Tag: tricia maloney

2026 Spring 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge Begins and a NEW Spring into Spring Quilt Tutorial Series: Charlie

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Woohoo! Today begins our 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge, are you ready??? There’s still time to join the fun. Let me tell you all about it.

Promotional image for the '6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge' by Villa Rosa Designs, featuring a stack of colorful quilts against a blue sky background with text detailing the challenge.

The Challenge Dates:

Week 1 Quilt due by Friday 4/10 midnight EST

Week 2 Quilt due by Friday 4/17 midnight EST

Week 3 Quilt due by Friday 4/24 midnight EST

Week 4 Quilt due by Friday 5/1 midnight EST

Week 5 Quilt due by Friday 5/8 midnight EST

Week 6 Quilt due by Friday 5/15 midnight EST

The Rules and All the Details of the Challenge:

Each week for 6 weeks, participants will post before/after photos of weekly UFOs to our VRD Facebook page or if you prefer, you can email the photos to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com.

I will post my before/after photos on the blog, villarosaquilts.com, each week and I will try to post them on the VRD Facebook page as well.

All quilt tops/projects must be VRD patterns – this is the VRD blog, after all. Quilts must be quilted and bound to be eligible for prize drawings. No size requirements (I have UFOs from snack mats up to large throw quilts). It doesn’t even have to be a quilt – we have some great accessories, table runners, place mats, and snack mats. Projects can be in any stage of UFO from a stack of fabric and a pattern to a pile of blocks to quilt tops to projects needing quilt or even just binding and a label. The idea is to simply finish VRD projects so we can feel great about starting new ones.

Each week, I’ll draw a name randomly from those participants who posted before/after photos by each weekly deadline. The winners will get a surprise quilty good in the mail after the Challenge ends. Goodies might be from me or from one of our lovely quilting partners.

This Challenge is open to all, but please note that International winners will receive a selection of VRD digital patterns.

PSST! You can even use the next six weeks to make a NEW VRD quilt each week (or any of the 6 weeks) if you want – hey, maybe you don’t have any unfinished VRD tops just sitting around. So go ahead – pick your favorite VRD pattern and get moving. Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to get some of your holiday sewing done early??? I am not quite that organized, I’m afraid, but maybe you are.

You might be wondering what happens if you don’t post a before/after photo for a weekly Challenge or you miss the deadline. It’s pretty simple – your name won’t go into that week’s prize drawing – that’s okay because life gets busy. I’m not kicking you out of the Challenge, though – feel free to participate in any or all weeks. Your name will go into each weekly drawing that you complete a project and post your before/after photos before the weekly deadline.

Seriously, I want to encourage all of you as well as myself to finish projects, not to stress about them. LOL!

I think that’s all the important info. I hope I’ve answered any questions you had. If not, feel free to email me.

Wanna join me in this Challenge?

Send your name and email address to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com to officially join the challenge and be eligible for weekly prizes. Your name and email will only be used for this Challenge, I promise you.

So, the Challenge begins….now. Your Week 1 Finished Project before/after photos are due by Friday, April 10th midnight EST. Post them on our VRD Facebook group or you can email them directly to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com if you prefer.

Time to get quilting and slash your stash of VRD UFOs! And don’t forget to have some fun, too.

HEY! maybe you can challenge your quilty pals to do the Challenge with you? A few of mine are participating, so why not ask yours? Just sayin’……..

All right, let’s check out this week’s Spring into Spring tutorial, Charlie.

Spring into Spring VRD Quilt Tutorial Series: Charlie

Today’s tutorial is Charlie, a quick fun panel pattern. It finishes at 44″ x 64″. But of course, you could always add another border to make it larger if you want to. A 6″ border (strips cut at 6 1/2″) would finish at 56″ x 76″.

A colorful quilt featuring a pirate ship, playful sea creatures, and various patchwork patterns, designed by Tricia Lynn Maloney for Villa Rosa Designs.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Let’s get going on this cute quilt!

1. The first thing we always start with is our fabric. Today we’re using a super cool digital fabric collection from Hoffman called Crafty Cats. It’s fun and bright with some great rainbow 24/7 Solids and Linen coordinates.

An assortment of colorful fabric pieces laid out on a cutting mat, featuring a vibrant patterned fabric with cat illustrations in the background.

Don’t you just love love love the cat print? Guess what?!? It’s running yardage, NOT a panel.

Have you ever thought about using a favorite novelty fabric instead of a printed panel? As long as you cut the fabric to the right size, novelty prints work beautifully in panel quilt patterns. Just a great tip from little ol’ me.

2. I must admit I’m a little nervous to cut the running yardage to the correct size the pattern calls for because it is just too easy to make a mistake. So wish me luck as I measure and measure again before cutting.

A colorful fabric featuring cat designs laid on a cutting mat, accompanied by a rotary cutter and a clear ruler for measuring.
A rotary cutter and scissors on a cutting mat with colorful cat-themed fabric being cut with a ruler.

Whew! Got it! I didn’t think I could love this fabric any more, but I totally do now it’s cut and up on the design wall so I can see it properly.

A vibrant and colorful fabric featuring a repeating pattern of stylized cat faces in various colors and expressions.

3. Now I’m going to cut the yellow border strips. I’ll need to cut 2 different widths for the 2 yellow borders – the inner border and the outer border. I’ll piece strips/cut them to the right size when I’m ready to actually sew them onto the quilt. So I’m going to set them aside for right now.

Two pieces of yellow fabric with a transparent ruler and a rotary cutter on a cutting mat.

4. Time to cut out the bright and happy squares for the middle border now. I like to layer a couple fabrics when I cut strips and then cut my strips into squares. If you’re comfortable doing that, go right ahead, but if you prefer cutting a single fabric at a time, that works great too.

A cutting mat featuring a green fabric square, a transparent ruler, and a rotary cutter, arranged for quilting or sewing projects.
A rotary cutter and clear ruler are placed on a cutting mat with a piece of green fabric laid out for cutting.
A rotary cutter lies on a cutting mat with two green squares of fabric, one partially cut.

Okay, here are all my squares, cut and ready to sew.

A stack of colorful cloth squares in various shades including pink, red, green, and blue, arranged on a cutting mat with a grid pattern.

5. Everything is cut out and ready to sew now. I need to measure my cat fabric center in order to cut my side yellow borders to the right length. Then I’ll pin it to the center fabric edge, matching up the centers and the ends to keep everything nice and square. And off to the sewing machine to stitch the yellow border strips to the sides.

A colorful fabric with a pattern of cats in various artistic styles, bordered by a yellow fabric strip. Pins are used to secure the pieces on a cutting mat.
A sewing machine stitching a vibrant fabric featuring colorful cat motifs alongside a plain yellow fabric.

6. Next I need to head to the iron to press my seams. Today I’m sewing at my quilty pal, Robin’s house. Our friend Mary Lee, and my big sis, Tracy came to hang out too. It was a fun little impromptu get together. With snacks. You have to have snacks.

You’ve got to love the pink cowhide print ironing board cover, right?

An iron resting on a colorful, patterned ironing board with a strip of yellow fabric.

7. Here’s the cat center with the side borders in place.

A colorful fabric panel featuring a repeating pattern of cats in various colors and styles, bordered with a yellow edge.

8. Now to measure, cut, sew, and press the top and bottom borders. So far, so good. Yay!

A colorful fabric panel featuring a repeated pattern of cartoon animals, framed with a yellow border.

8. The next border is made up of all those fun bright squares. I want the squares to be totally random – not in a specific arrangement – so I’m going to lay out the squares. I’m excited because those bright squares are really going to bring out the colors in the cat fabric!

I’m only going to work on the side squares first. A funny thing happened – I was laying out and wouldn’t you know it but somehow unconsciously I began to lay out the right side to match the same sequence as the left side. Thanks, Mary Lee, for pointing that out to me. I didn’t even notice what I was doing! So after much shuffling and rearranging, the layout finally looks random. Which is quite amusing, since it wasn’t really random at all. LOL!

A colorful quilt with a patchwork of vibrant fabric strips surrounding a central collage of various patterns and images.
A colorful quilt hanging on a wall, featuring a central panel with vibrant, patterned fabric surrounded by a bright yellow border and accented with squares of various colors along the sides.

9. I’m going to sew the left row of squares together, press the row, and then sew it to the left side of quilt. Then I’ll sew the right square row together and add it to the right side of the quilt before I head back to the iron to press all the seams.

Oh dang! When I sewed the square rows to the sides I discovered that I made a mistake when I cut the length of the cat fabric way back at the beginning. Apparently I cut the length about an inch short so my square rows were slightly longer than the framed center. (Here I smack my forehead…..)

No reason to panic, though. I matched the centers of the square rows to the center of the side yellow borders and I simply trimmed off the excess half inch or so at the top and bottom. Maybe not the most elegant solution, but it was quick and worked well and you probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t told on myself.

An ironing board covered in a pink cow print fabric, with several fabric swatches in pastel colors including pink, green, blue, and purple laid out on top.
A cutting mat with colorful fabric pieces and a rotary cutter on top. The fabric features vibrant prints, including animals, and various solid colored fabric strips laid out in a patchwork pattern.
A colorful quilt hanging on a wall, featuring a vibrant pattern of mixed floral and artistic designs surrounded by a bright yellow border and pieced colorful stripes.
An ironing board with a colorful fabric patchwork spread across it, next to a steam iron. The fabric features various patterns in vibrant colors, and the ironing board cover has a pink and white design.

10. Easy Peasy. Time to lay out the top and bottom square rows and sew the rows to the quilt. It’s coming together now. Those bright squares really compliment the center cat fabric. This quilt is going to make me smile.

A colorful quilt or fabric panel displayed against a neutral backdrop, featuring a vibrant inner pattern surrounded by a multicolored border.

11. Next I’ll add the outside yellow borders. I had to piece these strips together before measuring and cutting them to the right length. Then I sewed them to the sides and pressed them.

WHEW! Finally I added the top and bottom borders. I had to add a little bit to the ends of these border strips, as well, to make them fit the width of the quilt.

A flat lay of a quilting project featuring a yellow fabric piece being pinned to colorful patchwork fabric on a cutting mat.

12. And done! Here it is. My finished Charlie quilt top. Yay! What a fun pattern that will showcase pretty much any fabric from panels to novelty fabrics. It turned out really fun!

A colorful quilt hanging on a wall, featuring a bright green border with multiple colored squares. The center displays a vibrant pattern with various colorful designs, surrounded by a cozy room setup including a shelf with fabric and a cup on a table.

I hope you’ll give Charlie a try. It was a really fun pattern to make. Maybe I’ll finish this one during the 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge…. We shall see, though, I have sew many VRD UFOs to complete and it will be hard to decide which ones to finish first.

I hope you will join me and the other 25 quilters who are participating in the 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge. Together, we can get to the finish line with some of our VRD UFOs. 6 isn’t a scary number. Each of us can make a commitment to finish 6 quilts. Even if we have stacks of UFOs. 6 is doable. If each of the 26 of us completed 6 UFOs, that would be a total of 156 completed quilts. In 6 weeks. WOWZER!

We CAN do this together.

Stay tuned next week to see which VRD UFO I am going to finish first. See you then!

Sew. Laugh. Finish. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

NEW January 2026 VRD Rose Card Patterns, a NEW Seasonal Series, and a Tutorial for an Envelope Pillow Back

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Are you ready for a FUN and exciting new year of quilty goodness here on the VRD blog? We’re working on all kinds of cool ideas for 2026, including another 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge, lots of new patterns (as you probably already know we release 5-7 brand new patterns each and every month), and lots of other great stuff. You just need to hang out every Thursday with us to see what’s up.

Speaking of new patterns, I’m excited to share with you our brand new January patterns. If you’ve been hanging out with us for a while, then you probably already know that I totally live for the Thursday after the first Friday of every month. If you’re new to the blog, first – WELCOME, we’re SEW glad you’re here – and second, our new monthly patterns are released on the first Friday of each month. Here on the blog, I love to share our new monthly patterns on the Thursday post following Pat’s reveal of the new patterns on the first Friday. Whew! I hope that makes sense.

Cue the confetti and the music! Here they are!

Promotional image for January 2026 quilt patterns, featuring five designs: Elroy, Gateway, Felicity, Go Fish, and Star Anise, each with a description and the price of $8.95 for the set.

You can get all 5 print patterns HERE

(patterns are also available individually as both digital downloads and printed patterns)

Elroy – Rachelle Handmade is back with this clever star-worthy fat quarter friendly quilt that finishes 48″ x 60″. So grab your favorite FQ collection and this quilt go together in a jiffy.

Felicity – Here’s another super quick fat quarter patterns from Pat. It finishes at 42″ x 54″ and makes a fun throw or kids’ quilt.

Gateway – This is Molly’s latest panel quilt design. It finishes at 42″ x 62″, which is a nice small throw or even a large wall quilt.

Star Anise – Heidi’s new design this month is a fab graphic star pattern. It finishes at 58″ x 58″ and makes a good-sized throw. You could add another row at the bottom to make this quilt longer if you wanted to and it would be the right size for a Quilts of Valor quilt.

Go Fish – This cutie was created as a child’s quilt for a new baby in my cousin’s family. It finishes at 46″ x 52″ and uses fat quarters.

Because of the holidays, I didn’t get a runner finished in time for January, but I have something else for you this month!

New Seasonal Series for 2026

I hope you enjoyed the Seasonal Snack Mat Pattern Series from 2024-25 as much as I did. It was really fun to come up with a new design for each month of the year.

Cover image featuring 12 seasonal snack mats with various designs, including Woolly Mitten, Dear Heart, Shamrock, Independence Day, Buzzy Bee, Little Shroom, and more, all displayed in a colorful grid format.

Did you know we have all 12 Snack Mats together in a print collection now? You can find it HERE.

Hey! How about another Seasonal Series for 2026???

Great idea – it just so happens that this month we’re kicking off a new Seasonal Accent Pillow series. The patchwork pillow covers will finish at 18″ square and can be used as small wall or table quilts.

WOOHOO!

This month’s Pillow is called Happy Hearts.

My furbaby, Bailly, decided she wanted to be in the photo with the pillow. To be fair, I did use her favorite chair. LOL! Silly Bailly.

A decorative pillow with a heart design sits on a pink couch, accompanied by a small, fluffy dog.

You can find the digital pattern HERE or the print pattern HERE

I hope you are as excited about this new series as I am. By now, you’ve probably noticed that I tend to create a lot of seasonal and holiday patterns. I wonder if that comes from living my entire life here in northwestern Pennsylvania where we can have all 4 seasons in one day. Yeah….maybe.

To jump-start your Year of Seasonal Pillows, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you how I like to finish the backs of my accent pillows. Yep, there are lots of different ways, but my absolute favorite is the Envelope Pillow Back.

Read on for a quick tutorial.

Envelope Pillow Back Tutorial

Have you ever made a throw pillow and wondered how to finish the back? Maybe you added that unfinished pillow top to your stash of UFOs and forgot all about it.

Let me show you my favorite method for finishing a pillow top with no zippers. Yep – you heard me right – no zippers! And that’s a good thing, too, as I am terrible at sewing zippers.

I layered my pillow top with batting and lining fabric and machine quilted it. Then I squared it up to 18 1/2″ x 18 1/2″. Now we’re ready to rock and roll!

A close-up view of a quilting project showing a variety of pink and red fabric squares arranged in a geometric pattern, with batting visible underneath.
A cutting mat with a transparent ruler and rotary cutter, featuring a patchwork design of hearts in red and pink fabrics.
Close-up of a quilt featuring a heart pattern with red and pink fabric pieces, set against a light background with quilting stitches.

I chose these cheeky pink snowflakes for the back of my Happy Hearts Pillow since we’ll still be having snow for Valentine’s Day around here.

I decided to cut my 2 backing pieces of fabric 12 1/2″ x 18 1/2″ so that I would have a 6″ overlap. There aren’t any real rules for how much overlap to have on an Envelope back, but if you don’t have enough, you’ll know it because the opening on the back will bulge out, exposing the pillow insert. Better to have a generous overlap than not enough.

A cutting mat with pink fabric featuring white snowflakes, alongside a transparent quilting ruler marked with measurements.

Next, I’m going to press a 1/4″ hem along an 18 1/2″ side on BOTH of the backing pieces.

An iron next to a piece of pink fabric with a snowflake pattern, resting on a grey ironing board cover.

Then we’ll fold it over one more time so that the raw edges will be sandwiched in the hem. You can pin them in place if needed, but since I pressed them, they’ll hold up while I sew.

A piece of fabric featuring a pink and white snowflake pattern, with pink bias tape laid on top, on a textured surface.

Alrighty, now we’re headed to the sewing machine to sew down the hem on both sections.

Close-up of a sewing machine stitching a decorative pink fabric with snowflake patterns.
Close-up of a pink patterned fabric featuring white snowflake designs with visible stitching along the edges.

Our next step is to layer one of the back sections right sides together (RST) with the pillow cover, lining up the outer edges with the hemmed edge towards the middle. This time I’m going to pin generously because I really don’t want anything moving out of place.

A close-up view of a quilt showcasing various patterned fabrics, including pink, red, and white materials, with quilted designs and a folded section revealing different fabric textures.
A piece of pink fabric with snowflake patterns is pinned to a quilt, surrounded by sewing tools and materials.

So far, so good. Let’s layer the second backing section now, again with the hemmed edge towards the center, overlapping the hemmed edge of the first section. I pinned everything into submission.

A close-up of pink fabric with a white snowflake pattern, folded and pinned for sewing.
A square piece of pink fabric with a floral pattern, pinned down on a workspace with various craft supplies in the background.

Back to the sewing machine to sew all the way around, using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

A sewing machine with a pink fabric piece featuring a floral pattern, pinned with colorful clips, under bright lighting.

I want to take a minute and share a really good tip about sewing corners – I learned this great idea from a fellow quilt guild member years ago.

When you are a few stitches from where you plan to stop and turn the corner, pause and turn your project 45 degrees and stitch a couple stitches, then turn it the rest of the way and continue sewing on the new side. These couple of stitches give your corner a little ease and room for turning. You’ll actually end up with neater corners when you’re turning things right sides out if you do this.

Oops – you caught me – I just sewed over my pin instead of pulling it out. Call the Quilt Police!

Close-up of a sewing machine foot, with pink patterned fabric being prepared for stitching, and a pin holding the fabric in place.
Close-up of a sewing machine with pink fabric featuring snowflake patterns and a blue sewing pin, showing the needle and presser foot in action.
Close-up of a pink fabric with a floral pattern and visible stitching on the edge.

I’m also going to cut across all 4 of my corners to reduce the bulk which will help those corners to turn out neatly. Be careful NOT to cut through your stitching.

Close-up of pink patterned fabric with scissors cutting the edge on a gray felt background.

Since my inside edges are going to be unfinished, I think I’ll take a little extra time to zig zag around the outside before turning things right sides out. This will just help to keep things neat and tidy so they don’t fray. If you have a serger, you can easily serge around the outside edges. And if you know how to use your serger, somebody please teach me – mine is still new in the box three years after purchase…….

Close-up of a pink fabric with a floral pattern, partially sewn, placed on a sewing machine.

Okay, let’s turn this pillow cover right sides out through the Envelope Back opening. Yippee!

Close-up of a quilt featuring a pink and red pattern. The quilt is partially on a sewing machine with quilting lines visible, and colorful fabrics can be seen in the background.
A piece of pink fabric with white snowflake patterns, laid out flat on a sewing table.

I’m going to take a little time to press things really well and smooth my edges so the pillow back won’t be showing around the front edge of the pillow. Much better.

A pink fabric featuring white snowflake patterns, laid out on a workspace.

Time to pop an 18″ pillow insert into my now-completed pillow cover.

A pink pillowcase with a snowflake pattern next to a white pillow on a craft table.
A pink pillow with white snowflake patterns, resting on a crafting table surrounded by fabric scraps and sewing tools.

And here is the completed Happy Hearts pillow with Envelope Pillow Back. Done and done. I think it turned out pretty well!

A decorative quilted pillow featuring a heart pattern in shades of pink and red against a light background.

Well, that’s it for me this week.

Hope to see you here again next Thursday for more VRD fun! Bring a friend!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Free Quilt Blocks and Patterns · Just Quilty Stuff · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

A Christmas Gift For You – A Little Holiday Quilt Pattern and Tutorial to Bring You Joy and Holiday Gift Idea #3

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

And Happy December!

A snowy forest scene featuring tall evergreen trees, with the word 'December' prominently displayed in the center.

Huh! I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that all of a sudden it’s December. Sew much to do and sew little time……

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited about December starting. My quilty cuz, Kim (Hey You!), and I both purchased Quilty Christmas Advent Boxes last year in 2024, but we were both a bit disappointed so we decided to create boxes for each other this year instead of hunting around to find another one we liked. What fun!

It’s been a blast picking out fun things for Kim. Of course, I panicked at the end of November because I wasn’t ready yet! LOL! But in a flurry of wrapping paper and covered in tape, I got all 25 items wrapped up and they all fit inside the box.

We met a a local restaurant on Saturday and exchanged our boxes. Kim’s box for me was a fun surprise – the goodies in the box were all stacked up (and wrapped in Christmas sloth paper) – they didn’t fit inside the box and were sticking out all over. Joy oh joy! She didn’t even bother with a lid. Oh my! What fun December is going to be – enjoying a little Christmas every day – both the giving and the receiving as well as the sharing.

In addition to Kim’s box, I also created a box for each of my parents. I had to hustle to get all of their goodies (that’s 50 gifts) wrapped in 1 day on December 1st before dinner so we could start our December tradition on the right day. Wow! I was so tired after all of the wrapping that I didn’t put numbers on everything like I should have. Oh well, Mom and Dad will just have to reach in and pull one out to open each day until Christmas Day instead of having to hunt through their boxes every day for the right number package. And by the way, everything fit nice and neat inside their boxes and the lids closed perfectly. Just sayin’, Kim…. LOL!!!

A Gift For You

When I was trying to decide what to do this week on the blog, I had a brilliant idea – why not create a special little holiday quilt for you, our readers and VRD friends? Without you, there would be no VRD. We appreciate you each and every day. Thank you for loving VRD as much as we do.

I decided to call the little quilt I created for you, Quilt Joy. It is a happy little thing and I am looking forward to quilting and binding it. I already have someone as the recipient.

So, let’s make a quilt together!

Quilt Joy Little Quilt Tutorial

Colorful patchwork quilt design featuring a grid pattern in red, green, and white.
Quilt Joy, a little quilt by Tricia Maloney, finishes at 24″ x 24″

Quilt Joy Free Pattern Download

Little Joy quilt pattern Dec 2025Download

The first thing we need is our fabric, of course! For this little sweetie, I’m using a 5″ charm pack from my stash. Because I’ll need some more red, I’m adding a 2.5″ charm stack, too. And a background fabric. I’m going to make my little Quilt Joy in traditional red, green, and white, but you can make yours in any color combination or even really scrappy.

If you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanza, you can totally use special colors for your celebrations.

I think I’ll make a blue, white, and silver one for January – but that’s getting a little ahead of myself, isn’t it?

A stack of fabric pieces including a charm pack with holiday patterns and a white fabric, placed on a green cutting mat.

Cutting doesn’t take much time at all! I promise. I cut my 5″ charm squares into 4 – 2.5″ squares. Zip Zap Zoop – done!

Red fabric pieces cut into small squares on a cutting mat with measurements.
A variety of fabric pieces laid out on a cutting mat, including red patterned squares, green squares with pine tree designs, and strips of white fabric.

Now let’s make some Nine Patch blocks. Easy peasy.

A collection of red and white quilt blocks arranged on a crafting surface, showcasing various patterns and textures.

In one of my Nine Patch blocks, I added a green square in the center. This block will be in the center of my quilt.

Two completed Nine Patch quilt blocks featuring a mix of red and white fabrics, with one block incorporating a green Christmas tree print.

Okay, now let’s sew 3 blocks together with sashing in between the blocks. We need to make 3 rows.

Three rows of Nine Patch quilt blocks in red and white fabrics, featuring holiday patterns.

Next we need to use 3 sashing strips along with 2 green accent squares to make a sashing row. Make 2 rows.

Two strips of white fabric with green checkered patches sewn in the middle, resting on a light-colored fabric background.

Now we are going to sew the sashing rows between the block rows. Isn’t this looking sew sew cute???? I am just loving this little cutie!

A quilt block featuring a festive red and white nine-patch design with various Christmas-themed fabrics and green accent squares.

Add a border strip to each side of the quilt.

A patchwork quilt block featuring a grid pattern in red and white fabric, with various Christmas-themed prints and patterns.

Now sew a green accent square to each end of the 2 remaining borders. Then sew to the top and bottom of the quilt.

A patchwork quilt featuring red and white squares in a Nine Patch pattern, with seasonal holiday-themed fabrics.

Isn’t it just too adorable for words???? And in the classic traditional of Villa Rosa Designs, you can put the quilt top together in a few hours, including the cutting.

Here’s Quilt Joy for our friends who celebrate Hanukkah:

A colorful quilt design featuring a grid pattern with alternating squares in shades of blue, yellow, and white.

And here’s Quilt Joy for our friends who celebrate Kwanza:

A colorful quilt pattern featuring red and green squares arranged in a checkerboard design, set against a black background with a red border.

Happy Happy December to You!

Holiday Gift Idea #3

For the past few weeks, I’ve shared a fun gift idea at the end of the blog for you. My Holiday Pick this week – #3 – is hot off the press – literally!

A colorful collage showcasing 12 seasonal snack mat designs by Villa Rosa Designs, featuring various patterns and motifs suitable for different occasions throughout the year.

Get yours HERE

Many of you have been waiting for the collection of all 12 Seasonal Snack Mats from 2024/2025 to be released as a set and it is finally here – just in time for the Holidays! YAY! I am SEW excited!!!

Please note that at this time, it is only available as a print collection; however, each Snack Mat pattern is available individually as a digital pattern as well as a print pattern. Don’t forget – shipping is always free on patterns at VRD.

I hope you enjoy each and every day of December this year. Please take a few moments every day to enjoy the season.

See you right here next week for more VRD fun in December.

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge · Quilting and Books · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

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

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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.
An assortment of colorful vintage fabric quilt pieces featuring various patterns and colors, arranged in a patchwork design.
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.
A collection of vintage fabric pieces in various patterns and colors, including florals and stripes, arranged on a textured 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 · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW July Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Quilt Patterns and Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Hope you are enjoying these lazy, hazy, crazy days of summertime. Me, still making my summer to-do list. Ha Ha!

We’re just going to jump right in today because I’ve got some fun stuff for you. Yippee!

First up – NEW July patterns.

NEW July VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns

I just love the first Thursday after the first Friday of every month because it means NEW VRD patterns.

A collage of five new quilt patterns titled 'Happy Daze,' 'Fondue,' 'Snowdrop,' 'Ixonia,' and 'Willow,' each displayed with colorful designs. The text reads 'July 2025 Patterns in a Set!' with a price of '$8.95'.

Here’s the set of 5 patterns. As always, our talented VRD designers do not disappoint! You can get the print set of 5 HERE (they are also available individually as print patterns too) or you can get the digital patterns individually below:

Happy Daze features a panel (or substitute a novelty print if you wish) in a fun modern setting. Quilt kits are still available HERE, but get yours ASAP because they’re going fast.

Fondue is also a panel quilt with a very interesting and unique setting. We still have a few quilts kits left, so get ’em HERE while they last.

Snowdrop uses your favorite collection of fat quarters. This is Pat’s latest pattern in her Tim Holtz Palette patterns. You can get the kit HERE.

Ixonia is Rachelle’s latest mod quilt. It also uses fat quarters.

Willow is a super versatile pattern – use a single fabric for the centers, panel squares, or even quilt blocks! We kitted it up with the Playgrounds collection (see below), get your kit HERE.

A colorful quilt featuring blocks with vibrant floral patterns, bordered by a black and white checkerboard design.
Willow kit in Moda’s Playgrounds collection

And here’s this month’s table runner, Bubblegum. It uses a collection of fat sixths, but works equally well with leftover Jelly Roll strips or your stash.

A colorful quilt named 'Bubblegum' designed by Tricia Lynn Maloney, featuring a patchwork layout with vibrant patterns, displayed against a textured black brick background.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE.

I know it’s summer and most of us don’t quilt as much, but I think these new patterns will inspire you. Besides, VRD patterns go together like greased lightening. Make one in a weekend or even a day.

Why not get your quilty friends together for a summer sew day? You could each have a quilt top done at the end of the day and enjoy some overdue friend time, too.

Next up – let’s play with the Nine Patch block and design a quilt together.

Let’s Design a Quilt Together: Nine Patch Blocks

Nine Patch blocks were on my mind the other day. Why? Because I was thinking about antique quilts and Nine Patch blocks are one of the oldest quilt block patterns as well as one of the most humble. Have you ever gone to see an antique quilt display or perused a book about antique quilts? If you have, I bet you’ve seen A LOT of Nine Patch quilts.

I started wondering what kind of interesting designs I could create from the historic humble Nine Patch. Then it hit me – this would be a really fun blog post idea. So here we are.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my quilt design process. Here’s the last post I did: Let’s Design a Quilt Together — A Peek into My Quilt Design Process. In it, I used a Shoofly block as inspiration.

If you’re interested in designing your own quilts, there are several ways to do so.

1. Graph Paper

Graph paper, a pencil, and a calculator are often a designer’s first tools for creating one of a kind quilt designs. I started out with this, but quickly found I didn’t have the patience for figuring everything out all the time. I still draw lots of doodles with blocks or setting ideas, but these aren’t my primary design tools anymore.

And guess what?!? Even graph paper for quilting has evolved over time! There are many different options available these days for quilters such as quilter’s graph paper books. Some even include stencils and other goodies to help you in your design process, like C&T’s QuiltGenius Design Tool kit.

The QuiltGenius Design Tool Kit, featuring stencils, graph paper, and a booklet for quilt design.

Get your QuiltGenius kit HERE.

2. Design Workbook

A design workbook with prompts and space to draw is a step up from plain old graph paper. Last year I actually created such a workbook because I got tired of losing all my little scraps of paper when I came up with a new idea. Now I can keep all of my ideas in one place.

Colorful hexagonal quilt design featuring flowers in pastel shades with a central green hexagon, overlaid with the text 'Plan Design Quilt' and 'Tricia Maloney Orphan Quilt Designs'.

Get your copy HERE

3. Electric Quilt 8 Software

Electric Quilt 8 software by the Electric Quilt Company is a fantastic design program! I couldn’t do what I do without it. Seriously. One of the great things about this program is all the support out there so you can learn how to use it. The EQ website offers tutorials, classes, and even fun design challenges. There are books galore available to teach you all the ins and outs of the program. And EQ is always coming up with new add-ons to enhance your design capabilities.

Packaging for Electric Quilt 8 quilt design software, featuring a colorful geometric design on the front, with a computer screen displaying quilt patterns and instructions included.

Get your EQ8 HERE

So now we’ve talked about the 3 top ways to design quilts, let’s play with Nine Patches using EQ8, of course!

A Nine Patch quilt block featuring a pattern of red and white squares arranged in a 3x3 grid.

Here is our humble Nine Patch block. It uses 9 squares all the same size in a 3 square across by 3 square down layout. Easy peasy.

A colorful grid of quilt squares featuring orange, pink, blue, turquoise, red, gray, green, purple, and yellow in a 3x3 layout.

This block is a Nine Patch, too. Nobody ever said you had to use only 2 fabrics for a Nine Patch block. The 3 across by 3 down is what makes it a Nine Patch. And my personal philosophy is the more fabric, the better!

Time to play — er, design. To me designing is playing with blocks, colors, fabrics, shapes. I ask myself a lot of “What if?” questions as I go along.

What happens if we make our Nine Patch block rectangular instead of square?

A colorful Nine Patch quilt block design featuring seven squares in various bright colors: orange, pink, blue, teal, red, gray, green, purple, and yellow.

It’s still a Nine Patch, only it’s elongated. Let’s see what this block looks like in a quilt.

A colorful Nine Patch quilt block design featuring a grid of squares in various vibrant colors including red, blue, green, yellow, purple, pink, orange, and grey.

Hmmm. It doesn’t really do anything for me, but it would make a nice simple scrap quilt, wouldn’t it? Let’s add some sashing.

A colorful quilt design featuring a grid of Nine Patch blocks in various colors, separated by white sashing.

Okay, I’m liking this one better. Now I can see the individual blocks. But it’s still basically a decent scrap quilt. Let’s try taking away the sashing and adding plain alternate blocks instead.

A colorful quilt design featuring a Nine Patch block layout with vibrant squares in various colors arranged in a grid pattern.

This one’s okay, too, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me, either. I could use a cool novelty for the alternate blocks and use coordinating fabrics in the Nine Patch blocks. Let’s try that.

A colorful quilt design featuring a pattern of patches in various colors and floral prints, arranged in a grid layout.

Here is our design using Moda’s collection Acorn Hollow. I like it, but something is still missing. What do you think we need?

Let’s go back to our elongated Nine Patch block and try splitting some of the rectangles into 2 pieces so we can add more fabric.

A colorful Nine Patch quilt block featuring various squares in red, pink, white, orange, yellow, green, blue, and light blue arranged in a 3x3 grid.

Okay, that’s interesting, but now I think I want to split the other 4 patches horizontally to add movement.

Yay! Now we’re getting somewhere. I like the look of our Elongated Rainbow Nine Patch block. Like I said, designing is all about playing and exploring. Ask those “What If?” questions and you’ll be surprised where they will take you in your designing.

A colorful Nine Patch quilt block design featuring rectangular and square patches in various colors, including red, pink, white, orange, yellow, green, and blue, with black as a dominant background.

Let’s try our block in a quilt setting now.

A colorful quilt pattern composed of a grid layout featuring vertical and horizontal rectangular blocks in various vibrant colors, interspersed with black and white checkered squares.

Now that is starting to look like something. I really love the diagonal thing going on with the black rectangles. Hmmm. Let’s keep going. It still needs tweaking.

Colorful nine patch quilt layout featuring vibrant rectangles in blue, red, green, yellow, and orange, arranged against a black and white background.

With a little flip flopping and switcheroo, I discovered this layout. I am loving the elongated Four Patches in black and white that showed up when alternating blocks were turned upside down. What are your thoughts on this design?

Let’s try it in real fabric this time.

A colorful quilt design featuring a variety of rectangular and square blocks in pink, gray, and white, arranged in a patterned layout with black borders.

LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I am using a selection of Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors batiks in pink and grey with solid black and white here. I added the solid black binding to frame everything nicely as well as accent the black in the blocks. Now it’s a finished design. And it started with a humble little Nine Patch block.

Well, that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed coming along on a quilt design adventure with me. After showing you how much fun I have designing a quilt, I thought maybe this would make a fun new series for the summer. What do you think? Would you like to see more of this in maybe a 4 or 5 part series using different quilt blocks as the inspiration? Any suggestions on blocks you’d like to see (think simple and pieced, though)?

See you next week, right here at Villa Rose Quilts.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD 2M Junior Quilt Tutorial Featuring Pat Fryer’s New Fabric Collection, Bedazzled!

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s OFFICIAL! Throw the confetti! Toot your party horns! YEAH!

Pat’s NEW fabric collection for Riley Blake Designs, BEDAZZLED!, is finally here and we are all SEW excited!

To celebrate Pat’s new fabric collection, I’m sharing another great tutorial with you this week – 2M Junior.

Next week, we’ll dive right back into the Free Motion Quilting Series, I promise.

VRD 2M Junior Quilt Tutorial

2M Junior is the little brother of 2M. Junior has the same block, only it’s a bit smaller so the quilt finishes as a throw quilt instead of a big bed-sized quilt like big brother 2M. It also uses a different block configuration, which gives it its own personality.

For the pattern cover quilt, I actually used samples of Bedazzled! and, boy, does it sparkle. And I mean that both figuratively and literally – don’t forget that Bedazzled! features glitter and glam. OHHHHH, SHINY!

Here’s another photo I took of 2M Junior.

Get your digital Junior HERE or print Junior HERE

I’m happy to say we have some kits made up for 2M Junior featuring Bedazzled! You can get your Bedazzled! 2M Junior kit HERE.

OH! I can’t forget big brother 2M, can I?

You may already know the story, but let me share it again. I designed 2M for my youngest niece, Morgan, as her high school graduation quilt. She asked for something modern. Yes, she loved it (and still does).

You can get your digital 2M pattern HERE or your print 2M pattern HERE

If you enjoyed the Baby Zip Tease tutorial last week also featuring Pat’s Bedazzled! collection, we now have kits for it, too. You can get your Baby Zip Tease kit HERE.

All right, back to our previously scheduled programming….2M Junior. Tehehe….

First thing we always do is gather up our fabrics for the project. The 2 teal batiks are from Riley Blake’s Expressions basics. And the fat quarters are, of course, from Pat’s Bedazzled! collection. Simply scrumptious, aren’t they???

Once I’ve gathered up my fabrics, I like to cut all the pieces out for the quilt before I begin sewing. Do you do that or do you cut your pieces as you go?

Okay, now we’re ready to sew!

Let’s add a background rectangle to the left side of a block center.

Next we need to sew a background rectangle to the top of the unit.

Then we’re going to sew accent strips to the sides and then to the top and bottom of the unit.

Now we are going to sew a background rectangle to the smaller block center rectangle and sew it to the bottom of the unit.

The next step is to sew another background rectangle to the longer block center rectangle and then sew it to the right side of the block. Our first block is done!

Easy Piezy, right? Now repeat to make the rest of the quilt blocks.

We’re going to lay out the blocks and move them around until we’re happy with how things look.

Warning – sometimes this step takes longer than actually making the quilt top (especially if it’s a VRD Rose Card pattern – they’re fast and fun, you know!). Yikes!

Okay, I like how the fabrics are distributed around the quilt now, so I’m going with this arrangement. Don’t you just love how the squares and boxes tumble down the quilt?

Hurry! Let’s sew the blocks together and then sew the rows together before any furry helpers make an appearance and rearrange the blocks when I blink.

And – guess what????? No borders on this one! Yippee!

It is my humble opinion that not all quilts need borders. What are your thoughts on borders?

Here’s another photo of the 2M Junior quilt top. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Now the top is finished, it’s time to layer it with batting and backing (or fleece for a cozy back). Quilt it. And please, don’t forget your quilt label! DONE!

Need a little help with batting, backing, and layering everything together? VRD to the rescue! Check out this post from our Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners series, Basic Quilting Skills for Beginners: Batting, Backing, and Preparing a Quilt for Quilting. You can find all the lessons in the Beginner series over to the right of the blog, under the Blog Topics Heading or down further as a heading with the lessons listed below.

Once everything is layered together, then it’s time to quilt! Yay! And we are right in the middle of a new series for 2025 — Free Motion Quilting. Lucky You!

We interrupted the series for a couple weeks to celebrate Pat’s new collection with a few new tutorials, but next week, we’ll be moving on to Lesson 3 in the FMQ series.

If you missed the first couple FMQ lessons, you can find them below:

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

You can also find the different series we’ve done over on the right side of the blog, farther down, each under its own heading. Have fun checking them out!

Bedazzled! Update

Since last week’s post, we’ve added some more fun Bedazzled stuff to the shop (physical and online). Here’s the 411 –

Fat Quarter and Half Yard Bundles!

This group of 9 is called Lilac Mint

9 Fat Quarters HERE or 9 Half Yards HERE

This group of 8 is called Prismatic Bliss

8 fat quarters HERE or 8 half yards HERE

This group of 9 is called Stardust Splash

9 fat quarters HERE or 9 half yards HERE

BUT WAIT! There’s MORE!

We do have a few more kits available besides 2M Junior and Baby Zip Tease.

San Julian (light) kit HERE

San Julian (black) kit HERE

And here’s the San Julian Rose Card pattern. Please note that the pattern comes in each kit, so you don’t need to order it separately. I’m adding the links below, though, in case someone needs it by itself.

Get your digital San Julian pattern HERE or your print San Julian pattern HERE

You can find all the precuts, yardage, fat quarter bundles, kits, and the exclusive Bedazzled! Rose Card storage tin HERE.

And this is the Bedazzled Rose Card pattern that inspired the whole Bedazzled! collection.

Get the digital Bedazzled pattern HERE or the print Bedazzled pattern HERE

Whew! That was a lot today, wasn’t it? Thanks for celebrating Pat’s new fabric collection, Bedazzled!, with us here on the blog. I can’t wait to see your new Bedazzled! quilts on the VRD Facebook page soon.

Well, that’s it for me today. Remember, next week we’re jumping back into our Free Motion Quilting series.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

quilt market · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Villa Rosa Designs at International Quilt Market 2024

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

And Happy Halloween, too!

Whew! What a crazy whirlwind the last few days here at Quilt Market have been! As I sit down to write this, Market is over and Festival is just beginning and I thought I’d share a little bit about my Market experience with you. So here goes.

Time to Travel

While Molly and Heidi were flying in from California and I was on my way from Pennsylvania last Thursday, Pat was already here in Houston. Pat spent the day hauling stuff from the van to the booth and running here and there to pick up shipments. Molly and Heidi’s plane was diverted which made them arrive a few hours late and my plane was early, so the three of us actually met at the airport.

Check out these really cool clouds I saw from the plane. I’ve never seen clouds quite like this before with strange finger-like projections on the top of the clouds. You might need to zoom in on the photos to see the weirdness.

DID YOU KNOW?????? Snack Mats are a great accessory for plane travel — they are just the right size for the seat trays. What a great way to brighten up your flight (and keep things clean) as you enjoy the onboard snack and beverage. I discovered this quite by accident when I was finishing a bit of binding and laid my mat down on the table. Huh! Happy accident! You can find ALL of our VRD Snack Mats so far to date HERE.

Up to this point, everything had seemed so easy for me – too easy, I guess – as there ended up being an issue with Molly’s rental car so the three of us went to 2 different rental companies until we were finally on our way to the house Pat had rented. We dropped our stuff off at the house and headed for Wal Mart to grab what we needed. Wouldn’t you know it, but the closest Wal Mart wasn’t even a real Superstore because it lacked sections such as dairy and produce, so we ended up having to go to Randal’s to pick up our food items. Yikes!

We finally made it back to the house so we could settle in. Sheesh, I was totally worn out! Travel days can be like like that, can’t they?

Behind the Scenes at Market and SEW Much More!

We headed to the Conference Center the next morning on Friday to get the booth set up for Quilt Market. This is definitely no easy task, let me tell you! First, you have to get everything inside so you can set up your booth. Luckily Pat had spent Thursday doing just that so we didn’t have to move much inside. Secondly, you have to navigate around all the other vendors’ stuff sitting in the aisles as they are also setting up their booths. Let me show you some photos of set up. Don’t forget the loaders and equipment, the trolleys and carts….

See what I mean??? These photos are looking up and down the aisle the VRD booth is located in.

And here’s our VRD booth in the beginning stages. We had a Schoolhouse session at 1:55 PM, so we couldn’t do much with the quilts until afterwards. Schoolhouse sessions are basically mini break out lectures where vendors can share their current and upcoming products and programs.

I was thrilled that our quilting partners, Hoffman, were in the booth right beside us. It was great seeing my Hoffman pal, Sandy, again. Oops, I never did take any photos of their booth. Mea culpa…..

So, halfway through set-up, we took our cart of quilts (which you see above in the third photo) and headed up to the classroom assigned to us for our session.

WOWZER!

There ended up being well over 100 people in attendance to see what was new with Villa Rosa! And to see all the quilts, too! Amazingly, we showed every single one we brought upstairs. It was crowded and standing room only — just the way we like it. YAY!

Look at all those happy people!

Then it was straight back to the booth to really get it set up. Molly and Heidi worked on hanging quilts. Pat and I kept working on Rose Cards. It was hustle time!

Finally, we were ready for the onslaught of eager shop owners on Saturday! It never fails to amaze and delight me when a disorganized space suddenly turns into a beautiful booth. Big SHOUT OUT to Molly and Heidi — they hung all the quilts, moved tables, helped Pat figure out the layout….

Me, I just try to stay out of the way and look pretty. LOL!

Quilt Market is On!

Saturday went incredibly fast as we were pretty much swamped all day. It took all 4 of us to man the booth. I just LOVE chatting with everyone and hearing their wonderful VRD stories and experiences. I didn’t get to grab any photos for you on Saturday, sorry.

Sunday was also pretty steady, but not the mobs like on Saturday. Molly and Heidi had some meetings at fabric companies to order new fabrics just for you! You’ll have to stay tuned to see what new fabrics are coming into the shop over the next year.

Here are some great photos Molly and Heidi wanted to share with you:

With Stephanie from Fancy That Design House, Moda
With Tula Pink
With Laura at Create Joy Project, Moda
With Anna Maria Perry nee Horner at AMT
With Deborah Edwards from Northcott Fabrics

By the way, Molly promises to drop into the blog soon – she’s working on some new posts just for you. 🙂

Monday was my play day! Woohoo! When I wasn’t needed in the booth, I headed right down to the first aisle and enjoyed some great eye candy as I meandered my way through the aisles. I was such a slowpoke, though, because I kept stopping and chatting, but hey, that’s part of a show, isn’t it? After all the Markets I’ve been to now, I’ve developed lots of show friendships over the years, so it’s great to check in with folks and catch up.

Of course, I also love to meet new people, too.

I even managed to get some photos with a few folks myself. Cool!

With Minki Kim, a Riley Blake designer
With Kaffe Fassett and Liza
With Brandon Mably

I stopped by and met some other great designers too. Sandy Gervais has been one of my all-time favorite fabric designers for a very long time, so it was great to meet her.

Monday was such a relaxed day, I didn’t feel like I had to hurry to see everything all at once. Surprisingly, I did actually get to see everything. Yay!

Jill of Jillily Studio
Sandy Gervais of Pieces of My Heart
Fran Gulick of Cotton and Joy
Jennifer of Created with Love

This is a wonderful felt board set – it’s a felt panel! – by Jennifer for her Created With Love fabric collection coming to shops in May 2025. There will even be a felt panel sew along in May, so watch for it!

I absolutely adore it!

When I was a Children’s Librarian at my local public library a few years ago, I led a Tuesday Toddler Time and we always did some kind of felt board activity. Oh, how the kiddos would have loved this set. It does come with a cute little book for storage and play, but you could use them on a large flannel board, too. If you have little ones in your life, you might want to watch when this collection comes out and grab the felt panel because it probably won’t last long.

Schiffer Publishing booth

I wouldn’t be a very good book nerd if I didn’t show at least one photo with books, would I? There were 3 different publishers present this year. That was really great to see because since the Pandemic, book and magazine publishers have been slow to return to Market. Still no magazine publishers, though. Maybe next year.

Schiffer Publishing (the photo above) has always been my go-to publisher for amazing historical quilt books with an abundance of gorgeous photos. It was so nice to see my Schiffer pal, Joe, and catch up with him. I haven’t seen him at a show since before the Pandemic so it was great to see him.

C&T Publishing was there this year, too. In addition to being one of our 2024 Blog Hop participants and sponsors, they were my publisher for my book, I Love Precut Quilts!

Fox Chapel was there, too. They were also one of our awesome 2024 Blog Hop sponsors.

Next up is Quilt Festival! If you’re planning to attend, please please please come see us and introduce yourself — we would love to see you. You can find us at booth 721. I promise, we’ll have some great shopping for you – kits, patterns, fabric, and super fun fat quarter bundles! Wait until you see our amazing dump table.

See you there!

Well, looks like that’s it for me this week! Stay tuned for next week’s post all about Quilt Festival!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Be Inspired. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Stories · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

Colton’s Point, Maryland — My Quilt Retreat with Cathey and Leslie

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

As I write this post, I am still in Colton’s Point, Maryland with 2 of my (I want to say oldest here, but I don’t mean ages, I mean the number of years we’ve known each other) quilty pals, Leslie and Cathey.

I must confess that I am having a wonderful time here! Colton’s Point is a very special hidden treasure right on the Potomac River, it’s about 1.5 hours from Washington D.C. and a couple hours from Baltimore. Of course, we’re not here during any festivals or events, so it’s been quiet and peaceful — 2 things I’ve been craving for quite a while now. Too bad Leslie and I are only visiting Cathey and her husband, Bryon for 4 days — 4 days is barely enough time to unzip my suitcase, let alone unwind completely. Then again, not sure I could ever truly unwind completely, even if I tried — I don’t think it’s in my nature. LOL!

It was about a 7 hour drive to get to Colton’s Point from northwestern PA. Of course, Leslie and I do not live in the same area anymore, so we met about halfway in between. My sister, Tracy, kindly drove me to meet Leslie and then we were on our way! I rode shotgun and Leslie drove. I totally could not believe her car was getting 48.3 miles per gallon on average! Wowzer!

Here is Cathey and Bryon’s adorable cottage (it’s bigger than it looks as it is quite deep). It has a wonderful beachy vibe and is very welcoming.

One of the coolest things about their home is that mere steps away from their cottage is Cathey’s lovely quilt studio. This is, of course, where we definitely will be spending A LOT of our time together on our little “quilt retreat.”

Don’t you just love her barn quilt out front??? Cathey brought it all the way from PA when they moved here.

It didn’t take the 3 of us long to settle back into sewing together, although it’s been simply ages since our last quilt retreat experience. We certainly had a lot of catching up to do!

I know I packed too many projects to bring with me, but I wanted to be prepared. And I really wanted to do some free motion quilting — I have way too many unfinished tops, or flimsies, right now — so I brought along 3 table runners and my Whirly Bird top from last week’s summer tutorial to machine quilt. If you missed the Whirly Bird tutorial, you can find it HERE. I also brought a challenge project for the 3 of us — I think I’ll talk more about this project in next week’s post, though — I also brought several quilt kits in case I had time to do any cutting and piecing.

Luckily, Cathey has the same model of machine as I do — a Janome 8900 — so quilting on her machine felt a lot like quilting on my machine, although no 2 machines ever feel quite the same. In fact, Cathey is the person who got me into Janome machines, when she bought her first Janome 6260, it was such a nice machine, I had to get one too. Later she upgraded to a 8900, and so did I.

Here I am sitting on Cathey’s studio front porch, just chilling for a few minutes.
Here is Cathey, working on cutting out some projects.
Here is Leslie working on a second version of a quilt she designed several years ago.
Here is the view from where I am sitting in front of Cathey’s 8900 while I machine quilting Whirly Bird.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Cathey is a quilter/designer and is the owner of Cathey Marie Designs.

And after a long hiatus from quilting when life happened, Leslie is getting back into quilting once again.

And you all know little ol’ me. LOL!

Cathey, Leslie, and I have all designed quilts for magazines, too.

We’ve been trying to figure out when we first met and Leslie thinks it was 2007. Both Leslie and Cathey were relatively new quilters when we met on a bus trip to Chautauqua Institution in New York for Quilting Around Chautauqua. Cathey and I had met in the summer when I was seated behind her on the bus for our local Shop Hop. It was both our first Shop Hop. Those meetings led to many Shop Hops and quilting road trips, along with some quilting retreats (and staying in a cottage at Chautauqua for Quilting Around Chautauqua with our quilty pal, Mary Lee — HEY MARY LEE!) sprinkled in for good measure. But as things happen, life got in the ways and over time we didn’t spend as much time together. How wonderful to spend 4 days together quilting, sewing, catching up, and eating (yep, who can forget eating??).

The Potomac River….and Quilts!

We walked down to the river just to take it in, but we didn’t have a lot of time to soak it all in, as thunder started to rumble in the distance and before we arrived back at the cottage, it had started to rain.

What really amazed me was how wide the Potomac is right here at Colton’s Point! I could barely see the land on the other side of the river (which just so happened to be Virginia). I tried to find out how wide the Potomac was at Colton’s Point but could only find that the widest section was around 11 miles across and that was farther down towards Chesapeake Bay.

Do you see the little island there on the right beyond the pier? That is St. Clements Island, which is where the first settlers to Maryland landed in the 1600’s. Of course, back then the island was something like 10 times larger!

You can find the St. Clement’s Island Museum Campus down near the river. And on the museum grounds is a lovely Little Red Schoolhouse, built in 1820. We were able to go right into the schoolhouse, which is used for school field trips and events. It was like stepping back in time to Little House on the Prairie……

As a former children’s librarian, I was thrilled to see a Little Free Library right outside the Little Red Schoolhouse!

The next day, Bryon kindly shepherded Leslie and I back to the river, this time out on a pier, to witness the sunset. I was a little apprehensive walking out on the boardwalk to the pier, but I really wanted to have a front row seat for the sunset. Mother Nature did not disappoint! Not at all! My, what a sight! We also went to see the sunset again Wednesday night.

Tuesday night’s sunset.

Wednesday night’s sunset.

And on Wednesday afternoon, I wandered back down to the pier for more photos, taking the 2 runners I quilted, Whirly Bird, and the Discovery top I had just completed (stay tuned for a Discovery tutorial next week).

Here is my Whirly Bird quilt from last week’s tutorial! I haven’t added the binding yet, but it still looks beautiful. Being down at the river was really peaceful — I felt like I was the only person in the world for a little while, which really was priceless. I felt like I could really breathe here.

Get your own print Whirly Bird HERE or digital Whirly Bird HERE.

Here are 2 of the 3 table runners I brought with me to machine quilt. The one on the right is Molly’s Amen runner and the runner on the left is a variation of Amen.

You can get your own print Amen HERE or digital Amen HERE.

And here is my Discovery quilt top. I did a couple photos down at the river, but I think the autumn colors looked better on the picket fence in front of Cathey’s cottage.

Get your print discovery HERE or your digital Discovery HERE.

Sadly, Leslie and I are heading home in the morning, but we will be back. Soon.

Just one more photo…………

Well, that’s it for me this week! Stop back next week for a final Summer Tutorial.

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Road Trip. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Quilting Partners · Rose Cards · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

VRD Whirly Bird Quilt Tutorial

rosecards6 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope your summer is still going strong and you are getting to do the things on your summer bucket list.

This has been my busiest summer since before the Pandemic, that’s for sure. I’ve been doing things I haven’t done for years — gardening, the adult summer reading program at my local library (I even won a nice prize at the program potluck last week!), I’ve been to Presque Isle Park (Lake Erie) twice so far, made multiple trips to the big farmer’s market in Erie (PA), and even visited a relatively new local museum I’ve never been to before. Luckily, I’ve been making quilt tops for our Summer Tutorial series so I’ve even gotten in some fun sewing. Yay!

The only issue with my busy crazy summer is that I’ve been neglecting a lot of things at home and in my studio space. So I guess I’ll have a lot to catch up on this fall. Sigh………..

Road Trip

Artwork by moi

This Sunday, I’m even going on a summer road trip with my friend, Leslie — Hi Leslie! — to Maryland to visit our friend, Cathey — Hey Cathey!

Looks like we’re going to have a good old-fashioned quiltathon/quilt retreat like we used to do years ago at Chautauqua Institution (Chautauqua NY) during Quilting around Chautauqua every September (sadly, the amazing quilt weekend is no more….). The three of us along with our other quilty pal, Mary Lee — Hey Mary Lee! — would rent a cottage and start our quilt weekend on a Wednesday so we could have a quilt retreat as well as enjoy the show on Saturday and Sunday. Ahhhhh, those were the days.

I can’t wait to catch up with these gals because we’ve all kind of gone in different directions since Chautauqua.

I’ll tell you all about my adventures in next week’s post, so stay tuned until then.

Now let’s continue our Summer Tutorial series with an oldy, but a goodie — my pattern, Whirly Bird.

VRD Whirly Bird Quilt Tutorial

Today we’re going to have a little fun with Whirly Bird. Have you made this quilt yet? If so, please please please share it on our VRD Facebook page ’cause I’d really like to see them!

If not, it’s fun and fast (of course) and has a lot of room for creativity.

Get your print Whirly Bird HERE or your digital Whirly Bird HERE.

When I designed Whirly Bird, I really wanted to do a gradation quilt featuring black, grey, and white. It turned out to be a pretty cool quilt with a very modern feel, which was what I was going after.

Let’s change things up today by swapping the lights and darks! I think you’ll be really surprised when you see the finished top.

So let’s get this party started, shall we?

For today’s Whirly Bird, I am using the Touch of Grey collection by our quilting partner, Hoffman Fabrics. Yep, I’m sticking with a neutral theme for this version, but that’s really where the similarities end.

The charcoal fabric at the bottom of the photo will be my background fabric and the 5 light fabrics in the center at the top will be the gradation strips in the quilt. The border is on the left and the binding is on the right.

The first thing we’re gong to do is cut the fabrics according to the pattern, but swapping out the dark charcoal for the background (or light) fabric and the light greys for the graduated grey strips.

While I cut, I am organizing my pieces on a flannel board so that I have the correct background piece paired with the correct light grey strip. Want to make your own flannel board? You can find the tutorial HERE.

By arranging my pieces on my flannel board in order, I can simply take the board right to my sewing machine and start sewing immediately.

So let’s do that!

Let’s sew the charcoal background pieces to the corresponding light grey strips. This step went really fast because I used chain piecing for each pair for each block, stacked them back on my board, and then moved onto the next pair.

Moving right along, we’re going to head to the ironing board. I pressed my seams to the dark, but this doesn’t work perfectly all the time. So press your seams in a way that makes sense to you.

A note about pressing — I don’t usually give directions for pressing seams in tutorials and even on my patterns because every quilter has their own way of doing things. For me, I usually make those decisions on the fly as I sew. I usually do press to the dark, but sometimes I find that when sewing the the pieces of a block together, I have to flip my seams to the other side.

Wanna hear a joke — an old favorite of mine?????

What has a light side, a dark side, and holds the whole universe together???

Keep reading to find the answer. Tehehe!

After I pressed each strip pair, I put them back on my flannel board to keep things neat and tidy.

And….back to the sewing machine!

Next we are going to sew the pieced strips together into a block. One word of caution about having your pieces laid out on your flannel board — make sure you have them laid out in the right order or else your blocks won’t turn out the way you want them to. As a lefty, I sometimes have to double and triple check block or even quilt layouts before I sew the pieces together because it’s just too dang easy for me to flip things the wrong way.

I used chain piecing to sew the blocks together. This process went super fast as I made all the blocks at one time, one step at a time, without stopping to press in between.

Now, back to the ironing board to give these blocks a good press. I like to press the seams from the back first. Then I repress the block from the front, making sure everything is nice and flat.

Remember, we PRESS in quilting, we do not IRON. Need a little refresher on pressing vs. ironing? Check out a blog post about pressing techniques from our 2022 Quilting Basics series HERE.

Woohoo! The blocks are done and pressed — let’s arrange them on my design wall!

This is the same arrangement of blocks as in the original Whirly Bird quilt on the front of the pattern. Wow! What a difference when you swap the lights and darks out in this design! What do you think???

This is just one of many arrangements. Here are some other possibilities to give you food for thought when you make your own version of Whirly Bird.

I bet you could even come up with 1 or 2 more!

I decided to go with the original arrangement, so now let’s sew the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together.

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Especially the repeating little pop of grey print in the middle of the light grey tonal strips — yep, I planned that on purpose for added interest. 🙂 I really like how those center print strips flip up, down, and sideways in the blocks — it really does add a bit of a secondary design and helps move your eyes around the quilt.

Next up, we are going to add the border, although this quilt doesn’t have to have one — it would finish beautifully with a dark binding to frame the blocks. But, we’re adding a border.

Sew the sides on first and then add the top and bottom. For more added interest, I added dark fabric squares in the 4 outer corners. This is a little bit different than the original pattern, so let me tell you how I did it:

As this quilt is a square, I cut 4 borders the same length as my quilt top through the center and the same width as the pattern calls for as well as 4 squares. I sewed border strips to the sides of the quilt center. Next I sewed dark squares to both ends of the remaining 2 borders and then sewed them to the top and bottom of the quilt center. Easy piezy!

If you don’t want corner squares, though, simply cut and sew the borders like you normally would.

Here it is — my completed Whirly Bird quilt top. I really like how the dark corner squares connect to the dark block sections in all 4 corners.

What are your thoughts?

I’m planning to take this quilt with me to Cathey’s — I hope to get some machine quilting done. Fingers crossed……………

DUCT TAPE!!!

See you back here from Maryland next Thursday and I’ll tell you all about my trip. I hope Cathey’s hubby, Bryon, is doing all the cooking while we quilt, gab, laugh, and eat chocolate.

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Party On. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD

Copyright and Quilting · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

My Recent Copyright Issue and NEW Villa Rosa Quilts Rose Card Patterns for May

rosecards17 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

What a gorgeous day here in NW PA! I woke up to bright sunshine and happy bird song. I love mornings like this! We’ve had a couple wonderful summery days and it makes me so glad that I have a nontraditional career where I can get outside anytime I want to drink in the lovely weather. Lucky me….

We have so much to do today, we’d better get started.

The Last Blog Hop Prize Update

Hip! Hip! Hooray! I just shipped the last bunch of prizes yesterday — all 41 of ’em! I know those of you who won prizes and haven’t received them yet are probably getting a little anxious by now and today I’m happy to say the last of the Blog Hop prizes will be arriving shortly.

If you won a prize during the Blog Hop and do not receive it within the next couple weeks, please email me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com so I can look into it.

Again, thanks for your patience. I hope all of you winners enjoy your prizes!

Let’s keep moving!

And the Winner Is……….

Congratulations to Barbara in MA! She is our giveaway winner.

Thanks everyone for telling me about your favorite color combinations. Like you, I have lots of different combinations and it’s hard to pick just one. Wink, wink……..

If you didn’t get your own copy of Plan Design Quilt yet, you can find it HERE.

My Recent Copyright Issue

I love being a quilt designer and author, but sometimes things happen that make me so so frustrated. Recently, I had a copyright issue and I’d like to tell you about it.

I’ve talked about copyright and quilters a couple times before and you can find links to those posts here:

NEW April 2023 Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Quilt Patterns and Revisiting the Copyright Question for Quilters

The Copyright Question for Quilters

I also want to remind you that I am not an expert in the field of US Copyright Law. What I’ve learned, I’ve learned by reading, researching, talking to others, and experiencing issues first hand. If you need expert advice or information about US Copyright Law, please seek the help of a Copyright lawyer.

Recently, a quilter familiar with our VRD Rose Card patterns emailed us with a screenshot showing the back of one of my Rose Card patterns — the instructions — posted on Facebook. The kicker was that the poster actually covered up the copyright information at the bottom of pattern, which indicated the person posting my pattern knew exactly what they were doing. Please don’t assume they just didn’t know that it was wrong or what they were doing was violating US copyright Laws — if they covered up the copyright info, then this was done completely intentionally.

I tried to check it out on FB, using the info on the screenshot to guide me, but I found out that the group was private. Now what? I ended up having to join the group so that I could address this copyright infringement. While waiting for my membership in the group to be active, I was able to look up the person who posted my copyrighted pattern instructions and I wrote a very firm message to them. I also found out that person was — of all people — an administrator of the Group!

When I was finally accepted into the group later the same day, I then posted a super firm comment showing the front of my pattern and telling all 3000+ members that I owned the copyright and I did not give permission to share my pattern instructions and that by doing so AND covering up the copyright information intentionally was a violation of US Copyright Law.

I also found out how to make an intellectual property complaint to Facebook, which I promptly did.

You can find Facebook’s Intellectual Property article which also includes a link to the form for reporting Intellectual Property abuse HERE.

Finally, the original post was taken down in the Group before Facebook even had the chance to do it (which told me that at least one of the administrators of the group knew it was wrong and deleted it before the group could get in trouble from Facebook). But it wasn’t deleted before over 3000 people had the opportunity to save/print/copy/repost my pattern. THEN I got grief from another one of the administrators who not only deleted my public posts in the group about copyright law and my rights as the copyright owner, but also told me that I should contact the guilty administrator and not post to the entire group. Seriously??? Not one person accepted responsibility for this nor did anyone even offer an apology! I am still seething about this experience.

You might wonder why this upsets me so much. Let me explain.

Sure, maybe that person originally purchased my VRD pattern for $2 before posting it on Facebook, but that did not give them the right (legally or morally) to share it with over 3000 people for free. They did not ask my permission to post my copyrighted pattern instructions — I would NEVER have given my permission to post it on Facebook anyway.

Copyright laws are there to protect intellectual property for many good reasons, including a copyright owner’s ability to earn income on their own intellectual property.

I design quilt patterns as part of my livelihood. By posting the instructions of my pattern for free on the FB Group, that person so kindly helped me (and VRD) to lose potential income — possibly more than $6000 in pattern sales, if each of the 3000+ group members had purchased their own pattern at $2 per pattern.

This all makes me second guess my desire to design and publish new quilt patterns. If designers stopped creating new quilt patterns, new quilt books, and new quilt magazine patterns featuring new techniques, new fabric collections, new tools, and new ideas then the quilt world would suffer greatly. Eventually the sale of fabric, notions, tools, rulers, etc. would suffer, which would then hurt fabric companies, publishers, advertisers, quilt shops and other quilt-related businesses. People could lose their jobs and companies and businesses could eventually go out of business. Do you see the domino effect here? Ultimately, it would hurt you, the quilter, who just wants to make beautiful quilts.

Copyright law protects ALL of us.

I appreciate you taking the time to hear my latest copyright story. And now I’ll jump off my soapbox.

Time to check out the NEW May patterns!

NEW May 2024 VRD Rose Card Patterns

Yep, it’s the Thursday after the first Friday in May, which means — NEW PATTERNS!

There are 7 — count ’em — 7 NEW patterns this month — the set of 5 that you know and love along with a table runner and a snack mat. Definitely something for everyone in this month’s patterns.

YAY! Aren’t they Fab??? You can get the set of 5 physical patterns for the special price of $8.95 HERE

I’m sorry, but we don’t offer the set as a digital pattern collection. However, the good news is that each pattern is individually available as a digital format. You can find the patterns by name on our website, villarosadesigns.com.

Here’s a pretty flower runner, perfect to whip up for Mother’s Day or just for spring — I can see you already picking out your favorite colors and fabrics for this one. You can find the runner physical pattern HERE or the digital pattern HERE.

And here’s a very spring-y fun Snack Mat pattern. Don’t you just love pinwheels??? They are so fun and happy! You can find Pinwheelies the physical pattern HERE or the digital pattern HERE.

So, which one are YOU going to make first???

Well, I’m off to take my sweet and crazy little Shih Tzu, Bailly, out for a walk to enjoy this gorgeous day. Ta Ta!

Here’s my 1 1/2 year old cutie, Bailly, who needs a haircut and a shave right now….LOL! Don’t you love her happy grin???

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD