Villa Rosa Designs Fast & Fun Blog Hop Comes to an End

January 26, 2023January 25, 2023 rosecards167 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I can’t believe that a week has passed since we began our very first VRD Blog Hop. It’s been SEW MUCH FUN, hasn’t it?

Our participating bloggers have shared their VRD quilts, tips and tricks, and inspiration by the boatload — just what we all needed in the middle of January to help us jump start a new fun project! You can visit Villa Rosa Designs HERE to see our catalog of over 500 Rose Card patterns for even more inspiration.

Here’s the special VRD Rose Card collection used for this very Fast & Fun Blog Hop:

Get your own set before they’re gone HERE.

An enormous HUG goes out to our amazing bloggers for participating in the 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 Blog Hop!

From Bolt to Beauty
Kathleen McMusing
Jaftex Companies

Pieceful Thoughts
Little Penguin Quilts

Quilt with a View
MMM Quilts

Cheryl’s Teapots 2 Quilting
Devoted Quilter
Quilts of Valor Foundation

Needle and Foot
Am I Shouting Yet?
Electric Quilt

The Crafty Quilter
Jo’s Country Junction
Keepsake Quilting
Stitchin At Home

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

We couldn’t have done this Blog Hop without the support of our very generous sponsors —

I’m bummed that the Fast & Fun Blog Hop is wrapping up today. Sadly, all good things much come to an end sometime. And this Blog Hop really was a “good thing,” wasn’t it?

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 this past week. It really warms my heart that so many folks came along for our Fast & Fun Blog Hop ride!

If you haven’t finished reading all the posts for the Hop and leaving comments to register for prizes, you have through Sunday, January 29th to do so. Use the links above to visit each participating blogger to catch up on your reading and your prize entries.

I just have to do a quick shout out to my cousin, Robin, a fellow quilter. Robin had her knee replaced yesterday and after waking up from anesthesia and while she had a little lunch, she made sure to read Wednesday’s blog posts for the Hop. Now that’s real dedication! Heal fast, Cuz.

Winners will be drawn next week, notified, and prizes will be shipped in February. We will also be posting the winners in February, so stay tuned — it could even be you.

One Last VRD Fast & Fun Blog Hop Giveaway

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

Everyone is eligible to win prizes. Please note that winners outside the USA will receive a digital set of the 2023 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection.

There are several opportunities for you to win prizes during the blog hop:

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 2023 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog.
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 —
- Grand Prize Boxes (of which there are 2) are filled with tons of quilting goodies including books, fabric, precuts, notions, patterns, and more.
- Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be books, patterns, fat quarter bundles, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, 10″ squares, notions, and more.

No purchase is necessary to participate in the Blog Hop or to win prizes.

Now, how about ONE LAST GIVEAWAY???

3 MORE QUILTS!!!

Quilt #1 (left) — Brownsville is 43″ x 54″

Quilt #2 (center) — Foxfire is 56″ x 72″

Quilt #3 (right) — Opening Night is 53″ x 71″

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.

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

3. Join our VRD Facebook group and leave a comment on this post telling us you joined our FB group.

Ready! Set! GO!

Please note that in order to leave a comment on this blog post to be registered for prizes, you will need to click on the comments link just under the blog title at the top of this blog post. After you click the “comments” link found to the right side, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of “comments” in order to find the “Reply” box 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, January 29th.

Winners will be selected randomly on Monday/Tuesday January 30th/31st.

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

Well, Quilty Friends, I thank you for hopping along with us this past week. Hope you had as much fun as we did!

See you next Thursday!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Blog Hop 2023 · Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Welcome to the First Ever Villa Rosa Designs Fast & Fun Blog Hop!

January 19, 2023January 23, 2023 rosecards488 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I am SEW very excited that you are here!

Welcome!

I hope you are ready to come along on a fun quilting adventure, otherwise known as our very first Blog Hop here at Villa Rosa Designs. We’re calling it the Fast & Fun Blog Hop, and I know you’ll understand why very soon.

We have a super group of bloggers ready to share some awesome quilts made with Villa Rosa Designs (VRD) Rose Card patterns.

In fact, we’ve put together a special collection of 5 patterns just for this Blog Hop!

Here are the 5 patterns in the 2023 Fast & Fun Blog Hop Collection:

Lucky you! You can purchase a set of these 5 patterns HERE. Or visit our website HERE for even more great Rose Card patterns (over 500 of them).

Or you might just win a set. READ ON to find out how!

Let me tell you a little bit about Villa Rosa Designs in case this is the first time you’re visiting our blog home, Villa Rosa Quilts.

What is Villa Rosa Designs?

Villa Rosa Designs is the brainchild of owner and Rose Queen, Pat Fryer. Pat wanted to create Fast & Fun, affordable, and high quality patterns for quilters featuring precuts like 1/2 yards, fat quarters, 10″ squares, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, fat eighths, and fat sixths as well as other fabric cuts like panels and novelty fabrics.

Since its launch in 2010, VRD has become much more than a handful of easy-to-make quilt patterns. Rose Cards, Villa Rosa’s signature postcard-sized patterns, combine great design with simple packaging and an attractive price, making Rose Cards one of the best selling pattern brands on the market today! And since 2010, Villa Rosa Designs has grown to include a collection of very talented designers, each with their own unique style.

Now that you know a little bit about Villa Rosa Designs, let me tell you about the VRD Fast & Fun Blog Hop!

Let’s HOP!

We’ve teamed up with an awesome group of bloggers, who have accepted the challenge to create 1 of the 5 Blog Hop Rose Card patterns above. To see which blogger has created which pattern, you’ll have to visit EACH blogger during the blog hop which runs from today, January 19th through next Thursday, January 26th.

Here is our Blog Hop Schedule:

01/19/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Today, where it all begins
01/20/23 Friday	From Bolt to Beauty Kathleen McMusing Jaftex Companies
01/21/23 Saturday	Pieceful Thoughts Little Penguin Quilts
01/22/23 Sunday	Quilt with a View mmmquilts
01/23/23 Monday	Cheryl’s Teapots 2 Quilting Devoted Quilter Quilts of Valor Foundation
01/24/23 Tuesday	Needle and Foot Am I Shouting Yet? Electric Quilt
01/25/23 Wednesday	The Crafty Quilter Jo’s Country Junction Keepsake Quilting Stitchin At Home
01/26/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Blog Hop Wrap Up

Did I Mention Blog Hop PRIZES and GIVEAWAYS???

You will have the opportunity to win lots of great prizes during the blog hop! All you have to do is hop from blog to blog every day from January 19th through January 26th to see which quilt each blogger made and to find out how to register for prizes on each blog.

Registration for prizes will close on Sunday, January 29th.

Before I jump into all the cool prizes you might win, I want to take a moment to thank all of our incredible sponsors, who donated all kinds of quilting goodies for you to win. Thank you Sponsors! Without you, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be happening.

Now for the Blog Hop Prizes — YAY!

Here’s the Important Stuff you need to know:

Everyone is eligible to win prizes. Please note that winners outside the USA will receive a digital set of the 2023 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection.

There are several opportunities for you to win prizes during the blog hop:

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 2023 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog.
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 —
- Grand Prize Boxes (of which there are 2) are filled with tons of quilting goodies including books, fabric, precuts, notions, patterns, and more.
- Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be books, patterns, fat quarter bundles, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, 10″ squares, notions, and more.

WOW! That’s a lot of prizes if you do the math.

Please note that to leave a comment on this blog to be registered for prizes, you will need to click on the comments link just under the blog title at the top of the blog. After you click the “comments” link, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of “comments” in order to find the space to leave your own comment. Be patient — there are a lot of comments to go through until you get to the bottom. Thank you.

Here are some photos of the prizes to get you motivated! LOL!

Photo 1 (left) shows a Grand Prize Box. Oh my — look at all those quilting goodies!

Photos 2 and 3 (center and right) show an assortment of Individual Prizes just waiting for you to win — books, 10″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, 5″ squares, fat quarter bundles, half yard bundles, notions, and patterns.

Sooooo, how do you win?

Hop from blog to blog from January 19th through January 26th and register for prizes at each blog. The more participating blogs you visit and register at, the more chances you have to win prizes! It’s really that easy, I promise.

Winners will be selected randomly. Each blogger will select 2 names to go into the Grand Prize Box drawing and 2 winners will be selected randomly to win. Each blogger will also randomly select 3 winners for the Sponsored Individual Prizes.

Prize registration closes Sunday, January 29, 2023.

Winners will be announced the beginning of February 2023. Prizes will be shipped in February 2023.

No purchase is necessary to participate in the Blog Hop or to win prizes.

Villa Rosa Designs Thursday January 19th Giveaway

Thank you for reading all the way through this post! As a reward, you can register to win QUILTS!

Here’s your chance to win one of these 3 Quilts made from VRD Rose Card patterns. These 3 quilts are completely finished — machine quilted and bound — and ready for you to enjoy. Awesome!!!

Quilt 1 (left) is Claudette and is 57″x75″.

Quilt 2 (center) is Eden Rose and is 36″ x 47″.

Quilt 3 (left) is Honor and it is 57″x76″.

Here’s how to win one of these quilts:

You have up to 3 chances to win the quilts listed above on this blog.

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell us what your favorite Rose Card pattern is (or one you would like to make if you’re new to VRD).

2. Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this post telling us that you are a blog follower/subscriber.

3. Join our VRD Facebook group and leave a comment on this post telling us you joined our FB group.

Ready! Set! GO!

Don’t forget — registration for prizes closes Sunday, January 29th.

Winners will be selected randomly on Monday/Tuesday January 30th/31st.

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

Well, Quilty Friends, I thank you for reading the whole way to the end.

Good luck to each of you and please enjoy the Blog Hop!

See you next Thursday, right here!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Blog Hop 2023 · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

New January 2023 VRD Rose Card Patterns and VRD Fast & Fun Blog Hop Update

January 12, 2023January 23, 2023 rosecards8 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s my favorite Thursday of the month — the Thursday after the first Friday of the month. That means it’s time to brag up our NEW January 2023 Rose Card patterns! Yay!

I just love sharing all the creativity our family of designers come up with each month. Even though I’ve been designing patterns for VRD since 2017, it still blows my mind that each and every month Villa Rosa Designs puts out 5 new regular patterns and at least 1 new table runner pattern. What other pattern company puts out over 60 new patterns a year? And has a catalog of more than 500 patterns on top of that?

Who’s crazy enough to do all that????

WE ARE — www.villarosadesigns.com!!!

Okay, okay, let’s see the new January patterns! Finally!

Here they are! Aren’t they great?

Bella Vista is a horizontal panel pattern.

Diamond Daze uses fat quarters.

Petit Fours is 5″ square friendly.

Piccadilly uses 2 1/2″ strips.

Tradewinds uses a focal or novelty print with an ombre.

You can get all 5 patterns for the low low price of $8.95 HERE. Remember, free shipping in the USA and International orders are for the digital set of cards.

We have kits too, so click on the pattern names above to check kit availability for each pattern.

Our new Table Runner Rose Card is Blizzard. Who doesn’t love classic blue and white???

You can purchase the pattern or check to see if the kit is still available HERE.

If you aren’t getting your VRD Rose Card patterns delivered right to your mailbox each month (snail mail or digital), you really need to join one of our Monthly Pattern Clubs! You can do the regular 5 patterns or the 5 patterns + table runners. You choose!

To register for the regular Pattern Club, go HERE.

To register for Pattern Club + Table Runners, go HERE.

Now that you’re hyped about our newest patterns like I am, let’s talk about our VRD Blog Hop January 19-26 — that means it starts next week! Yippee!

UPDATE: Villa Rosa Designs Fast & Fun Blog Hop January 19-26

I can’t believe that the Blog Hop is next week! This is going to be SEW MUCH FUN!

Are you ready to see great quilts using our special Blog Hop Collection Rose Card patterns?

Are you ready to register for loads of great prizes??

Are you ready to shake off the winter blahs???

ARE YOU READY???

We are so excited here at VRD and we hope that you are getting excited for the Blog Hop next week, too.

We are incredibly fortunate to have the COOLEST bloggers out there in the blogosphere, participating in our blog hop! You can check out their blogs below:

http://frombolttobeauty.blogspot.com

https://www.kathleenmcmusing.com

https://scottfortunoff.com

https://www.piecefulthoughts.com

https://littlepenguinquilts.blogspot.com

https://www.keepsakequilting.com/blogs/keepsake-quilting-blog

https://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com

https://www.mmmquilts.com

https://cherylsteapots2quilting.blogspot.com

https://www.devotedquilter.com

https://www.qovf.org

https://needleandfoot.com

https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com

https://doyoueq.com/blog

https://thecraftyquilter.com

http://www.joscountryjunction.com

https://www.stitchinathome.com

Prizes for giveaways are coming in daily. Here’s sneak peak!

From Timeless Treasures:

From The Gypsy Quilter and Creative Grids:

From Moda:

From Hoffman California Fabrics:

While I snapped pictures of goodies, my furbaby Griffin decided to investigate. He likes to think he’s the Inspector General. LOL! Silly Griffy!

Here are some of the other prizes that will be given away:

Electric Quilt is giving away a copy of Electric Quilt 8! Wow!

The Quilts of Valor Foundation will be giving away copies of their latest books! Woohoo!

Villa Rosa Designs will be giving away sets of our 2023 Blog Hop Collection Rose Card patterns! Cool Beans!

The Orphan Quilter (moi) will be giving away signed copies of books. Neat-o!

But wait! There’s more!

Many of our bloggers will be offering giveaways of their own in addition to the sponsor prizes on their blogs too — from t-shirts to charm squares to panels to books — OH MY!

There will also be 2 big Prize Packs filled with lots of quilting goodies to giveaway, too!!

Thanks to our awesome sponsors! This Blog Hop wouldn’t be happening without you!

Stay tuned for the beginning of the week when I do a special blog post all about the Blog Hop with the Blog Hop Schedule.

And then all the Blogworthy FUN starts RIGHT HERE at Villa Rosa Quilts on Thursday, January 19th.

Get ready for an awesome Blog Hop!

Don’t forget to tell all your quilty friends so they can join in the fun, too!

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Quilt Play · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Flowers, Electric Quilt, and NEW Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Quilt Patterns

August 11, 2022August 10, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope you are all having a great week so far! Me, it’s been a bit rocky in my basement studio/office, which I fondly call my “dungeon.” After a really dry July, early August has been really wet. And I mean wet!

In 5 days, water has rolled into my studio casement window THREE TIMES! In 5 days! I have spent most of my time emptying the dehumidifier, moving fans around, washing-drying-rewashing-drying again all the blankets we’ve been able to find for soaking up the water. ARGH! Luckily, the water didn’t completely flood my space, it only got about halfway across the room, almost to my computer desk. It’s been kind of stressful here. I shouldn’t be complaining because others are faring much worse than I am, but it’s been a lot of work to stay on top of the water once the deluges hit. Talking to my family, we don’t think this much flooding in the basement has happened in 20 years. What a fluke (I hope).

Now let’s turn our thoughts to something really fun and seasonal. Sadly, our container garden and other plants did not grow much during the super dry month of July, but all of a sudden everything is growing by leaps and bounds, although the marigolds don’t look so happy.

We planted our garden and plants a bit late this year and now that things are finally growing like crazy, I just hope that they’ll have enough time to bear fruit (or veggies). I would really like some fresh produce that I grew myself on the back porch! Yum yum yummy!

Speaking of flowers and plants, I’m particularly proud of my Black-Eyed Susans, which is one of my all-time favorite flowers, along with Sunflowers and Daisies. I wonder……how many Black-Eyed Susan, Sunflower, and Daisy quilt blocks are there in Electric Quilt 8. Any guesses? Hmm. I haven’t checked yet, so I think I’ll guess 35 total. So let’s see! Hang on, I’ll be right back. Let me check.

I found 6 Black-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Susan quilt blocks. Not too shabby!

Next I counted 34 Sunflower blocks. Nice!

And then I discovered at least 40 Daisy blocks. Way cool!

Well, my guess was a bit low. How about your guess?

Sew, let’s have some fun and play with flower blocks a little bit!

Here are some really fun quilts with Black-eyed Susan blocks. EQ8 ROCKS!

Check out these awesome Sunflower quilts — are you inspired yet???

Now, how about a trio of Daisy quilts?

WOW! I really love love love EQ8 — it is sew sew fun just to explore different blocks and make quilts on the computer screen, whether I ever make them into real quilts or not!

Aren’t you inspired to make your own flower quilt now? I challenge you to create a quilt featuring your favorite flower! I dare you!

I’d love to revisit flower quilts down the road and include the quilts of our VRD fans. Sew, please send me your flower quilts — er, a photo of your flower quilt along with a short description/story of your quilt. If I choose your quilt and story for the blog, I promise I’ll send you a little surprise in the mail! You can email your flower quilt images to me at tricia@villarosaquilts.com.

NEW AUGUST VILLA ROSA DESIGNS ROSE CARDS

Yay! It’s that time of the month again — no, not THAT time of the month. LOL! It’s the beginning of a new month and that means a NEW collection of Villa Rosa Rose Cards!

Here they are — our new August Rose Cards!

You can order the August set of 5 Rose Cards HERE. Go ahead, I know you want to.

But wait — there’s more! Tehehe.

Here’s my NEW August Table Runner, Slice of Summer.

Cute, huh? You can get your own Slice of Summer Rose Card HERE.

Sew, there you have it — our awesome new August patterns! Can’t wait to see what new patterns next month will bring…….

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

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

Let’s Design a Quilt Together — A Peek into My Quilt Design Process

June 16, 2022June 15, 2022 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

It’s Thursday again! Here’s hoping your week has been going well. Mine has been good and fast — just the way I love my quilt projects to be! LOL!

A lot of people ask about my design process so I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my process. Keep in mind that all designers have their own way of doing things and this post is only about my process.

Sometimes it’s like I eat, sleep, and breathe quilts and quilting! Not only do I read/flip through quilt books and magazines, I also look online for new trends. I talk to my quilt friends about what they are doing. I teach a quilt class once a month. I design patterns, write instructions, make quilts, take photos of quilts. I look at and get inspired by fabric. I jot down ideas and even do rough sketches of quilt blocks (which I promptly lose most of the time). I have even been known to wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea for a quilt. Whew!

Inspiration comes in a lot of different forms for me. Sometimes I see a fabric or collection and an idea pops into my head. Sometimes I start with a favorite quilt block and a quilt develops out of that. I have quite a few quilt block references that I use for ideas. Here are a few books in my library:

The first 2 books are by Barbara Brackman. The one on the left is the first edition of the 2nd book and is out of print and can be hard to find. I have both of them and love them both. The newer edition has even more blocks in it than the first edition! Barbara Brackman is one of the most renowned quilt historians of our time! You can visit her blog, Material Culture, HERE.

I also have Barbara Brackman’s software program, Blockbase, which works with Electric Quilt. You can find Blockbase HERE.

The third book, 5500 Quilt Block Designs, is by well-known quilter and author Maggie Malone. I have only known about this book since 2021 when a friend of mine showed it to me and I was so impressed, I had to grab a copy for myself. This book is out of print so it can be harder to find as well.

I have talked about Electric Quilt software before in an earlier post, but I want to mention it again here because I really couldn’t design quilts without it! Some designers sit down with a ruler and graph paper to draft quilt patterns, but I am an Electric Quilt user because it makes designing quilts a lot easier for me. You can find Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) software HERE.

If you are interested in designing your own quilts, I totally recommend EQ8 if you’re into computers. If you’re not into computers, graph paper and a ruler might be your new BFF.

Once I get an idea, it’s time to play — which usually means I head to my computer and EQ8. I play with blocks, try different color combinations, download different fabrics to try all before I actually make anything at all. Some designers start by making the project and then work backwards to create the pattern and instructions. I do my designing on my computer and then make the project once I know what I am going to do. At least this is what I do probably 99% of the time. That’s one of the fun things about being a designer — I can try different ways of doing things. They don’t always work out for me, but that’s okay, there’s always another way to try.

Let me show you an example of my design process. For this example, I’m gong to start with my favorite quilt block, the Shoo Fly block.

When I am starting with the quilt design before I select the actual fabrics, I usually design in red, black, white, and grey. I don’t know exactly why I do that, but I think it probably has to do with the high contrast so I get a good sense of the pattern before I add actual fabric.

So, let’s make a wall quilt using 4 Shoo Fly blocks. It will look something like this:

Hmmmmm. This doesn’t really excite me. How about you? Let’s tweak it a little bit and see what happens next. We’ll add a bit more color, too.

Okay, this is better, don’t you think? By adding a sashing between the blocks, I was able to put another Shoo Fly block in the center. I changed the colors of the larger blocks to black and grey with the smaller center Shoo Fly block in red. It definitely has a lot more interest, doesn’t it? But it’s not quite there. Let’s tweak it a little bit more, shall we?

Now we’re getting somewhere! I got rid of the grey and went with plain black. Then I added 2 narrow blocky borders so I could continue to build out with more Shoo Fly blocks. Now I think we need a border.

Yay! A finished quilt design. I added an outer plain black border and a red binding. Pretty zippy, isn’t it? Now we’re gong to add some real fabric to the design.

Here are 3 different versions of our Shoo Fly quilt using Hoffman’s Paisley in Love batik collection. Of the 3, I think the last one with the white background is my favorite. I like the contrast, but I think I need to do a little more tweaking with the design, so back to the drawing board (or EQ8).

What are your thoughts? How would you improve this design? Any ideas?

Well, I hope you enjoyed a peek into my design process. Who knows? You might see this design as a VRD Rose Card some day.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Quilt Stories · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

The Villa Rosa Designs Ap and a Bear Hugs Story

May 19, 2022May 18, 2022 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week filled with lots of quilting and sunshine! Recently here in NW PA, we finally had some warm temperatures and lots of sunshine. It’s like we went from winter to summer in a matter of days. Everything is turning green and there is an explosion of color — it almost hurts your eyes, but in a good way!

Did you know Villa Rosa Designs has an ap?

Yes, we do!

It is available through your ap store. It’s a free ap and after you download it, you will be able to view all the Rose Cards, listed alphabetically. It even updates when new cards are added each month, so you will always have the most up-to-date list of Rose Cards.

In addition to the complete Rose Card list, you can create your own lists such as What I Own or What I Want or even Fat Quarter Quilts — whatever lists you can think of.

Another useful thing is that when you click on a Rose Card, another screen pops up with the quilt dimensions and its fabric requirements.

It’s not a shopping ap, but it’s fun to be able to search Rose Cards on the go.

For example:

Like when you’re at a quilt show or shop and you can’t remember if you have a specific Card — use the ap to find out.

Or maybe you’re shopping and find the perfect fabrics for a Rose Card project but you forgot the Card at home and you don’t know how much fabric you need — use the ap and look up the Rose Card to see the fabric requirements.

What a great resource to have at your fingertips wherever you go!

Bear Hugs: A Sweet Story

As a quilter, I just love hearing the story behind the quilt, don’t you?

You might remember the Bear Hugs Rose Card as one of the new Rose Cards for this month. Here’s the story behind the quilt.

I was invited to a baby shower for my cousin’s daughter — KK’s first baby. Of course I was going to make a baby quilt. I’m sure KK was expecting one, too, as she and her 2 siblings all received baby quilts when they were born.

I asked KK’s mom (my cousin) what the nursery theme was. She sent me a video which showed the crib and unfinished nursery in the background and told me “buffalo plaid, bears, fox, [and] deer.”

Now I had a starting point and it was time to head to my local quilt shop. I was sew lucky because there was a great display of the exact fabrics I was looking for! I grabbed a yard of a black and white buffalo plaid as well as 8 coordinating fat quarters of woodsy bears, deer, checks, and dots in black, white, red, and grey. I didn’t know what design I was doing yet, but I had the fabric — I was halfway there.

The next thing I did was fire up my computer and my Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) software. Interested in learning more about EQ8? Go HERE.

I decided to use some type of a Log Cabin block because of the woodsy theme. I played around with different Log Cabin-type blocks for a while and this block is what I came up with:

It’s a modern take on the old classic Log Cabin block.

This is one of the things I find the most fun about being a quilt designer — starting with a traditional block and re-imagining it. I really love doing that. It’s such a great way to create an entirely new quilt block to build a quilt around.

Happily, I finished the quilt a few days before KK’s baby shower. It was a beautiful baby shower –the theme of the shower matched the baby quilt perfectly, right down to the colors! I couldn’t wait for her to open it.

Surprise! A few days later, KK had baby J — a few weeks early, but he was perfect. And he had a full head of hair, too!

Here are a couple photos of Baby J on his Bear Hugs quilt — his quilt is the original quilt used for the front of the Bear Hugs pattern.

You can see the top right corner of the quilt turned down, that’s the label. Do you label your quilts?

VRD Invites You…

Want to share your VRD Rose Card story? We’d love to hear it!

Please email your quilt story and original photo along with the Rose Card pattern you used to make the quilt to tricia@villarosadesigns.com. Stories and accompanying photos will be selected randomly to share on our blog and Facebook. This project will be ongoing. If your story is selected, we’ll send you a little thank you surprise to you in the mail! Can’t wait to hear your quilt stories!

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Where can I purchase the panel in your tutorial? Has writing: One Nation Under God America Old Glory HONOR Etc.

Hi Tricia, I am not a pattern designer but I do look at quilts To identify the main block components…

Hey Kathleen! Me too!

Thanks Nancy! It was a lot of fun to go through the Rose Cards and find the ones that featured…

There are so many patterns that fall into this category. It is fun seeing them all. Just organized mine and…