Villa Rosa Designs Fast & More Fun (Quilt) Blog Hop Comes to an End Plus Extra Blog Fun Just For You!

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 rosecards167 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I can’t believe that a week has passed since we began our second VRD Blog Hop. It’s been Sew Much Fun! And FAST, too!

Our participating bloggers have shared their VRD quilts, tips and tricks, and inspiration by the boatload — just what we all needed to help us jump-start a new fun project! You can visit Villa Rosa Designs HERE to see our catalog of over 600 Rose Card patterns for even more inspiration as well as kits and fabric galore.

Here’s the special VRD Rose Card collection curated for our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop:

Get your own Pattern Set HERE or you can comment on all the participating blogger sites to register to win your own set.

Interested in seeing the patterns we selected for our very first Blog Hop in 2023? You can see them HERE.

While we are still Hopping, let me show you one of my next blog tutorial projects. I am planning to make 31 with this brand new collection by Satin Moon Designs for Blank Quilting. The collection is called Holiday Style and it is coming to a quilt shop near you in May 2024, so start planning your projects now.

You’ll have to stop back to check out my 31 tutorial sometime after the Blog Hop is all wrapped up and all the prizes are shipped.

Hey! Did you know we do tutorials on this blog??? You can see which VRD patterns we’ve done so far by finding the Tutorials link under the Blog Topics category over on the right side of the blog. Want to see a tutorial for a specific VRD Rose Card pattern that we haven’t done yet? Just ask and we’ll see what we can do.

Bloggers and Sponsors

GROUP HUG! An enormous hug goes out to all of our 28 amazing bloggers for participating in the 2024 Blog Hop and showing us their own spin for the VRD Rose Card patterns above. Thank you, Bloggers, for taking the time to be part of the second VRD Blog Hop!

PSST! A quick reminder from the bloggers — if you posted a comment as “anonymous” and/or did not include an email address, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE revisit the blogs where you posted and leave another comment with a contact email address. Sadly, with no email address, there is no way to contact you if you win. Comments will close midnight on Sunday, March 24th.

Here is our Blog Hop Schedule again in case you missed any participating blogs or need to add last-minute comments:

Thursday, March 14
Villa Rosa Quilts — https://villarosaquilts.com/

Friday, March 15
Kathleen McMusings — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
The Morning Latte — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
Homesewn By Us — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
Pieceful Thoughts — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
C & T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16 — National Quilting Day!
Needle and Foot — https://needleandfoot.com/
MMM Quilts — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
Texas Quilt Gal — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
Time 4 Stitchn — http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
SIY (Sew It Yourself) — https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17 — Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Quarter Inch Capers — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
Norton House Quilting — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
Quilting Gail — https://quiltinggail.com/

Wazoo! Newsbits — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18
With Strings Attached — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
Jaftex/Scott Fortunoff — https://scottfortunoff.com/
Cocoa Quilts — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/

Quilt With a View — http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19
Shout 4 Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
The Darling Dogwood — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
Something Rosemade — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
Quilts of Valor Foundation — https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20 — First Day of Spring!

Grace and Peace Quilting — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
Happy Cottage Quilter — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Joyfully Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
Patchouli Moon Studio — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
Electric Quilt Company — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21
Villa Rosa Quilts — villarosaquilts.com (You are here)

NEWSFLASH! — There’s ONE MORE blogger surprise just for you! Our lovely sponsor, Hancock’s of Paducah, just created a blog to share their delight and excitement about Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Patterns. You can stop over to cheer them on HERE. They aren’t able to accept comments at this time, but they know that you’ve been registering on all the other blogs for prizes. Enjoy one last stop….

And of course, need I mention all the prizes up for grabs??? See below for MORE PRIZES!

We couldn’t have done this Blog Hop without the support and generosity of our sponsors. Please join me in offering a round of applause for each of these lovely sponsors —

https://hoffmancaliforniafabrics.net

https://modafabrics.com

https://www.ttfabrics.com

http://jaftex.com

https://electricquilt.com

https://www.northcott.com/home.aspx

http://benartex.com

https://www.hancocks-paducah.com

https://foxchapelpublishing.com

https://www.ctpub.com

https://www.pbtex.com

I’m bummed that our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop is wrapping up today. Sadly, all good things must come to an end sometime. And this Blog Hop really was a SUPER GOOD THING!

I really enjoyed reading each participating blogger’s post each day, didn’t you? I must confess that I read them over breakfast because I honestly couldn’t wait to see which quilt each blogger created! And I absolutely loved reading the comments on our VRD post as well as the comments on the other blogs. What fun!

THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to hop from blog to blog with us this past week. I hope you really enjoyed the Fast & More Fun Blog Hop with more quilts, more inspiration, and of course more prizes. And I hope that you discovered new quilty friend bloggers to visit on the ‘Net.

If you haven’t finished reading all 28 blog posts for the Hop and/or leaving comments on each to register for prizes, you have through Sunday, March 24th, to do so. Use the links above to visit each participating blogger to catch up on your reading and your prize entries.

Winners will be drawn next week and notified. Please be patient with us as we navigate the shipping process. And we will post all the winners just as soon as the winners are selected and prizes are shipped.

One Last VRD Fast & Fun Blog Hop Giveaway

Let’s review all the prizes that are up for grabs for our Blog Hop:

Everyone, Everywhere is eligible to win prizes and there are several opportunities for you to win prizes:

Individual bloggers may be hosting giveaways on their blogs for you to win. Please visit these bloggers to find out about their giveaways and how to register.
Villa Rosa Designs is giving away a 2024 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog (International card set winners will receive a digital collection of the patterns).
Sponsor prizes have been donated by our lovely Sponsors, above, and even from some of the bloggers, too! These prizes are divided into 2 different categories —
- 5 Grand Prizes — Yup, I added another one to the Grand Prize list!
  - Kaffe Fasset Precut Collection
  - Big Box filled with mystery quilty goodies
  - $100 digital gift certificate to Hancock’s of Paducah
  - Electric Quilt 8 Download (winner to be selected on the EQ blog HERE)
  - An Eversewn Sparrow 25 Sewing Machine from Jaftex (winner will be selected on Scott’s blog HERE) — this was a happy surprise addition to the Hop Prizes, so make sure you get registered
- Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be precuts, books, notions, or other cool quilty goodies.

WOWZER! That’s a lot of chances to win prizes so I hope you comment on ALL the blogs to increase your chance of being a winner. No purchase is necessary to participate in the Blog Hop or to win prizes, but please make sure you leave your email address on your comment or else we can’t contact you if you are a winner

Now, how about ONE LAST GIVEAWAY???

3 MORE QUILTS!!!

Left: Jubilee 45″ x 60″

Middle: Kalinda 45″ x 54″

Right: Star Spangled 48″ x 60″

In addition to the 3 quilts above, we will be giving away a set of the Fast & More Fun Rose Card Patterns and 3 commenters will be added to the Grand Prize drawings.

Here’s how to win one of these finished quilts:

You have up to 3 chances to win the quilts listed above on this blog post. Please leave a single comment for EACH of these categories (if you comment that you loved the hop, you are a blog follower, and hang out at VRD on Facebook all in one comment, it will only count as one chance to win).

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell us your thoughts about the VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop.

2. Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this post telling us that you are a blog follower/subscriber ( if you already follow — thank you — just leave a comment letting us know).

3. Join our VRD Facebook group and leave a comment on this post telling us you joined our FB group (if you are already a member — thank you — just leave a comment letting us know).

Ready! Set! GO!

Please note that to be registered to win any prizes on this blog, you first must leave a comment. To leave a comment, you will need to click on the comments link just under the blog title at the top of the blog OR you can find a comments link along the side of the blog post towards the bottom right. After you click the “comments” link, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the comments in order to find the space to leave your own comment. Be patient — there may be a lot of comments to go through until you get to the bottom. Thank you.

Don’t forget — registration for prizes closes Sunday, March 24th.

Winners will be selected randomly next week and will be announced once all winners have been contacted.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT SO WE CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER!

Well, Quilty Friends, I thank you for hopping along with us this past week. I sincerely hope you had as much fun as we did! And I invite you to come back and visit the Villa Rosa Designs blog, Villa Rosa Quilts. We have SEW much fun here!

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Hop ‘Til You Drop Some More. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia

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

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

February 29, 2024February 28, 2024 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

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

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

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

Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop March 14-21

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

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

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

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

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

So, are you excited yet???

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

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

VRD Pacific Grove Quilt Tutorial

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Duet Quilt Tutorial Update

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