Celebrating July 4th with Quilts, 2025 Sasha Doll Festival, & A Free Doll Quilt Pattern Just for You

July 3, 2025July 2, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Hard to believe it’s July already and the July 4th holiday is tomorrow. It’s not every year that the holiday falls on a Friday, so I see a 3 day weekend ahead for many of you. What are your plans for the holiday weekend? Me, I plan to take in some fireworks and maybe eat some fab picnic foods. Yum, yum, yummy!

Happy Independence Day!

A crowd of people holding American flags enjoy a fireworks display on July 4th, celebrating Independence Day.

July 4th with Quilts

In celebration of Independence Day, I have a few fun quilty things to share with you today! Woohoo!

So I wanted to feature our 12 Quilts of Valor Pattern Collection on the blog. A lot of you probably already have the 12 QOV collection among your VRD patterns, but for those of you who are new to VRD or haven’t added the collection yet, let me tell you about this great collection of patterns.

A collage of quilt patterns titled '12 Quilts of Valor' featuring various patriotic designs and colors, including red, white, and blue motifs. Each pattern is displayed with a unique title in a decorative layout.

Get your 12 QOV Collection HERE

A portion of each pattern collection sold is donated to the Quilts of Valor Foundation

The collection includes 12 patterns sized perfectly for your Quilts of Valor (QOV) projects – no more trying to figure out if a pattern is the right size for a QOV. You will find patterns that use yardage, fat quarters, 5″ squares, and panels (4 panel quilts in the collection and 1 of them uses horizontal panels). Finally, several of our talented VRD designers have patterns in the collection so you get a nice variety of styles in this collection. And of course, all of the patterns are fast, fun, and quickly done!

Almost forgot to mention – shipping is free on patterns on the VRD website, regardless of how many print patterns (or collections) you order!

At this time, the collection is only available in print format, but if you prefer our digital patterns or are an international friend, the patterns are also available as individual downloads. Please note that the download pattern covers will be different from the print pattern collection covers.

Celebration

Grand Prize – you would need to add a border around the outside to make it the correct size for a QOV

Last year on the blog for the 4th of July, I created a curated a Red, White and Blue Pattern list. You can find it HERE.

I hope your July 4th holiday is filled with new memories, American pride, picnic food, and quilts!

Dolls and Quilts

I realize this section of the blog isn’t really connected to the 4th of July at all, but I just had to tell you about my very first Sasha Doll Festival. Oh! I’m wrong – I just realized the theme for this year’s Festival was “Sasha Explores the USA” so it is kind of related to the 4th of July after all.

A promotional image for the Sasha Festival 2025, featuring two dolls playing on a map of the USA, with event details including dates and location. — Image from the **2025 Sasha Festival Facebook page**

This past weekend I had the absolute pleasure of attending my very first Sasha Doll Festival. It was held in Columbus, Ohio which made the drive doable for me. Let me tell you though, last Thursday when I was on my way to the hotel/conference center where the Festival was being held, I kept running in and out of severe weather. There were times when I couldn’t seen anything at all due to the deluge and the steam coming off the road (the temps were in the 90s). It was kind of scary as this was my first longer road trip alone, but I followed the big trucks in front of me and everything went okay.

I got to the hotel/conference center safely, although it did take me an extra couple hours. I must admit I missed one exit and had to drive back around to catch the exit again. Thank goodness for my GPS.

Maybe you’ve never heard of Sasha dolls. Sasha dolls were created by Swiss doll artist Sasha Morgenthaler. She created personally created dolls in her studio from the 1940’s to the 1970’s (these surviving dolls are called studio dolls). She also taught classes to others about her techniques and the dolls created during those classes are called course dolls today. In the mid 1960’s, Sasha worked with the German doll company Gotz to manufacture vinyl play dolls based on her studio dolls. She wanted children to have quality dolls at an affordable price. Gotz made Sasha Serie (series) dolls from 1965-1969. A company in England also began making Sasha dolls in 1966 and continued until 1986. Then, Gotz made Sasha dolls once again from 1995-2001.

For more information about Sasha the artist and her dolls, you can go HERE.

I am a relatively new collector and enthusiast, although I saw my first Sasha doll as a child at my local public library. The library had a very special toy collection and you could check out the toys just like books when I was a child. They had Sasha dolls in the collection and I was so in love with the blond girl doll in the blue gingham dress (she would have looked something like this, below). Over the years I saw Sasha dolls here and there in doll clothes books or on the Internet. A couple years ago, I wondered if I could find Sasha dolls for sale online. And I did. My modest collection now includes 11 girls, 10 babies, and 7 boys.

A realistic doll with blonde hair wearing a blue gingham dress, standing against a red background. — *Image from eBay*

Here are 3 of the 10 dolls I took with me to the Festival. All 3 dolls are from the English production. Eden (1968) is on the left, Penny (1975-1980) is in the middle, and Annabelle (1969) is on the right.

Three Sasha dolls dressed in colorful outfits sitting on a table next to cookies and a map.

I just love that the dolls are so realistic looking and no two are alike. They are lovely to pose and to dress (and make clothes for!), and each one seems to have their own personality.

It was an amazing Festival (of course being that it was my first one, I don’t have anything to compare it to). I met so many lovely people! I went to the Festival hoping to find some Sasha people in my own area, and I did! I even met Gina (Hi Gina!) and discovered not only did she live within 2 hours of me, but we actually know some of the same people. Crazy, isn’t it???

At this point, you might be wondering how Dolls and Quilts go hand in hand? Doll Quilts, of course!

As a gift to you, I am sharing a sweet and simple little doll quilt pattern. Make it for yourself, a child, or even another doll lover.

Sweet and Simple Doll Quilt

By Tricia Maloney

A quilt featuring a grid pattern made of 16 squares in various shades of pink, red, and burgundy, bordered with a decorative trim.

18″ x 23″

Fabric

20 – 5″ Charm Squares or 20 assorted scraps at least 5″ square

½ yd for backing

20″ x 25″ thin batting or flannel

¼ yd binding

Cut

20 – 5″ squares

20″ x 25″ for quilt back

3 – 2″ or 2 1/4″ width of fabric strips for binding

Sew

Sew 4 assorted 5″ squares together into a row. Make 5 rows.

A selection of four fabric swatches in varying shades of pink and red, showcasing different textures and patterns.

Sew the rows together.

A patchwork fabric display featuring a grid of pink and red shades in various textures.

Finish

Layer your quilt top, batting, and backing.
Quilt as desired.
Bind your quilt.
Don’t forget your label!

If you’d like to download and print my Sweet and Simple Doll Quilt pattern, you can find the PDF below:

Sweet and Simple Doll Quilt Download

Well, that’s it for me. Have a marvelous holiday!

Catch you next week right here!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Celebrate. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

Cats and a VRD Cat City Block Tutorial + a Mini Quilt

June 2, 2022June 5, 2022 rosecards3 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Sigh……I’ve been thinking about cats lately. A lot. In addition to my own cats, I’ve been working on a couple cat quilt projects. If you don’t like cats, you might want to turn around now before it’s too late. (You can’t see me of course, but I’m rolling my eyes here. LOL!)

Let me tell you a little bit about MY CATS (sorry, not sorry — I did warn you).

Pip is my beautiful 12 year old silver tortie. She is sweet, rarely says a word, and is very generously-sized. Pip is a real foodie like me. I tell her frequently that she’s “practically perfect in every way,” but she can be very stubborn. And sneaky! Especially when she thinks no one is paying attention and she tries to get her little brother’s food (she is usually successful, too). Silly Pip!

Griffin just turned 1 at the end of April and is my little wild child. He zooms from one end of the house to the other and then back again. Over and over. As energetic as he is, he’s also my snuggle bug when he eventually slows down. Seriously. He loves to be held and snuggled! Griffin likes to watch “bird TV,” loves to be rocked, likes music, and even enjoys painting on a cute game on my tablet. He’s quite a fella!

Crazy man Griffin in a brief moment of stillness.

For some reason, cats and quilting just seem to go together. Like peanut butter and jelly! I just love seeing photos of cats “helping” their human quilters on social media, don’t you? Too bad neither of my cats are into that, but then again, if they were, I’d probably never get any quilting done.

In fact, as I sit here writing, Pip is hanging out in her favorite chair upstairs and Griffin is watching his birds on TV about 10 feet away from my desk. He is not only my little buddy but he’s also THE best coworker I’ve ever had.

Not long ago, Pat, our “Rose Queen” and the owner of Villa Rosa Designs, asked me to help her with some new quilt diagrams for her VRD pattern, Cat City.

To purchase the Cat City Pattern, click HERE Or to purchase the Cat City kit, click HERE

I was really intrigued by the cat block in the pattern, and thought I’d try it out before making the diagrams so I knew exactly how to put the block together. I discovered it’s a really fun block, but it can be a little tricky the first time you make it.

Let me show you how to put the Cat City block together.

Cat City Block Tutorial

First things first, follow the cutting instructions for the pattern. I chose a white fabric and a black fabric for this tutorial (you’ll see why a little bit later). I layered the two fabrics and cut the pieces out at the same time.

Layer your background and cat fabrics as you see here. I am making 2 cats at the same time and they will be a mirror image of each other. I used a pin to help hold things together on my way to my sewing machine. I also drew a sewing line with my marking pen (I LOVE Frixion pens for marking sewing lines on my fabric). Now off to my machine to sew on the line.

Next, trim off the waste triangles and press the unit open. I pressed my seams to the dark fabric.

Now to make some little ears! Layer your squares right sides together (RST) on the background fabric. Draw diagonal sewing lines on your squares with your marking tool. Sew on the line. Then cut away the waste triangles and press the units open. I pressed the seams towards the cat fabric.

Okay, we’re in the home stretch now. Yippee! Sew the ear unit to the top of the cat body — the ear fabric should match the cat (unless you’re feeling wild and crazy) and then sew the bottom of the ears to the cat body.

OOPS! You will see in the second photo, my cat ears didn’t line up very well with my cat body. Argh! No, it’s okay after all — the one edge of the cat fabric was folded under — whew, I was afraid my cat was growing right before my eyes!

Darn, time to use the tool all quilters and sewists run from in fear — THE SEAM RIPPER. (Cue creepy music.)

Done. It only took me a quick minute to rip out the seam, press the folded-under edge straight, and resew. Now we’re back in business. I pressed the seam towards the cat body.

In the first photo here, you can see how my cats will look after I sew the cat backs to the cat body/ear unit. I am planning to sew my cats front sides together. Ying and Yang, I think I will call them.

The middle photo shows the cats stitched together …….furever (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

The third photo shows how I pressed the seams — center seam between the cats open because of sewing the fiddly little ears together and the cat body/back seam I pressed towards the cat body. The ears wanted to be a bit difficult but I pressed them into submission with a little pressing spray (my favorite is Mary Ellen’s Best Press).

There you have it — a cat block with mirror-image cats. Of course, instead of sewing them fronts together, you might want to sew them with their backs together — would this be a cat fight???? — take a look at the quilt on the front of the Cat City pattern above for ideas.

BUT WAIT — there’s more! I just love saying that, don’t you?

I decided to cut 2″ strips for a border around my cat blocks for a fast to finish little quilt. I sewed the sides on first and then the top and bottom strips.

Voila! A little quilt, mini quilt, doll quilt, table quilt, place mat or whatever you want to call it.

Now I just need to layer my little quilt with batting and backing. Quilt it. Bind it.

DONE! My favorite kind of project. 🙂

Here is my black and white Ying and Yang alongside my first little Cat City quilt in pink and brown. When I finished the pink and brown one (which was my original example to figure out how the block went together), I decided that I had to make a black and white one.

I hope you will enjoy making your own Cat City quilt. Or maybe you just want to play a little bit and make yours mini. Whatever you choose, I can’t wait to see your cat quilts (and maybe your cats)!

You can share them on our Facebook page. Not a member yet? Join us to take part in all the Villa Rosa Designs fun HERE . We really are a fun bunch. Really.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD