6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge – Week 5 and a Vintage Fabric Surprise

November 6, 2025November 5, 2025 rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy November to you! We are now in the thick of the holiday season – are you ready? How many of you are participating in the 6 Quilts in 6 Week Challenge and getting a few handmade gifts completed for holiday giving? I must admit – not me. I’m just trying to make a dent in my VRD UFO quilt stack. I’m just so thrilled that I’ve already completed 5 unfinished projects. Yay me! I just need to keep it going after our lovely Challenge ends next week.

And our lucky Week 4 winner is ………….

Susan T.

Now let’s check out my Week 5 finish!

6 Quilts in 6 Weeks – Week 5

This past week has been a busy one, so for this week, I chose a table runner to complete. I had a fun summer version of Pinwheel Picnic ready and waiting. It was a sample I made for the VRD Table Runner a Month program my Friday Group (Hey Ladies!) did maybe 3 years ago.

Yup – another one bites the dust. Wahoo!

A vibrant quilted table runner called 'Pinwheel Picnic' features colorful triangular patterns in various fabrics, set against a sunny yellow background. The runner showcases a mix of floral and checkered designs, emphasizing a playful summer theme.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.

Have you ever made Pinwheel Picnic? It’s a fun one that goes together quickly and finishes at 16″ x 48″. It uses 5″ squares, but you could also use your stash! And it’s easy to add extra blocks to make it longer if you wanted.

I used an older fun summery fabric collection with citrus fruit and flowers by designer Sandy Gervais.

My Before Photo –

A completed table runner featuring a pinwheel design in vibrant colors including orange, yellow, green, and floral patterns, hanging against a backdrop of organized fabric shelves.

My After Photo –

A vibrant quilted table runner featuring a pinwheel pattern in colorful fabrics, including orange, green, and yellow, displayed against a backdrop of fabric storage.

I chose to quilt my runner with straight lines in orange thread about 1/2 inch apart. By no means are my lines actually straight, but I think it turned out pretty well. It will look even better once it’s washed and puckered. I stitched the quilting lines with my walking foot. The I used a solid orange for the binding and machine stitched it on with a yellow floral print for the back from my stash.

Here’s a close up of my quilting.

A close-up view of a quilted table runner featuring vibrant summer colors, floral patterns, and citrus motifs, showcasing intricate quilting lines.

It really feels good to have 5 projects completed.

I can’t wait to show you what I found yesterday!

My Vintage Fabric Find

I connected to a quilter and antique quilt collector online who was relocating to Alabama. She had culled her antique textile collection before her move and I am the very lucky adopter of her leftovers. But these leftovers are fantastic! Let me show you what I got.

A laundry basket filled with a colorful assortment of fabric scraps in various patterns and textures, ready for quilting projects.

YIPPEE! When I emptied the plastic bags of goodies – they filled an entire laundry basket. Lynn told me she’d acquired her collection here and there, online and at antique shops, which is pretty much how my own textile museum – er, collection – has grown over the years. LOL!

There were lots of great quilt blocks, both in sets or as orphan blocks.

A collection of various quilt blocks laid out on a gray surface, showcasing different patterns and colors including blue, pink, and yellow fabrics.

A collection of vintage fabric pieces arranged on a surface, featuring alternating blue and yellow stripes with a red square in the center.

A collection of quilt blocks in various shapes and fabrics, including geometric patterns and floral designs, arranged on a fabric surface.

Some of you may know that my quilting roots started in auctions, museums, and antique fabrics long before I’d ever made my first quilt block. Back in 2010, after acquiring a local woman’s scrap bag, quilt blocks, quilts, and tops which spanned more than 100 years, I wrote my first quilt book, Orphan Block Quilts. It’s now out of print, but you can still find it as print copies or as a download.

Book cover titled 'Orphan Block Quilts' featuring a quilt pattern with pastel colors and geometric shapes.

You can find the download HERE.

During the pandemic, I found another love in textile history – feed sacks! So I was thrilled to find lots of feed sack pieces amongst my new textile finds as well as 3 sewn strips of Log Cabin blocks with even more feed sacks! Lucky me! Oh my! What treasures I am finding in my new basket of scraps!

An assortment of vintage fabric pieces featuring various prints and colors, arranged on a light-colored surface.

A collection of vintage fabric scraps featuring various floral and geometric patterns in vibrant colors, laid out on a gray surface.

I really enjoy documenting all the different patterns and designs of the feed sacks I find. I even started putting my examples into books (big surprise, right?). My first volume is available and eventually the second volume will be, too, as soon as I finish it.

Book cover featuring a collection of vintage feed sack designs in various colors and patterns, titled 'Feed Sacks' by Tricia Maloney.

You can find it HERE.

I even used vintage feed sack squares in one of my VRD patterns, too.

A decorative quilted wall hanging titled 'Nana's Aprons' featuring three colorful patchwork aprons on a light blue background with a wooden backdrop.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.

Who knows? Maybe this new textile stash will inspire a new VRD pattern down the road. We shall see….

Well, that’s it for me today. I need to figure out which project I’ll be completing for next week’s Week 6 (and the last week) of our 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge. And then, I’m going to play in my new textile collection.

See you right here next week.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Finish. Play. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Quilt Play · Tips and Tricks · villa rosa designs

Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Spool Block

July 17, 2025July 16, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

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.

Here’s last week’s post if you missed it:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Are you ready? Let’s design a quilt together!

The Spool Block

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.

Cover of 'Polly Prindle's Book of American Patchwork Quilts' by Alice Gammell featuring quilts displayed on a decorative rack, accompanied by a bouquet of colorful flowers. — **Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts**
*Image from Amazon*

Cover of 'Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns' by Barbara Brackman featuring various quilt block designs. — **Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns**
*Image from Amazon*

A quilt block design featuring a 3x3 layout with red and cream colors, showcasing a Spool block pattern with alternating triangles and squares.

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.

A diagram of a Spool quilt block featuring a 3x3 layout with red and white fabric sections.

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.

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red and white spool shapes arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s try alternating the block directions. Better, but not there yet.

Patchwork design featuring a grid of red and white spool quilt blocks arranged in a 3x3 layout.

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.

Quilt design featuring a repetitive pattern of spool blocks in red and white.

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.

A quilt layout featuring a Spool block design in a 3x3 arrangement with orange and white color scheme.

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.

Colorful spool block design featuring a central black square surrounded by sections in red, orange, blue, and green.

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.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeated Spool block pattern, arranged in a grid format with red, orange, green, blue, and black elements.

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.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeating block pattern with red, blue, black, white, and yellow sections arranged in a grid layout.

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.

A quilt design featuring a pattern of interlocking Spool blocks arranged in a 4x4 grid, showcasing vibrant colors of red, black, white, and grey.

Let’s rearrange the blocks to see what happens. This is interesting. It has a lot of movement.

Colorful quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red, black, gray, and white shapes arranged in a geometric layout.

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.

A quilt design featuring a Spool block layout, showcasing a combination of dark brown, teal, and light brown fabrics arranged in a repeating pattern.

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.

A quilt design showcasing multiple Spool blocks arranged in a 4x4 grid, featuring a combination of brown, teal, and dark purple fabrics.

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.

Quilt design featuring a repeating Spool block layout in shades of teal, brown, and black, displaying a 3x3 pattern with various fabrics.

Do you remember where we started? A simple Spool block.

Quilt design featuring alternating red and white diamond shapes arranged in a grid pattern.

An here’s where we ended. Still a simple Spool block, but so much more!

A vibrant quilt design featuring a Spool block layout, with a mix of teal, brown, and dark purple fabrics arranged in a grid pattern.

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!

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Quilt Stories

Same Pattern, Different Looks – A Quilt Guild Block of the Month (BOM)

June 19, 2025June 18, 2025 rosecardsLeave a comment

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

In a few days, it will be officially summer! This got me thinking about a music lyric: “Summertime and the living is easy” and I decided to find out a little bit about it. So here I go down the rabbit hole for a few minutes. LOL! I discovered the lyric is from the song Summertime from the opera Porgy and Bess by Gershwin which debuted in 1935. It was originally sung by Abbie Mitchel.

I can hear the song in my head, but I’m not sure who sang the version I am most familiar with because apparently, tons of artists have sung it over the years. Yikes! Here is a wonderful version by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Enjoy!

Here’s to a little “Summertime and the living is easy” for all of us.

I was planning to do a fun summer tutorial for this week, but I have been using my sewing time to work on new July VRD patterns for you instead.

Let’s talk about Block of the Month (BOM) projects, instead.

Have you ever participated in a BOM? Have you finished them? The reason I ask is that over the years, I’ve not only participated, but I’ve organized BOMs and I must admit I haven’t finished all of them.

BOM Fun

Let me tell you about the current BOM I am participating in at my quilt guild, Free Spirit. Our program coordinator, Lauren (a retired quilt shop owner), organized a new BOM for our guild earlier this year. Lauren was inspired by The Civil War Diary Quilt by Rosemary Youngs and The Farmer’s Wife Homestead Medallion book by Laurie Aaron Hird.

Cover of 'The Civil War Diary Quilt' book by Rosemary Youngs, featuring quilt block patterns and an illustration of a woman in historical dress.

Cover of The Farmer's Wife Homestead Medallion Quilt book, featuring a colorful quilt design with intricate patterns and texts related to pioneer woman stories.

Each month, Lauren selects a block from each book. One block is easy and the second block is more advanced. We have the option to make one block each month or both of them.

My favorite part of the BOM is that at our meeting, when Lauren presents the 2 new block each month, someone reads the letter that accompanies each block aloud to the group. As a former children’s librarian, I really LOVE that concept – story time for adults! YAY! Last month, I was the guest reader, which was so lovely as I hadn’t read aloud for a long time. Sure, we all know kiddos enjoy being read too, but so do adults. Maybe you’ll incorporate this idea into one your guild programs.

Each month we bring our completed blocks to the guild meeting and put them up on the wall so everyone can see each other’s blocks. I am always very excited to see everyone’s blocks side by side. It’s really interesting to see how people interpret a block pattern in their own unique way using their own fabrics.

So I thought we’d do the same thing on the blog today. It can be quite inspiring as well as a learning experience to see different people’s versions of the same pattern. I’m going to share with you my blocks, Robin’s blocks, and Mary Lee’s blocks. BIG shout out to Robin and Mary Lee, my quilty pals, who were okay with sharing their blocks with you.

**Block 1: Simple Blessings from The Civil War Diary Quilt (Easy)**

A quilt block featuring a star pattern with dark blue and reddish-brown fabrics, centered around a plain white square.

A quilt block featuring a star pattern with blue and brown fabric, and a central cream square.

Block 2: Sun Rays Quilt from The Farmer’s Wife Homestead Medallion (Advanced)

A patchwork quilt block featuring a central beige square surrounded by star-like green and tan points, arranged in a traditional quilt pattern.

Patchwork quilt block featuring a star design in shades of brown and beige, with a red center.

**Block 3: Bitter Enemy from The Civil War Diary Quilt (Easy)**

Quilt block featuring various triangular and square shapes in a muted color palette, showcasing different fabric textures.

Patchwork quilt block featuring a design with triangles in red and cream against a striped brown background.

**Block 4: Star in the Window from The Farmer’s Wife Homestead Medallion (Advanced)**

A quilt block featuring a star design in the center surrounded by alternating green and red geometric shapes against a beige background.

A colorful patchwork quilt block featuring star and striped patterns in red, yellow, and blue fabrics.

**Block 5: Yankee Papers from The Civil War Diary Quilt (Easy)**

A quilt block featuring a geometric design with brown, cream, and light blue floral fabrics arranged in a diamond pattern.

A quilt block featuring a geometric pattern with brown, gray, and yellow fabrics arranged in a pinwheel design.

**Block 6: Church from The Farmer’s Wife Homestead Medallion (Advanced)**

Quilt block featuring a brown diamond shape in the center, surrounded by a pattern of cream and light yellow squares.

A quilt block featuring a central brown diamond surrounded by patterned squares in red and cream tones.

Unfortunately as of posting, Mary Lee hadn’t made her 7 and 8 blocks yet.

And here’s where things start to get interesting – look what happens with Robin’s and my blocks. Up until now, we were all following the block instructions, but things change with block 7. Robin continues to create her blocks following the instructions, but I begin adapting the blocks so that they blend better with my other blocks.

Block 7: Puss in the Corner from The Farmer’s Wife Homestead Medallion (Easy)

A patchwork quilt block featuring a combination of muted brown, beige, and patterned fabrics arranged in a quilt-like design.

A square quilt block featuring a mix of blue and cream fabric patterns, arranged in a cross design with floral and geometric prints.

**Block 8: Southern Flags and Patriotism from The Civil War Diary Quilt (Advanced)**

A patchwork quilt block featuring a yellow star on a blue background, combined with red and tan striped fabric to represent a stylized American flag.

A quilt block featuring a design of dark blue stars on a cream background, surrounded by a checkered pattern.

Let’s take a look at each person’s group of blocks so far. Now you’ll be able to not only see the color scheme, but also the theme.

Mary Lee is using her stash of Daiwabo fabrics for her blocks to create a classy understated elegance. (Daiwabo fabrics are Japanese taupes.) Although each block has its own group of fabrics, the fabrics are repeated in more than one block for a lovely cohesion.

A collection of six quilt blocks displayed on a fabric background, featuring various designs and colors in muted tones.

Robin is using a great collection of Civil War fat quarters for her blocks to create a traditional 19th century look. I just love how she uses the lighter busy prints as backgrounds, don’t you?

A collection of nine quilt blocks arranged in a grid, featuring various patterns and colors, including stars, stripes, and geometric shapes.

Me, I’m using a big bag of blue and cream scraps with some additional fat quarters to add variety for my blocks. It definitely has a Modern Farmhouse feel going on, I think.

Nine quilt blocks arranged on a fabric background, featuring a variety of blue and cream patterns in traditional quilting designs.

We have 2 more months of blocks in order to complete the set of 12 BOM blocks for the guild. Then it will be time to figure out how we want to lay them out and complete them because how we finish the blocks is completely up to each of us. I have a pretty good idea right now as to what I want to do, but that could change based on the upcoming blocks. I think completed quilt tops using our BOM blocks will be a post coming down the road so you can see how our projects turned out.

I hope you have a lazy crazy living easy summer!

That’s it for me this week, see you next time!

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilt Block Basics · Rose Cards · Tips and Tricks · villa rosa designs

Quilt Block Basics — Four Patch and Nine Patch

May 25, 2023May 24, 2023 rosecards2 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday!

The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day here in my little corner of Pennsylvania! I hope your day is looking just as bright. Make sure you do something fun!

Today we are wrapping up our foray into the Basics of Quilt Blocks. There are, of course, more quilt block units out there, but the ones we’ve covered are the basic ones — at least in my opinion.

Any discussion of Quilt Block Basics would not be complete without Four Patches and Nine Patches.

Quilt Block Basics — Four Patches and Nine Patches

Four Patch and Nine Patch blocks are probably two of the easiest quilt blocks to make. That’s probably a good reason why these blocks have been some of the most loved quilt blocks in history! From beginners to advanced quilters — these blocks have stood the test of time for centuries.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I collect vintage and antique textiles. I do have antique quilts and tops, but my favorite part of my collection is the piles and piles of orphan quilt blocks (I consider any block not housed in a quilt to be an orphan quilt block).

Speaking of orphan quilt blocks — did you know I wrote a book about putting antique and vintage quilt blocks into new quilts? It was my very first quilt book! LOL!

Get Orphan Block Quilts HERE

Anyway, in my quilt block collection, I have tons of Four Patch and Nine Patch blocks dating from the mid 1800’s all the way to the mid 1900’s. 100 years of quilt blocks — that’s a lot of Four Patch and Nine Patch blocks!

Four Patches and Nine Patches can stand alone as individual quilt blocks, of course, but they are also fantastic quilt block units, too! AND they can act as frames where you can insert other block units into the squares to create even more blocks! The options are endless (OH NO! I hear my EQ8 calling me….again!).

Let’s take a look at some blocks featuring Four Patch and Nine Patch units.

Four Patch Blocks

Nine Patch Blocks

You can also mix Four Patch and Nine Patch units together into blocks!

Mixed Blocks

I am not going to reinvent the wheel by doing tutorials for assembling Four Patch and Nine Patch units as there are a lot of them out there on the Internet. Instead, here are some fun quilt designs using a few of the blocks above.

A Few Simple Four and Nine Patch Quilt Ideas for You

Now we’re going to move right into my curated Four and Nine Patch List of Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Quilt Patterns. I anticipate there will be a lot, so stay with me all the way to the end or you might lost along the way.

VRD Rose Card Patterns Featuring Four Patches and Nine Patches

Get Akito HERE

Get Antique HERE

Get Bat Dance HERE

Get Be My Baby HERE

Get Beatrice HERE

Get Bee Charming HERE

Get Blizzard HERE

Get Blueberry Cobbler HERE

Get Carefree HERE

Get Carnival Glass HERE

Get Celebration HERE

Get Charismatic HERE

Get Charity HERE

Get Cidermill HERE

Get Color Box HERE

Get Columbia HERE

Get Country Life HERE

Get Crackers HERE

Get Daring Spirit HERE

Get Early Dawn HERE

Get Electron HERE

Get Elementary HERE

Get Giggles HERE

Get Gingersnap HERE

Get Grandmother HERE

Get Imperial HERE

Get Indigo Bay HERE

Get Jardena HERE

Get Kalinda HERE

Get King’s Ransom HERE

Get Kit & Caboodle HERE

Get Klondike HERE

Get Lollipop HERE

Get Love Notes HERE

Get Lovers Lane HERE

Get Macarons HERE

Get Malaysia HERE

Get Monterey HERE

Get Nana’s Aprons HERE

Get Night Light HERE

Get Oakmont HERE

Get Orange Waves HERE

Get Outback HERE

Get Peace HERE

Get Penny Candy HERE

Get Peppermint & Holly HERE

Get Phoebe HERE

Get Pinwheel Picnic HERE

Get Pixelation HERE

Get Polo HERE

Get Pride HERE

Get Raspberry Cream HERE

Get Ruby Road HERE

Get Saffron HERE

Get Salute HERE

Get Senior Prom HERE

Get Soul Mate HERE

Get Special Event HERE

Get Star Rail HERE

Get Starfire HERE

Get Tic Tac Toad HERE

Get Transcendent HERE

Get Twinkle HERE

Get Viaduct HERE

Get Waverly HERE

Get Whirlaway HERE

Get Wild Rover HERE

Get Wild Thing HERE

Get Winchester HERE

Get X Ray HERE

WHEW! Did you make it all the way through the whole list? I hope I didn’t lose you somewhere along the way. LOL!

I really hope you found this Quilt Block Basics series to not only be interesting but also helpful and informative. As a designer, when I look at a quilt, I try to isolate the quilt block (or blocks) to identify the pattern if the name doesn’t jump out at me at first. Knowing the different units that make up quilt blocks helps me to do that. It also helps me to take these different units, mix them up, and magically end up with new quilt block designs and variations so that I can keep creating new quilt patterns.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD