gives the stars room to breathe, plus this layout would be a lot easier due to not having to match up all those points. Win, win….
Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a little bit, shall we? Let’s change the solid center block into an Hourglass.
Here are the blocks set side to side. I find it interesting that I’m not seeing the stars so much now, but rather, all the triangles seem to jump out at me now. And I see “V” shapes, too. Huh.
Let’s tweak the block again by adding Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the 4 corners.
Okay, now let’s set the blocks side by side in a quilt. Wow! There is so much more movement – almost to the point of being distracting. Really cool, though.
Let’s add a 3rd color to the blocks now.
Here is the same layout as above, but with the added 3rd color. It looks totally different and not as dizzying.
What if we add sashing again? Cool – we now have a Shoofly block where the sashing square meets the blue HSTs – this adds a lot of interest to the design. Liking this, but not quite there yet. Let’s keep tweaking.
I think the blocks look a bit heavy, so I’m going to lighten them up a bit by changing the inner blue triangles back to white. Yep, liking this one more.
It’s a bit too vertical for me, though, so let me make one more tweak by alternating the direction of the blocks. Yes, I think that does it. This one’s a wrap!
But wait – I’m not done yet. I’m having way too much fun to stop now. Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a bit more by adding blue triangles on the sides only.
Here’s our updated block set side to side in a quilt. You totally lose the star block, don’t you? I like the horizontal repetition of the triangles, too.
Let’s add fabric! Here it is using the QT fabrics from American Tapestry again. Love it, yet……
One more tweak……let’s rotate every other block. Yup, that’s the one. Finished. Great movement – I can’t even see the stars now, can you?
Do you remember where we started? A classic 2 color Sawtooth Star.
YAY! This has been another fun quilt design adventure! Sew glad you came along.
If you’ve missed any posts in our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up below:
Are you ready to play with another quilt block? Yippee! Me too. This really is SEW much fun for me to do and I think it’s also helping me to think more “outside the box.” I’ve definitely noticed more designs popping into my head lately. 🙂
If you’ve missed our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up:
I was a little disappointed that no one was brave enough to suggest a quilt block in the comments on last week’s blog post. Please consider letting me know what your favorite block is or another block suggestion to design with as I’m planning to do this mini series on designing for a few more weeks. Do you really want me to have all the fun of picking out all the blocks?
So I asked my quilty pal, Mary Lee (Hey Mary Lee!) for a block suggestion. She thought for a few seconds and then suggested either Churn Dash or Courthouse Steps. I thought both were good options. Churn Dash (image 1, below) is another Nine Patch variation while Courthouse Steps (image 2, below) is a variation of a traditional Log Cabin block. Because we’ve already done 2 Nine Patch blocks, I zoomed in on her Courthouse Steps suggestion and immediately began to wonder what we could do with it.
Image 1 – Churn Dash block, also known as Hole in the Barn Door and Monkey Wrench
Image 2 – Courthouse Steps block
Homework!
Since I’m going to focus on the Courthouse Steps block today, I’m assigning all of you readers “homework” — see what you can do with the Churn Dash block (image 1, above).
You can share your “homework” on our Facebook Page, in the comments (although I’m not sure if you can upload images), or you can email them to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com.
I’d love to share your ideas on next week’s blog or upcoming posts if we have a big response. I hope you will take a little time and play – er, I mean design a quilt – along with me. Hand drawn, EQ, or Adobe images are great, please use a .jpg or .pdf format atat no more than 300 dpi.
Who knows????? There might even be a prize or 2…. US and International friends can play along, so go get started – right after you finish reading this post, that is.
The Courthouse Steps Block
Let’s learn a bit about the Courthouse Steps block. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a variation of a Log Cabin block. According to Barbara Brackman in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, it was originally called White House Steps and appeared in print circa 1890 in the first Ladies’ Art Company catalog, which included 272 patterns. White House Steps was block #221. Of course, that doesn’t mean the block just suddenly appeared in the 1890’s. rather, that was the first known version in print. Quilters may have been making the block much sooner than the 1890’s.
White House Steps block
Courthouse Steps block
The Courthouse Steps block we are familiar with today uses color a bit differently than the White House Steps version, above. Interestingly enough, “Courthouse Steps” isn’t even mentioned in Barbara Brackman’s book. I wonder if it’s a regional term used for the block? Does anyone know this block by another name? Just curious. I did find the block in Electric Quilt 8 software (which is based on Barbara Brackman’s book), but it is considered a foundation pieced block and does not include any historical information.
Doing a quick Internet search, I discovered a post on Suzy Quilts about Courthouse Steps blocks with a touch of history and wonderful examples of Gee’s Bend quilts. Check it out HERE.
Alright! Ready to get designing???
The Courthouse Steps Block
So, here’s our block again. Take a good look at it – what do you see? A central square with rectangles radiating from the center square both horizontally and vertically. That’s it! Simple, but very effective, very geometric, and very graphic.
Courthouse Steps block
Let’s put the blocks side by side with all of the blocks going the same direction. Okay, this is fun. And it would make an awesome scrappy quilt, wouldn’t it?
Let’s turn the blocks sideways and see if we get something different. Pretty much the same thing, just different direction.
Let’s alternate every other block next. Huh. Better. Definitely more movement in this one, wouldn’t you agree? I almost detect a bit of a curvy look happening, which is interesting with a square block.
Now I think I’d like to see what happens when I group the blocks in 4’s. That’s interesting.
Let’s add fabric to see what happens, shall we? I’m using Lori Holt’s warm and homey Riley Blake collection, Autumn. I can almost smell the apple pie…..
I want to tweak the blocks one more time. In this example, I turned alternating rows which then gave me an interesting boxed effect in rows 2 and 4.
Whoah! Stop the bus! Here was the basic idea behind my VRD Rose Card pattern, Boxed In (hence the name), although it’s not totally the same. I wasn’t even thinking about any of our VRD patterns when playing with Courthouse Steps, but – there it is. LOL!
Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE
Okay, let’s go back to our Courthouse Steps block and tweak it a little bit by changing the width of some of the rectangles. I left the side rectangles the same, but I made the top and bottom rectangles narrower.
Let’s use the first setting from above to see how the blocks plays in a design. I really think this looks pretty cool and it reminds me of paper lanterns.
Let’s tweak the color a little bit. Again, I’m using a couple prints from Lori Holt’s Autumn collection. WOW! What a mod yet classic 2 color quilt! Love it!
Cool! Check out this block arrangement! It’s the same layout as our previous 2nd design, above.
Hmmm. I just don’t feel that’s it totally complete yet, so let’s add another fabric to see what happens. In this example, I’m using some lovely Hoffman 1895 Watercolors batiks. Love it!
Just….one….more….tweak. As you can see, designing a quilt can get kind of addicting. Yup. But, I think you’ll agree with me that this is the final design. I changed the block directions a bit, changed the black centers to grey, changed the black background to a light grey and added more fabrics from Hoffman.
I think it’s perfect now.
There’s not much else I can say………except I’m very satisfied with this final design. Seriously. Sometimes it takes just one more try to get where you want to. And I’m not just talking about quilt design, you know.
What would you do to tweak the Courthouse Steps block to create your own design?
Don’t forget to do your homework for next Thursday! I’ll see what I can find in the prize department while you play with the Churn Dash quilt block to see what you can come up with.
What a fun blog post last week! It was great to share a little bit about my quilt design process with you. It was such fun, we’re doing it again this week, but with a different quilt block.
Before even starting this post, though, I must admit I cheated a bit and began playing with this week’s quilt block. Let me tell you – it never fails to amaze me how a simple block can create such amazing designs.
According to Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, this specific Spool block appeared in the book, Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts by Alice Gammell in 1973. Of course, it wasn’t really a new block in 1973, but this simplified Nine Patch version appeared in Polly Prindle’s. Previous versions included set-in seams as well as 4 small Spools in a single quilt block. Today, though, we’re going to start with Polly Prindle’s version.
As you can see, our Spool Block is a Nine Patch block with a 3×3 layout. Of course, we’ve added some Half Square Triangles (HSTs) to create the Spool shape.
Time to Play!
The first thing we’re going to do is to simply our Spool block by using flippy corners instead of HSTs for the top and bottom of the spool. This tweak would actually save time when piecing the blocks for a quilt without changing the overall design. And we all know that saving time is golden in the quiltmaking process. The tweak also cleans up the look of the block by removing some of the seams.
Let’s see what a quilt looks like using just this block, shall we? This design shows the blocks all pointing in the same direction. Hmmm. I like it, but I think we’re just getting started with the Spool block today.
Let’s try alternating the block directions. Better, but not there yet.
Next up – let’s alternate block direction by row. Better and better! I really like the play between the different block directions. Reminds me a little bit of the vertical and horizontal strips I added to last week’s classic Nine Patch block.
Let’s add some fabrics to this one. I’m using a few prints from Moda’s Acorn Hollow collection. This layout definitely has some potential. I’m not usually a big fan of 2 fabric quilts, but I am liking the crispness of the design with only the 2 fabrics.
Okay, let’s go back to our Spool block again. Instead of it being a 2 color block, let’s make it a 4 color block with a black center.
Huh. Intriguing. Let’s see how it looks in a quilt. This is the same layout as our first red/white layout above. What a difference color can make!
Now let’s alternate the block directions. This is the second red/white layout above.
I like it, but with so many colors, you kind of lose the interesting design. Let’s back off on colors a little bit by adding more neutrals. Not loving it, but I do like the diagonal thing happening.
Not quite what I was expecting. Let’s tweak the colors some more. I’m going to use red, black, white, and grey which is one of my favorite colorways when I’m trying to perfect a design. I like working with these colors because of the strong contrast. I also changed the center square to black, so I get an interesting black shape in the blocks now – kind of looks like a megaphone to me.
Let’s rearrange the blocks to see what happens. This is interesting. It has a lot of movement.
Let’s add some fabric now to see what it looks like. Here it is in 4 Hoffman batiks. I like it – it has a woven effect which keeps my eye moving over the design.
Let’s play with the block arrangement a little bit more. I think there’s another better option still out there. We just have to play a bit until we get there. Almost there.
I think it needs just one more thing tweaked. I’m going to reintroduce the 5th fabric in the block for the center squares. Yup! Got it. This is the one! A beautiful finished design! LOVE the 3-D effect. Lots of movement. Tons of interesting things going on.
Do you remember where we started? A simple Spool block.
An here’s where we ended. Still a simple Spool block, but so much more!
Isn’t quilt design a fascinating journey? For me, it’s a lot of “what if?” questions. Also, I’m not afraid to make something really ugly – I can always delete it, right? And sometimes “something ugly” just needs another tweak or 2 to become something amazing.
I hope you give designing a try. I think you’ll be surprised at how fun it it. Whether you use graph paper and a pencil or Electric Quilt 8 software, I think you can come up with something that’s truly your own, something you love.
Stay tuned next week for another fun quilt design adventure! Any suggestions on a simple quilt block you’re just dying to see turned into an interesting quilt design? Leave a comment and tell me!
Villa Rosa Quilts 