Long time no see! I’m stealing the blog from Tricia this week – it’s been a while since I snuck in here and did a tutorial. Sorry it’s been so long, but things have been awfully busy at the VRD shop and I’ve been working hard to create new patterns for you, too.
I heard Tricia’s doing a bunch of tutorials to help everybody get back into quilting this fall, so I thought I’d add one to the mix – Morning Tea. Yup, another Tea quilt. LOL!
Anyway, let’s get back to today’s tutorial, Morning Tea.
VRD Morning Tea Quilt Tutorial
Here’s Morning Tea, designed by our very own VRD Rose Queen, Pat. It’s a fat quarter (18″ x 21″) friendly pattern plus you need to add a background fabric. And of course, it’s fast and fun!
If you don’t have the pattern yet, you can get your print copy HERE or digital copy HERE
I wanted to play around with some of our Aboriginal fabrics in the VRD shop again and decided on this range of blues. Fun, huh? The squiggly light fabric towards the bottom of the photo is my background and the one in front if it is my binding.
Lucky you! We even have some kits left, and you can get yours HERE. Your kit comes with the fat quarters (FQs), background fabric, binding, and the pattern. I do have to say some of the fabrics have been discontinued but we did add some great replacements and they work perfectly too.
Let’s rock this quilt!
First step is to divide your fat quarters into 2 piles. From the first group, we’re going to cut them into 2 different widths.
2. From the remaining smaller group of FQs, you’ll cut the strips all the same width.
3. The background strips are all cut the same size by the width of the fabric, then we’re going to cut the long strips in half so our strips are the same length as our fat quarter strips. Genius!
4. Sew a background strip to each of the largest FQ strips. Next cut each of those strip sets into segments. I’m going to name these Unit A so we can keep everything straight as we go along.
5. Sew the remaining background strips between the small and the medium FQ strips. Subcut them into segments. These strip sets, I’m naming Unit B.
6. Are you following along? Because now we are going to sew our A and B units into blocks. Taking 2 of unit A and 2 of unit B, sew together with As on the outside and Bs in the middle. You’ll need to flip the last 2 units.
7. You will now make a reversed block with 2 more of each A & B units, turning the last 2 units as shown.
8. You should now have the same number of each block. Time to play! You can lay your quilt out just like the pattern or you can play around with the layout and create some fun variations.
Here’s the original layout.
And here’s some cool variations to try out.
I bet you can even come up with your own block arrangement, so have fun!
9. When you’ve decided how you want to arrange your blocks, it’s time to sew the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together into the quilt top.
For my Morning Tea quilt, I’m going to stick with the original layout. Totally loving how it turned out!
10. Next up – layer, quilt, bind, and label your quilt.
Don’t forget to post your quilts on our VRD Facebook page or tag us on Instagram, #villarosadesigns. We love seeing your creations!
Thanks for stopping by and sewing with me!
Next week, Tricia will be back with another great tutorial for you.
Aren’t they amazing??? I am so itching to make the Eclipses quilt by Creative Sewlutions before we have the Eclipse in April because I live in one of the viewing areas to see the total eclipse. Our local hotels are already booked up for the event.
Oh my gosh! I haven’t ordered my special viewing glasses yet. I’d better get on that, huh?
But wait — there’s more! Of course there is, right?
This month we have a cute new runner designed for your special fabrics you do not want to cut up.
We also have a snack mat this month perfect for those mugs of celebratory drink and green snacks on St. Patrick’s Day. Remember when I mentioned last year that in 2024, we’d be adding some new Accessory patterns? Well, here’s the first one. It’s super cute and quick to make up and you can use some of that St. Patrick’s Day fabric you’ve been hoarding.
Can’t wait to see your Shamrock Snack Mats on our Facebook group, so get ’em made and post those pics!
So…….which pattern are you going to make first? Me, definitely Eclipses. I know — let’s do that one as a tutorial after we wrap up the Blog Hop!
Now, let’s talk about the Blog Hop. You know, March 14th is next Thursday. Gulp! I just hope I’m ready. Are you ready? It’s going to be super amazing.
VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop
Are you getting excited??? The Villa Rosa Designs Fast & More Fun Blog Hop is literally just around the corner!!! It all starts right here next Thursday, March 14th!
Gather up all your quilty friends and family and join in on all the Blog Hop fun together! There are lots of prizes up for grabs, including quilt pattern sets, books, precuts from fat quarters to 5″ squares, and more.
This year, we also have 4 — count ’em — 4 very awesome Grand Prizes for you to register for on all of the Blogs. You’ll have to wait until March 14th to see them, though! Yep, I’m a tease…. (wink, wink)
Below, please find a list of our super fabulous Bloggers. Check them out and see what they’re all about.
Of course, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be possible without all of our fantastic super generous Blog Hop Sponsors. A great big THANK YOU HUG goes out to each of our Sponsors!
Mark your calendars for next Thursday’s Blog Hop kick off post — you won’t want to miss it. There are so so many prizes just waiting to be won. You just might be a winner. But you can’t win if you don’t join us on our Blog Hop adventure.
I’ll see you right here bright and early on March 14th for the kick off of our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day last week. Did you get a chance to make the Talking Turkey Quilt block yet? If you didn’t stop by and read last week’s post with my cute Thanksgiving turkey block tutorial, you can find it HERE.
On another note, I just finished making the quilt top for the Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card pattern, Splendor, so thought I’d share another panel tutorial for you. Then beginning next week for the rest of December, I’m going to blog about Christmas-y quilty fun things, but we’ll probably go back to tutorials again in January when you are all itching to start some new projects.
This is Splendor. It is an AWESOME pattern — who knew you could take a panel, some fabric for sashing, and a handful of fat quarters and come up with a quilt as big as this one turns out. It’s an incredibly clever pattern by our VRD designer, Molly Cook, and uses the whole fat quarter to build the sections around the quilt. I was so amazed to see how slick everything went together and how nicely everything fit.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this pattern! If you don’t have it, you need to get it! You can buy the Splendor pattern HERE:
Great quilt, huh? I can already see visions of sugar plum quilts using the Splendor pattern dancing in your head. Don’t you just love how the panel is offset? Isn’t that unique? And everything truly goes together like magic!
Let’s get started!
Splendor Panel Quilt Tutorial
Time to gather up your panel, sashing, and fat quarters. I had this great winter panel in my stash and thought a blue and white version of Splendor would be fun. I grabbed the blue tonal for my sashing and then “shopped” in my blue fat quarter bins. As a final thought, I added the white on white fabric from my yardage drawer to represent the snow. Looking back, though, I think I could have skipped the white on white and just went with shades of blue, but that’s okay. I think the quilt will still turn out just fine. Let me know what you think once you’ve seen how the top turned out down below.
I did end up swapping out the light silvery blue fabric you see in the photo because when I opened it up to cut, the fabric had some fading. I didn’t think I could cut around the faded areas and have enough fabric to cut the pieces I needed so I found a replacement. No worries.
Next you need to measure your panel, because panels come in all different sizes these days. My friend Mary Lee and I were just talking about this. 24″ x 42″ used to be the standard size for panels, but now they come in 36″ x 44″, 44″ x 44″, and everything in between!
So take the time to measure your panel. You may need to trim your panel to the size noted in the pattern. Or if your panel is a bit narrower, you may need to add a bit to the sashing so your center ends up the correct size. If you don’t want to trim your panel, you can also adjust the size of the sashing if needed.
I can’t stress enough how important these measurements (for the panel plus the sashing) are. This is what makes the whole quilt work so if your measurements are off, you will have problems sewing the sections to the center of the quilt. Isn’t it better to take your time right now and get the measurements correct right up front? You know the saying, “measure twice, cut once?”
Once you’ve measured your panel and decided whether you need to trim it or add a little extra to the sashing, then it’s time to cut out your sashing strips. My panel was a bit too narrow so I ended up adding a half inch all the way around to the sashing in order to get the correct size. Then I was ready to sew on the sides and the top and bottom.
Tricia’s Tip: When I add borders to a quilt, I take my time. First, I find the center of both the side of the quilt and the border strip. Then I match my centers and pin (see the lime green circle in the photo). Next I pin the ends and I add a pin perpendicular to the edge of the quilt/border in order to keep things all nice and square (see the red circles in the photo) — I do this at both ends of the border. Finally, I add pins spaced between the middle and each end. Sounds like a lot of work, but it really helps me to keep my borders straight. Who wants borders that stand up and wave?
Here is my panel with the sashing around it. I love how the mottled blue really brings the color out of this mostly monochromatic panel. It reminds me of winter here in Pennsylvania.
Let’s keep moving! I promise you, this is the fussiest part of the quilt. Once you get the right measurements, it’s a breeze from here out.
Time to cut out the pieces from the fat quarters. Follow the cutting diagram in the pattern. If you feel comfortable, you can stack a couple fat quarters together to reduce some of your cutting, but it’s perfectly fine to take your time and cut each fat quarter individually.
Something to think about — as all fat quarters are NOT cut a true 18″ x 22″, it’s not a bad idea to have an extra coordinating fat quarter around just in case you can’t get all four rectangles out of each fat quarter or in case you make a cutting mistake. Extra fabric are not bad words in my vocabulary. Besides, it will go into another project……..someday……..
So the next thing to do is to sew each group of rectangles together into strips. There are a couple options here:
You could organize your fabrics and keep them in the same order in each section — wouldn’t it be cool to organize your pieces from light to dark or dark to light?
You could sew your rectangles together and make sure that each section has a different arrangement of fabrics, making your quilt look scrappy and relaxed.
I chose to do the second option (big surprise to those of you who know me!!! LOL!), which takes a bit more time, but I really like the finished result. Either option will turn out great, so just pick one.
I sewed the pieces together for the right side section first. I just did it randomly at my sewing machine. Then I pressed the seams, folded the pieced strip, and found the center of the strip. Next I folded the sashed panel and found the center on the right side of it. Finally I matched up the centers, pinned the pieced section to the sashed panel, and sewed them together.
After I got the right side section on and I pressed it, I laid out the pieces for the left side. Pinned. Sewed the rectangles together. Pressed.
I was totally excited when I realized how fast the sides went on the sashed panel. Like magic!
I did find I’d somehow made a mistake when I went to match up my centers and pin my left side section to the sashed panel. My pieced section was too long. Huh! What was going on here?!?
I reread the instructions and looked closely at the cover quilt and diagrams. After a couple minutes, I went back and remeasured only to discover I had cut each of my pieces a half inch too big, so of course the pieced section was too long when I went to pin it to the panel.
What do you think I did?
I matched up my centers and ignored the excess fabric sticking out beyond the sashed panel. I pinned and sewed like normal and then I trimmed the excess off of each side with an acrylic ruler and my rotary cutter (with a cutting mat underneath), making my left pieced section flush with the sashed panel.
You might notice in the photo that my top and bottom rectangles on the left side are a bit narrower than the other rectangles. But that’s okay. Everything will still fit together great and I really doubt it will make much difference in how the quilt looks in the end because of the different-sized pieces all around the sashed panel.
I wouldn’t have even mentioned my oops, but I like to point out my mistakes and how I handle them. Sometimes my mistakes are just happy accidents — or good things in disguise. It helps to share my mistakes with other quilters so they don’t do the same thing I did. Just ask the members of my Friday group (BIG Shout out to Gail, Mary Lee, Robin, Sherry, Gaynel, Missi, Deb, Anita, Jean, Donna and Kim).
Now it’s time to sew the top and bottom sections together. Again, I did each one separately to make sure I liked my random fabric placement — I didn’t want any fabrics to be touching the same fabric in another section of the quilt.
So here it is — my completed Splendor quilt top. What do you think?
This was definitely a FUN and FAST quilt project and I hope that you will give it a try! If you’ve made Splendor before, I’d love to see your pictures. You can email them to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com or post them on our Facebook page.
Before I go, here’s a fun video tour at Quilt Market recorded by Jaftex, just click the link below:
I’m sew glad you’re here and I want to welcome you to our brand new Villa Rosa Quilts (VRQ) blog. You will find new posts here most Thursdays featuring great tips and tutorials, Villa Rosa Designs news and updates, a bit of silly and a smidge of serious. And quilts — lots and lots of quilts and quilting.
Sew, grab a sweet tea or iced coffee, put your feet up, and let’s get to know each other. It’s all about sewing, laughter, and then — well, repeat. Repeat as often as possible! (wink, wink.)
If you’re new to Villa Rosa Designs and you’d like to know more, you can hop over to our About page HERE. You can also visit our main website HERE.
Interested in carrying our Rose Cards in your quilt shop? You can go HERE for wholesale information.
I’m excited to be your new Villa Rosa Quilts (VRQ) cruise director. My name is Tricia Maloney — let me tell you a little bit about myself:
This is me!
I’ve been quilting for more than 25 years. I am mostly a self-taught quilter, although over the years I’ve learned sew much from other quilters and designers. I’ve worked in quilt shops, taught classes and workshops, and I’m a member of my local quilt guild, Free Spirit Quilters.
My professional quilting life started in 2010 when my first book was published. I wrote 2 more books in the next 6 years as well as designing quilts and writing articles for many popular US quilt magazines.
I met Pat Fryer, the owner and “Rose Queen” of Villa Rosa Designs at my very first Fall Quilt Market in Houston in 2010, when I was promoting my first book. I was immediately fascinated with her wonderful postcard-sized quilt patterns. After that, every time I attended a Quilt Market, I eagerly found the Villa Rosa Designs booth to catch up with Pat and see the latest batch of Rose Cards.
In 2017, our stars finally aligned and Pat invited me to design quilt patterns for her Rose Cards. I was thrilled! What a fun challenge — designing fun-to-make quilts to fit on the back of a 4×6 card.
Here are my first 2 Rose Card patterns from 2017.
Fast forward 5 years and I currently have over 50 patterns with VRD! And I love being part of the Villa Rosa Designs family of designers.
Then last year in 2021, I had the opportunity to work for Villa Rosa Designs. A dream come true! This is the interesting part of our story — Pat and Villa Rosa Designs are located in lovely California while I live in beautiful northwestern Pennsylvania. It certainly makes things interesting as we are 3 hours apart. Thank goodness for the Internet! LOL!
So here I am — your friendly VRQ blog cruise director!
I’m pleased to show you our NEW Rose Card patterns for this month.
Did you know Villa Rosa Designs publishes at least 5 new patterns EVERY MONTH??? That’s at least 60 new patterns every year. Currently, we have over 400 patterns available — wow!
Here are our 5 new quilt patterns for May 2022:
You can order these 5 patterns as a group for the low price of $8.95 HERE.
We also have 2 new table runner patterns this month:
To order the table runner patterns, just click on the pattern names below:
Villa Rosa Quilts 