NEW VRD Patterns for August and Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block

August 7, 2025August 6, 2025 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Welcome! We have lots of fun stuff to do this week, so we’re just going to dive right in.

First up, today is the Thursday after the first Friday, which means – NEW PATTERNS! Yay!

Collage of five quilt pattern covers titled 'August 2025 Patterns in a Set!' featuring designs named Grated, Lady Banks, Jolene, Jasper, and Snap Shot. Each cover showcases different quilt designs and colors.

Get your print pattern set 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)

A quilt design titled 'Lady Banks' featuring a patchwork of various blue and grey fabrics, set against a light blue background. The quilt consists of squares and rectangles with floral and textured patterns. The design is framed by a dark border with the names 'Lady Banks' and 'Villa Rosa Designs' displayed prominently.

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.

Jasper by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jasper' featuring a variety of patterns in blue, green, yellow, and red fabric blocks, displayed against a brick wall background.

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 by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jolene' featuring a pattern of alternating squares and checkered designs in shades of pink, green, and yellow, displayed against a textured white wall.

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

Quilt design titled 'Snap Shot' featuring images of wildlife, including deer and a bear, with a mix of earthy colors and fabric patterns.

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

Colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red, blue, yellow, and green pieces in a symmetrical pattern.

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!

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central red square surrounded by blue triangles and yellow squares, with green squares at the corners.

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!

Colorful quilt design featuring a geometric pattern with star and diamond shapes in red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

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.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, orange, and green shades set against a yellow background.

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!

A quilt design featuring blocks with star-like shapes in red, gray, and white against a black background, creating a geometric pattern.

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.

A quilt design featuring alternating blocks composed of black, white, and gray geometric patterns, arranged in a grid layout.

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!

A quilt design featuring a bold pattern of alternating red and black shapes arranged on a black background, with white squares creating a checkered effect. The design includes intricate geometric shapes that resemble a stylized star or flower.

Now let’s add some fabric. I’m using lovely blue batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. That’s the one! LOVE IT!

That’s a wrap for this design!

A quilt pattern featuring interconnected blue and white blocks set against a dark background, creating a geometric design.

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.

A colorful quilt block design featuring a star shape with blue, red, and yellow triangles, set on a white grid background.

Let’s see what it looks like in a quilt. Hmmm. Not very interesting. At least not yet.

A quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, and yellow colors on a white background.

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.

Quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, yellow, and white colors, arranged in a grid with black sashing.

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.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red, blue, yellow, and white, set against a black background. The blocks are arranged in a grid with alternating black and white sashing.

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?

A quilt design featuring a grid of colorful star blocks on a black background, incorporating blue, red, yellow, and white fabrics.

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?

Quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red and white against a black background, with a modern geometric layout.

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.

A patterned quilt design featuring alternating red and white blocks on a black background, showcasing a geometric star motif.

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!

A vibrant quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern in pink and purple hues, set against a dark blue quilt background with white borders separating each star.

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???

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red squares and blue triangle sections, with green and yellow corner pieces.

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:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Playing with the Sawtooth Star block

Sadly, next week we are going to wrap up our Quilt Design series. Next we’re going to do some new tutorials, just for you. Sew stay tuned!

See you on the flip side!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Tips and Tricks

Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

July 24, 2025July 23, 2025 rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

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:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

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.

A digital illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central square surrounded by rectangles and triangles in a light teal color. — Image 1 – Churn Dash block, also known as Hole in the Barn Door and Monkey Wrench

A quilt block design featuring a central pink square with gray and white rectangles surrounding it, arranged to create a geometric pattern. — 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.

A Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray rectangles. — White House Steps block

A graphic representation of the Courthouse Steps quilt block, featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray and white rectangles. — 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.

Illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray and white rectangles. — 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?

A digital mockup of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring pink squares, grey and white rectangles arranged in a geometric pattern.

Let’s turn the blocks sideways and see if we get something different. Pretty much the same thing, just different direction.

Pattern design of the Courthouse Steps quilt block featuring alternating shades of gray, pink centers, and white accents in a geometric layout.

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.

A quilt design featuring alternating Courthouse Steps blocks in shades of gray, pink, and white arranged in a grid pattern.

Now I think I’d like to see what happens when I group the blocks in 4’s. That’s interesting.

A digital quilt design featuring multiple Courthouse Steps blocks arranged in a grid pattern with a mix of gray, white, and pink colors.

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…..

A patchwork quilt featuring a Courthouse Steps block design with a variety of colorful fabrics arranged in a grid layout.

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.

A colorful quilt design featuring the Courthouse Steps block, showcasing a mix of fabrics in varying patterns and colors arranged in a geometric layout.

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!

A quilt design titled 'Boxed In' by Tricia Lynn Maloney, showcasing a colorful patchwork pattern with various fabrics arranged in geometric blocks on a table.

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.

Diagram of the Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray rectangles.

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.

A digital representation of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by white and gray rectangles, arranged in a grid layout.

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!

A digital quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block layout in brown and turquoise colors, arranged in a grid pattern, with a light grid background.

Cool! Check out this block arrangement! It’s the same layout as our previous 2nd design, above.

A quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block pattern in brown and light blue color scheme.

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!

A quilt design featuring a central pink pattern framed by dark and light gray rectangles, creating a geometric composition.

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.

A digital quilt design showcasing alternating blocks of the Courthouse Steps pattern in shades of pink and gray, framed by light blue fabric strips.

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.

Ta! Ta!

Until next time –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD