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VRD Tea With Mara Quilt Tutorial

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

After our super fun Let’s Design a Quilt series (if you missed it, please check out the right side bar on the blog to find all of the links for the series) wrapped up last week, I promised a new group of tutorials to jump-start your autumn quilting.

You know how this time of the year is filled with local fairs and such right before the kiddos go back to school? Well, this week we’re off to the rodeo! Yippee!

Four cowboys riding horses during a rodeo, raising their hands in excitement, with dust kicking up in the background and an audience visible in the stands.

Have you ever been to a rodeo? I have a vague memory of going when I was a kid. My Grandma (my Dad’s mom) was always crazy about horses and always had at least a couple on the farm (my Grandpa always had his cows). I spent a lot of time on the farm as a kid as my grandparents’ farm was just down the road from our house. I have lots of good memories on the farm from when I was a kid. Baby animals were probably my favorite. Of course, running through the fields at midnight in the summer chasing down stray cows or horses was always fun, too. Good times.

Let’s slap our cowgirl (or cowboy) hats on our heads, put on our boots, and get started!

VRD Tea With Mara Quilt Tutorial

Tea With Mara is designed by Deanne of Creative Sewlutions, one of our talented VRD designers. This quilt finishes at a generous 58″ x 72″ and it can handle those large prints we are so loathe to chop up. Use printed panel squares……or not down the center. Sew many options……..sew little time!

A colorful quilt titled 'Tea with Mara' featuring a patchwork design with floral and butterfly patterns, highlighting various shades of pink, blue, and purple.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

PSST! Don’t forget, patterns always ship free, so grab a few more while you’re perusing the VRD patterns at the online shop.

For today’s tutorial, I’m using fabric from our friends over at Hoffman. It’s a digital-printed collection called Rodeo Dreams. When I saw this collection, I loved it! Maybe because it brought back fun memories from my childhood? So I’m letting you know right now that you’ll be seeing a couple more tutorials featuring Rodeo Dreams.

Just a quick word of caution when using digitally-printed fabrics – start with a brand new needle because if your needle is dull, you run the risk of damaging the fabric and we certainly don’t want to do that.

A selection of quilting fabrics, including blue and red bandana prints, a brown print, and a fabric featuring cowboys on horseback, alongside a digital pattern for the "Tea With Mara" quilt tutorial.

The first fabric I’m going to cut is the running yardage of the rodeo vignettes. I’m very glad I have a ruler the same size as the required block size in the pattern so I can fussy cut the squares easily and accurately.

A cutting mat featuring a quilting ruler over fabric with a rodeo scene, alongside a tutorial card for the 'Tea with Mara' quilt pattern.

Having the right sized ruler makes it a lot easier to fussy cut these vignettes than trying to cut strips and then cutting the strips into squares. This type of fabric makes strips and squares kind of tricky because the vignettes aren’t all the same size nor do they line up in a perfect grid.

Love quilting rulers! Boy, they do make quilting so much easier, faster, and more accurate.

Mostly, I rely on my 6×24 and 6×12 rulers for cutting, but it’s always a great idea to have a collection of square rulers in the most common sizes, which are not only good for fussy cutting, but also for squaring up blocks.

A set of clear quilting rulers in various sizes, featuring measurement grids and markings, placed on a white background.
This basic ruler set includes rulers in common sizes

The only problem with fussy cutting is that your fabric will look like Swiss cheese when you get all done! LOL! Check mine out below. I can still fussy cut more pieces out of the fabric, but there is definitely more waste doing it this way than cutting strips into squares. Just something to think about if you’ve never fussy cut before.

A layout of quilting fabric featuring rodeo scenes, displayed on a flannel wall alongside various quilt blocks.

Now I’m finished making Swiss cheese, it’s time to cut the rest of my fabrics. Loving this red bandana print – it looks like the real thing (digitally printed, of course)!

A rotary cutter and quilting ruler positioned on a cutting mat, with a vibrant red bandana print fabric and a quilt pattern titled 'Tea with Mara' by Creative Sewlutions.

Here are all my fabrics cut and ready to sew.

A collection of quilting fabrics including a red bandana print, a blue bandana print, a brown fabric, and a fabric featuring a cowboy chasing a calf, with a quilt pattern titled 'Tea with Mara' visible.

But before I start sewing, I’m going to lay out all of the pieces on my flannel wall. I want to make sure I like the placement of the rodeo vignettes before I commit to their positions permanently.

Quilt blocks arranged on a flannel wall, featuring red, blue, and brown fabrics with a rodeo theme and floral patterns.

I really like the nice big pieces in this quilt, even if I have to layer pieces on the floor because the quilt is going to be longer than my flannel wall. It’s going together surprisingly fast, though.

Of course, you don’t have to fussy cut your fabrics like I did – you could use any fabric you wanted for the center squares. Or you could even scrap this quilt up and use some of your stash. Such a versatile pattern – I could totally picture this quilt in a great collection of fall or harvest fabrics! Hmmmmmmmm….

You could even add a 6″ finished border, which would make the quilt a big 70″ x 84″!

Now I’ve got all my pieces up on the flannel wall. I switched a couple of the rodeo vignettes around, but other than that, I think it’s ready to sew. I like how it looks.

A colorful quilt layout featuring horse and rodeo-themed fabric squares, with red, blue, white, and brown patterned blocks arranged in a grid pattern on a design wall. A cutting mat and quilting ruler are visible in the foreground, along with a pattern card labeled 'Tea With Mara.'

Yippee-ki-yi-yay! Let’s sew this little dogie together! I really like how the fabrics alternate in placement from side to side – it definitely helps to keep your eyes moving around the quilt. The red and blue bandana fabrics really make this quilt in addition to the rodeo vignette squares. LOVE IT!

A quilt with alternating squares of red, white, blue, and brown fabric, featuring images of rodeo scenes.

And here it is outside on the clothesline. All I need is a horse or 2 grazing in the backyard, right? I’ll be binding this quilt with the dark blue batik you see in the fabric and pattern photo way up at the beginning of this tutorial. I think it will frame the quilt nicely.

A colorful quilt with red, blue, brown, and white squares, featuring rodeo-themed prints, hanging on a clothesline in a grassy field.

Now to get this quilt top layered, quilted, bound, and labeled…….some day, anyway. Right now I’m going to add it to my teetering pile of flimsies and UFOs. I’m hoping to make a good-sized dent in that pile this fall and winter. It’s just been way too hot this summer to machine quilt and do binding.

Here’s to autumn with its warm days and cool nights. And the brilliant colors of the season…. I can’t wait!

See you next week for another great tutorial!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Quilt Play · Quilting Partners · Tips and Tricks

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Drunkard’s Path Block

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

What’s shakin’? Me, just sitting here thinking about which quilt block we’re going to feature today to wrap up our Design a Quilt series. I’m kind of bummed that today’s the final post in this series, but it is true that all good things must come to an end. That makes sense, because, if they didn’t then we would never have the opportunity to find new good things.

I’ve also been thinking about how you, dear readers, can utilize what we’ve covered in this series. The biggest thing that occurs to me, of course, is designing your own quilts using common quilt blocks. Common quilt block designs (like Nine Patch, Irish Chain, Four Patch, Sawtooth Star, etc., etc.) would most likely be considered in the public domain.

Want to find public domain quilt block designs? Just Google it! Pretty much all quilt block designs (and everything else in print) from publications before 1923 are considered public domain. Another idea is to look up quilt block history to see if the blocks were used before 1923. You can also invest in a quilt block reference or 2.

My favorite reference is Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Cover of the book 'Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns' compiled by Barbara Brackman, featuring various quilt block designs.

For those of you who may not have heard of Barbara Brackman – she is probably the most well-known quilt historian in the USA, if not the world. Her book is meticulously researched and includes a reference section with original publications for the blocks in the book. Believe me, you will never run out of inspiration – there are over 4000 blocks in the book!

Another oldie but goodie block reference is The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America by Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger. This book was published in 1935 and is actually in the public domain itself. It includes A LOT of old pieced and appliqued quilt blocks and quilts along with historical notes. You might be able to find a used copy as its out of print, or I’ve included a link to an e-book version above.

Cover of 'The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America' featuring floral designs and decorative borders.

What does all this mean, really?

If you want to sell quilts, the best way to do that is to design your own instead of using someone’s copyright-protected pattern, which, as we’ve previously explored, has the potential to cause you legal issues down the road.

Want to be a quilt designer?

Create/sell your own patterns?

Design quilts for quilt magazines?

Write a quilt book?

Easy peasy, use public domain/common quilt blocks to create your own designs. Then your designs would be copyright protected, too.

Huh. Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it? That doing something so simple – and FUN! – can become your own copyright-protected work.

Just something for you to think about….

Let’s move on to today’s block: Drunkard’s Path.

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Drunkard’s Path Block

Here is a basic Drunkard’s Path block unit.

A basic Drunkard's Path quilt block unit featuring a red semicircle on a white background.

The Drunkard’s Path block has a very interesting and rich history with roots in ancient Egypt. The block was popular with the Underground Railroad and the Women’s Temperance movement in the US. For a more and detailed history, please check out this article on the AccuQuilt blog: A History of the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Patterns.

Today, we are going to explore some of the interesting ways you can arrange this humble block unit, add sashing or not, and using color to tweak the design.

Before we can design a Drunkard’s Path quilt, we need to explore some of the many many different Drunkard’s Path variations. Believe me, these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg.

Here are a few books to explore more Drunkard’s Path designs.

Cover of the book '65 Drunkard's Path Quilt Designs' by Pepper Cory, featuring multiple quilt designs in various colors and patterns.
Get the book HERE
Book cover of 'A New Spin on Drunkard's Path' by John Kubiniec, featuring a quilt design in red and white with a pattern of curved shapes and geometric accents.

Get the book HERE

Here are different ways to arrange the units in a 2 x 2 layout. Which one is your favorite?

A Drunkard's Path quilt block unit featuring a grid layout with red semicircles on a white background.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a layout of red curves on a white background arranged in a 2x2 grid.
A quilt block design featuring a large red circle on a white background, arranged in a four-square layout.

Okay, let’s try a 3 x 3 grid.

A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a layout of red and white curved sections arranged in a 3x3 grid.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a pattern of red and white curved shapes arranged in a 3x3 grid.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a 2x2 grid with alternating red and white curved shapes.

Now let’s see what a 4 x 4 grid looks like.

A quilt block design featuring a 2 x 2 grid of large red circles on a white background.
A quilt block design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path pattern, consisting of alternating red and white sections arranged in a grid layout.
A quilt block design featuring alternating red and white curved segments arranged in a 2x2 grid pattern, creating a wave-like effect.
A quilt block design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path pattern with alternating red and white curves.
A quilt block design featuring a grid pattern with large red circles on a white background.

So I think you get the idea about the endless possibilities of the Drunkard’s Path block unit. Why don’t you try a 5 x 5 grid or a 6 by 6 grid to see what you can create?

Now let’s play with the color arrangement by swapping reds and whites in order to create new and different designs from the ones above.

A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring red and white curved shapes arranged in a grid pattern.
A quilt block design featuring a Drunkard's Path layout with alternating red and white sections, showcasing four circular shapes in each quadrant.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring red and white fabrics in a four-square layout with curved designs.
Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring alternating red and white sections arranged in a circular pattern.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring alternating red and white curved shapes arranged in a 3x3 grid.
Quadrant quilt block featuring a Drunkard's Path design with alternating red and white sections.

Let’s add more colors to our blocks, shall we? That way we can get even more interesting variations. You can see how adding more color can change a block design or even add a secondary design. Never underestimate the power of adding more color.

A geometric quilt block design featuring a mix of red circles, black shapes, and white backgrounds with a central gray square.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a bold black and white layout with a prominent red circle at the center.
A colorful Drunkard's Path quilt block featuring a blue center surrounded by red circles, with alternating white and blue shapes creating a dynamic pattern.
Abstract quilt block design featuring red and black shapes arranged in a circular and square pattern.
A Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a blue semicircle on a red and white background, arranged in a 2x2 grid.
A quilt block design featuring a pattern of red circles on a black and white grid.

Okay, now it’s time to create quilt designs using some of the variations above! Let’s start with this bird variation.

A quilt block design featuring a Drunkard's Path pattern with red and white curved sections arranged in a 2x2 layout.

I like this bird quilt arrangement very much, but I don’t love how all the birds are facing the same way.

A quilt design featuring a repeating Drunkard's Path block pattern, alternating between red and white colors.

Let’s turn the birds in different directions. Hmmm. I only see a small difference here. Let’s keep going.

A digital quilt design featuring the Drunkard's Path block in a repeating pattern of red and white colors.

Better with sashing and sashing squares, but I’m still not too excited by it.

A quilt design featuring a repeated Drunkard's Path block pattern in red and white colors arranged in a grid layout.

Okay, let’s remove the sashing and turn the birds some more to see what happens. AHA! Yes, this is more like it.

A quilt design featuring a Drunkard's Path block arrangement with alternating red and white shapes, creating a dynamic pattern.

I think we can call this a finished design. Let’s add some fabric. It would definitely make a bold 2 color quilt as long as you have strong contrast between the colors like the red and white example above. But let’s add more than 2 colors.

Yup, this one rocks. I’m using fabrics from QT’s American Spirit collection. I took a chance and flip flopped the fabrics in the centers and it really sets this design off.

A quilt design featuring the Drunkard's Path block, arranged in a repeating pattern with red, blue, and cream fabrics, creating a visually appealing layout.

Now let’s try a different Drunkard’s Path block variation from above.

A quilt block design featuring a circular blue shape in the top left and bottom right sections, against a backdrop of alternating red and white squares.

I like this interesting block arrangement, especially with the checkerboard behind the blue circles. Very 3-D. But I bet we can tweak it to change it from an okay quilt to a WOW quilt.

A quilt design featuring a checkered pattern with red and white squares and blue circles in the center.

Just a quick turn of some blocks and we get this design with lots of movement. Kind of fun, huh?

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of red, white, and blue blocks with circular shapes in blue and white against a red background.

Let’s add some fabric to this one. Can’t wait to see it! Here’s a selection of yummy Hoffman batiks. This super mod design has a lot going for it!

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of pink circles on a black and white grid background, with a copyright notice for Tricia Lynn Maloney, Orphan Quilt Designs.

Let’s play with another block.

A quilt block design featuring a central gray square surrounded by red circles and black curved shapes on a white background.

All right, let’s see what this block looks like in a quilt. Gosh, I’m really liking this one. It reminds of a tile floor. But I think we can tweak it a bit to make it outstanding.

A colorful quilt pattern featuring alternating blocks with red circles and black shapes on a white background, arranged in a grid format.

YES! This is the finished design. Adding sashing and sashing squares was just the tweak I needed, which added a wonderful secondary design.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeated Drunkard's Path block layout with black, red, gray, and white colors.

Yippee! Time to add fabric! I think this design is spectacular!

A quilt design featuring pink floral blocks and circular motifs on a dark background.

Let’s do one more!

A graphic illustration of a Drunkard's Path quilt block design featuring a red circle, black and white geometric shapes.

Let’s see how this variation plays in a quilt. I really like this design – it makes me think of Halloween bats flying in front of a full moon. But I think we can tweak it a bit more.

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of the Drunkard's Path block, showcasing red, black, white, and gray colors arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s try sashing again. Sometimes this is the way to go and sometimes it isn’t. This one improves with sashing, definitely! I love the diagonal movement the design has now. What do you think?

A geometric quilt design featuring alternating black, white, and red blocks with curved patterns, arranged in a checkerboard layout.

Only thing left to do is to add FABRIC! I’m using assorted Hoffman batiks again and I played up the Halloween moon idea by making the background grey like twilight. Totally loving this!

A quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of Drunkard's Path blocks in gray and dark blue with orange accents, arranged in a grid layout.

Sadly, that wraps up our 5 part Let’s Design a Quilt series. I have had SEW much fun with this series. I hope you did too. I can envision adding more to this series down the road. Maybe I will focus on on-point quilt designs….

If you missed any posts in the series, you can find them all right here:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

Playing with the Farmer’s Daughter Block

See you next week – time for some new VRD tutorials to jumpstart your Autumn quilting when the kiddos go back to school.

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

NEW VRD Patterns for August and Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Welcome! We have lots of fun stuff to do this week, so we’re just going to dive right in.

First up, today is the Thursday after the first Friday, which means – NEW PATTERNS! Yay!

Collage of five quilt pattern covers titled 'August 2025 Patterns in a Set!' featuring designs named Grated, Lady Banks, Jolene, Jasper, and Snap Shot. Each cover showcases different quilt designs and colors.

Get your print pattern set HERE.

I know I say it every month, but our VRD designers are totally outstanding! Every month, they exceed the previous month’s designs. Let’s take a look at each pattern this month.

Grated by Heidi

Colorful quilt design titled 'Grated' by Heidi Cook for Villa Rosa Designs, featuring a variety of fabric patterns arranged in a grid layout.

Grated uses a stack of fat sixths (which are between a fat eighth and a fat quarter, measuring 12″ x 21″) or 10″ squares. This is a big quilt measuring 65″ x 75.” There are still kits available, which feature Klimt fabrics like the pattern cover. You can get your Grated kit, which includes the pattern, HERE.

Lady Banks by VRD (Pat)

A quilt design titled 'Lady Banks' featuring a patchwork of various blue and grey fabrics, set against a light blue background. The quilt consists of squares and rectangles with floral and textured patterns. The design is framed by a dark border with the names 'Lady Banks' and 'Villa Rosa Designs' displayed prominently.

If you are following along with the Tim Holtz Palette collections then Lady Banks is for you. It features the blue palette and finishes at 45″ x 60″. You can find the kit (including the pattern) HERE.

Jasper by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jasper' featuring a variety of patterns in blue, green, yellow, and red fabric blocks, displayed against a brick wall background.

Catherine is back with 2 new mod patterns this month! Jasper is FQ friendly and finishes at 36×48, which makes a nice baby quilt or lap quilt. You can find the kit HERE featuring the Camp Canine collection at Running Doe Quilts.

Jolene by Running Doe Quilts (Catherine)

A colorful quilt named 'Jolene' featuring a pattern of alternating squares and checkered designs in shades of pink, green, and yellow, displayed against a textured white wall.

Jolene is Catherine’s second quilt this month. It uses FQs and finishes at a generous 63″ x 84″. You can find the kit HERE at VRD featuring the Thirty-One collection or HERE at Running Doe Quilts featuring the Camp Canine collection.

Snap Shot by Molly

Quilt design titled 'Snap Shot' featuring images of wildlife, including deer and a bear, with a mix of earthy colors and fabric patterns.

Snap Shot is another one of Molly’s creative panel quilts. It is FQ friendly and finishes at a nice 45″ x 54″, which could be a wall quilt or a throw. Sorry, but VRD is out of Snap Shot kits already.

Apologies, but there is no table runner this month. Stay tuned for next month’s runner!

SEW, which NEW pattern are you going to make first?????

Now let’s turn our thoughts to our ongoing Quilt Design series.

Let’s Design a Quilt: The Farmer’s Daughter Block

Colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red, blue, yellow, and green pieces in a symmetrical pattern.

Here is the traditional Farmer’s Daughter block. According to Barbara Brackman, this block was first published in Clara Stone’s 1906 booklet, Practical Needlework: Quilt Patterns, which was part of a needlework booklet series by C. W. Calkins & Co. in Boston. Of course, like most quilt patterns, it was probably being made long before it was published. One of our readers suggested this block last week and I just couldn’t resist it. Thank you, dear reader! I hope I do the block justice for you!

Yikes! See how the four corners of the block feature set-in seams? Well, the first change to this block we are going to make is to change the four corners to be much friendlier by using Half Square Triangles (HSTs) instead of set-in pieces. Ahhhh! That’s more like it!

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central red square surrounded by blue triangles and yellow squares, with green squares at the corners.

Now we’re ready to play — er, design! Let’s put Farmer’s Daughter blocks in a quilt. Huh! When you set the blocks side to side, you lose the block and a whole new design emerges. Pretty cool!

Colorful quilt design featuring a geometric pattern with star and diamond shapes in red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

Now let’s add some sashing to see what that looks like. Neat-o! Sashing shows off the block. I just love the secondary design where the block corners (with the green squares) meet the sashing squares. Both designs have a lot of movement already and I haven’t done anything except the HSTs.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, orange, and green shades set against a yellow background.

Wowzer! Look what happens when I change the colors to black, grey, white, and red. I’d call this a finished design right now, wouldn’t you???? It almost has a 3D effect. Cool beans!

A quilt design featuring blocks with star-like shapes in red, gray, and white against a black background, creating a geometric pattern.

Here’s the same design, but I changed the red to white. Holy cow, Batman! It’s really eye-catching and the black negative space is just itching for some really cool machine quilting.

A quilt design featuring alternating blocks composed of black, white, and gray geometric patterns, arranged in a grid layout.

Here’s the same design again, but I changed the grey to red. Oh my! It just about leaps off the screen. Just by playing around with the colors.

This is only ONE of sew many reasons why I love my Electric Quilt 8 software. I can tweak some tiny little thing and if I don’t like it, I can go back or keep tweaking. If you haven’t ever tried EQ8, you really should. It is a total game changer for quilters everywhere!

A quilt design featuring a bold pattern of alternating red and black shapes arranged on a black background, with white squares creating a checkered effect. The design includes intricate geometric shapes that resemble a stylized star or flower.

Now let’s add some fabric. I’m using lovely blue batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. That’s the one! LOVE IT!

That’s a wrap for this design!

A quilt pattern featuring interconnected blue and white blocks set against a dark background, creating a geometric design.

But wait! We’re not done yet. Let’s go back to the block and split the corner sections into 2 colors, instead of just 1 color. I also changed the center square to blue, which gives it an interesting pinwheel design in the center.

A colorful quilt block design featuring a star shape with blue, red, and yellow triangles, set on a white grid background.

Let’s see what it looks like in a quilt. Hmmm. Not very interesting. At least not yet.

A quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, and yellow colors on a white background.

Let’s add some sashing. I’m gong to introduce black for the sashing squares. Better, but no way near finished. Let’s keep going.

Quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern with red, blue, yellow, and white colors, arranged in a grid with black sashing.

Let’s flip the black and white for the sashing and sashing squares. WHOAH! I am loving this sashing idea – it is incredibly graphic! But now we need to tweak the blocks some more.

A colorful quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red, blue, yellow, and white, set against a black background. The blocks are arranged in a grid with alternating black and white sashing.

Before we work on the blocks some more, it needs a border to frame it. It just looked a bit unfinished without it, don’t you think?

A quilt design featuring a grid of colorful star blocks on a black background, incorporating blue, red, yellow, and white fabrics.

That’s it! Okay, on to the blocks. Let’s swap the blue and yellow in the 4 corners back to 1 color, red. And change the blue center to white so it repeats the white sashing square. I love how graphic it is. Your thoughts?

Quilt design featuring a repeating pattern of star blocks in red and white against a black background, with a modern geometric layout.

One more tweak. Let’s change the center square in the blocks to black. Yup! That’s it! Love the plus sign in the center of the blocks! This design has a clean modern look yet it feels traditional, too. It is totally the best of both worlds.

A patterned quilt design featuring alternating red and white blocks on a black background, showcasing a geometric star motif.

All right! Let’s add some fabric. Again, I’m using batiks from Hoffman’s 1895 Watercolors collection. I did make one more tweak by changing the sashing squares to match the plus signs. Don’t you just love it in pinks? The black has a slight bluish tinge for added interest. Again, it has a bit of a 3D effect. Done and done!

A vibrant quilt design featuring a repeating star pattern in pink and purple hues, set against a dark blue quilt background with white borders separating each star.

Do you remember where we started? A Classic Farmer’s Daughter block.

How far we came just by changing the colors, playing with the fabric placement, and adding sashing/border.

How are you going to explore these ideas with your quilts???

A colorful quilt block design featuring a central orange square surrounded by red squares and blue triangle sections, with green and yellow corner pieces.

Well, that’s it for me for our 4th week in our Let’s Design a Quilt Series. If you missed any posts, you can catch up here:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Playing with the Sawtooth Star block

Sadly, next week we are going to wrap up our Quilt Design series. Next we’re going to do some new tutorials, just for you. Sew stay tuned!

See you on the flip side!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Quilting Partners · Tutorials · villa rosa designs

A Sneak Peek, Our Shoofly Challenge, and Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Sawtooth Star Block

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

The forecast for today is sum-sum-summertime with a strong chance of quilting! SEW much to do today, so let’s get started.

Before we jump into this week’s Quilt Design adventure, though, I want to share a fun SNEAK PEEK with you from our friends over at QT Fabrics. You might recall that VRD has been working closely with QT to pair their new fabric collections with our patterns. Here is our latest collaboration:

Image featuring the logos of QT Fabrics and Villa Rosa Designs, highlighting their collaboration for Fall 2025 collections.

You can check out the catalog HERE.

These upcoming fabric collections are being shown to quilt shops right now and will ship in late 2025/early 2026. If you see something you like — ask for the collection (and VRD patterns, of course) at you local quilt shop.

Churn Dash Challenge Winner

As part of my Quilt Design series last week, I offered up a challenge to you – see what you could do with the Churn Dash block.

First, I want to thank those of you who shared your ideas, creations, blocks, and quilts.

And the winner is………………………..

Lisa from KY

Lisa won with her charming Churn Dash quilt, below, featuring multiple sizes of her Churn Dash blocks with the added fun of novelty farm panels and prints inside each block. Way to go, Lisa!

A colorful quilt featuring various farm animal-themed blocks framed with bold borders in different colors, displayed against a brick wall.

Log Cabin Inspiration

Folks were really inspired by last week’s Courthouse Steps block quilt design party and suggested we stay in the Log Cabin zone. Thank you for those suggestions, but I want to keep addressing different kinds of blocks to maximize your inspiration when it comes to designing quilts. There are entire books written about Log Cabin blocks and quilts and a few blog posts just can’t do the topic justice, I am afraid.

In lieu of more Log Cabin blocks, here is a short list of Log Cabin books for you to explore. I tried to choose a variety to show you here on the blog, but believe me – there are tons more out there just waiting to inspire your next Log Cabin quilt.

A colorful quilt featuring curvy log cabin blocks and a floral border, showcased outdoors in a natural setting.
Find it HERE
Book cover titled 'Log Cabin Improv: Quilts with a Twist on Tradition' by Mary M. Hogan, featuring a colorful patchwork quilt design made of various Log Cabin blocks.
Find it HERE
Cover of the book 'Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts' by Judy Martin, featuring colorful quilt designs including traditional log cabin patterns.
Find it HERE
Cover of the book '101 Log Cabin Blocks' featuring various log cabin quilt block designs and patterns.
Get it HERE
Cover of the book 'Creative Log Cabin Quilts' displaying a quilt with various Log Cabin block designs in a garden setting with flowers and a wooden fence.
Find it HERE

After enjoying your Log Cabin comments and quilt photos, it occurred to me that I have not done a Star block yet……..so today’s the day!

The Sawtooth Star Block

I chose an oldie, but a goodie for today – the Sawtooth Star.

Sawtooth Star is known by many names and has a lot of different variations. Apparently, it first appeared in print in the 1880’s or 1890’s in popular publications such as Farm and Fireside Magazine as well as in the Ladies Art Company catalog in 1895. The Sawtooth Star block was block # 5. Like most quilt blocks, however; Sawtooth Star blocks were probably being made long before they ever appeared in print.

Here is our classic 2 color Sawtooth Star block.

A simple quilt block design featuring a red Sawtooth Star pattern with a solid center and white background.

So, let’s make a quilt. Here are 20 blocks set side by side. This makes a lovely classic 2 color quilt, but of course we’re not going to stop there.

A quilt layout featuring a repeating pattern of red Sawtooth Star blocks interspersed with white squares.

Here it is with sashing in between the blocks. Again, super classic. I do like how the sashing gives the stars room to breathe, plus this layout would be a lot easier due to not having to match up all those points. Win, win….

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks in red and white, arranged in a grid pattern.

Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a little bit, shall we? Let’s change the solid center block into an Hourglass.

A quilt block design featuring a Sawtooth Star pattern in vibrant red and white colors, arranged in a grid layout.

Here are the blocks set side to side. I find it interesting that I’m not seeing the stars so much now, but rather, all the triangles seem to jump out at me now. And I see “V” shapes, too. Huh.

A quilt layout featuring red Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid, alternating with white squares.

Let’s tweak the block again by adding Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the 4 corners.

Quilt block pattern featuring a red and white Sawtooth Star design.

Okay, now let’s set the blocks side by side in a quilt. Wow! There is so much more movement – almost to the point of being distracting. Really cool, though.

Quilt pattern featuring a repeating design of red and white Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s add a 3rd color to the blocks now.

Classic Sawtooth Star quilt block design featuring red, blue, and white fabric triangles arranged in a star pattern.

Here is the same layout as above, but with the added 3rd color. It looks totally different and not as dizzying.

Quilt design featuring a pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red, white, and blue colors arranged in a grid layout.

What if we add sashing again? Cool – we now have a Shoofly block where the sashing square meets the blue HSTs – this adds a lot of interest to the design. Liking this, but not quite there yet. Let’s keep tweaking.

A quilt design featuring a classic Sawtooth Star block layout in red and blue, arranged in a grid with white spaces between the blocks.

I think the blocks look a bit heavy, so I’m going to lighten them up a bit by changing the inner blue triangles back to white. Yep, liking this one more.

A quilt design featuring multiple Sawtooth Star blocks arranged in a grid pattern. The stars are colored in red and white with blue squares in between, creating a striking contrast against the white background.

I’d call this a finished design, so let’s add some fabric. Here it is featuring fabrics from QT Fabrics’ American Tapestry collection.

A quilt design featuring a repetitive pattern of Sawtooth Star blocks in red and navy, with a neutral background and small star accents.

It’s a bit too vertical for me, though, so let me make one more tweak by alternating the direction of the blocks. Yes, I think that does it. This one’s a wrap!

A quilt featuring a repeating Sawtooth Star block design in red and white, with dark blue star-patterned corner pieces and a light beige background.

But wait – I’m not done yet. I’m having way too much fun to stop now. Let’s go back to our block and tweak it a bit more by adding blue triangles on the sides only.

Illustration of a Sawtooth Star quilt block featuring red and blue triangular segments arranged around a central white square.

Here’s our updated block set side to side in a quilt. You totally lose the star block, don’t you? I like the horizontal repetition of the triangles, too.

A quilt design featuring a pattern of interlocking red, blue, and white triangles arranged in a grid layout, with a central diamond shape in white.

Let’s add fabric! Here it is using the QT fabrics from American Tapestry again. Love it, yet……

Quilt featuring a repeated pattern of red, white, and blue fabrics arranged in a geometric design with star motifs.

One more tweak……let’s rotate every other block. Yup, that’s the one. Finished. Great movement – I can’t even see the stars now, can you?

A colorful quilt featuring a Sawtooth Star design with red, white, and blue fabrics embellished with stars, arranged in a grid pattern.

Do you remember where we started? A classic 2 color Sawtooth Star.

A graphic illustration of a classic Sawtooth Star quilt block, featuring a central square in red surrounded by triangular points in red against a white background.

YAY! This has been another fun quilt design adventure! Sew glad you came along.

If you’ve missed any posts in our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up below:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

Stay tuned for next week when we explore another block in our Let’s Design a Quilt series. Any thoughts on another great block to explore?

See you next time!

Until then –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

2025 Let's Design a Quit Together Series · Just Quilty Stuff · Quilt Play · Tips and Tricks

Let’s Design a Quilt: Playing with the Courthouse Steps Block

rosecards4 Comments

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Are you ready to play with another quilt block? Yippee! Me too. This really is SEW much fun for me to do and I think it’s also helping me to think more “outside the box.” I’ve definitely noticed more designs popping into my head lately. 🙂

If you’ve missed our Quilt Design Series so far, you can catch up:

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

Playing with the Spool Block

I was a little disappointed that no one was brave enough to suggest a quilt block in the comments on last week’s blog post. Please consider letting me know what your favorite block is or another block suggestion to design with as I’m planning to do this mini series on designing for a few more weeks. Do you really want me to have all the fun of picking out all the blocks?

So I asked my quilty pal, Mary Lee (Hey Mary Lee!) for a block suggestion. She thought for a few seconds and then suggested either Churn Dash or Courthouse Steps. I thought both were good options. Churn Dash (image 1, below) is another Nine Patch variation while Courthouse Steps (image 2, below) is a variation of a traditional Log Cabin block. Because we’ve already done 2 Nine Patch blocks, I zoomed in on her Courthouse Steps suggestion and immediately began to wonder what we could do with it.

A digital illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central square surrounded by rectangles and triangles in a light teal color.
Image 1 – Churn Dash block, also known as Hole in the Barn Door and Monkey Wrench
A quilt block design featuring a central pink square with gray and white rectangles surrounding it, arranged to create a geometric pattern.
Image 2 – Courthouse Steps block

Homework!

Since I’m going to focus on the Courthouse Steps block today, I’m assigning all of you readers “homework” — see what you can do with the Churn Dash block (image 1, above).

You can share your “homework” on our Facebook Page, in the comments (although I’m not sure if you can upload images), or you can email them to me at tricia@villarosadesigns.com.

I’d love to share your ideas on next week’s blog or upcoming posts if we have a big response. I hope you will take a little time and play – er, I mean design a quilt – along with me. Hand drawn, EQ, or Adobe images are great, please use a .jpg or .pdf format atat no more than 300 dpi.

Who knows????? There might even be a prize or 2…. US and International friends can play along, so go get started – right after you finish reading this post, that is.

The Courthouse Steps Block

Let’s learn a bit about the Courthouse Steps block. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a variation of a Log Cabin block. According to Barbara Brackman in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, it was originally called White House Steps and appeared in print circa 1890 in the first Ladies’ Art Company catalog, which included 272 patterns. White House Steps was block #221. Of course, that doesn’t mean the block just suddenly appeared in the 1890’s. rather, that was the first known version in print. Quilters may have been making the block much sooner than the 1890’s.

A Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray rectangles.
White House Steps block
A graphic representation of the Courthouse Steps quilt block, featuring a central pink square surrounded by alternating gray and white rectangles.
Courthouse Steps block

The Courthouse Steps block we are familiar with today uses color a bit differently than the White House Steps version, above. Interestingly enough, “Courthouse Steps” isn’t even mentioned in Barbara Brackman’s book. I wonder if it’s a regional term used for the block? Does anyone know this block by another name? Just curious. I did find the block in Electric Quilt 8 software (which is based on Barbara Brackman’s book), but it is considered a foundation pieced block and does not include any historical information.

Doing a quick Internet search, I discovered a post on Suzy Quilts about Courthouse Steps blocks with a touch of history and wonderful examples of Gee’s Bend quilts. Check it out HERE.

Alright! Ready to get designing???

The Courthouse Steps Block

So, here’s our block again. Take a good look at it – what do you see? A central square with rectangles radiating from the center square both horizontally and vertically. That’s it! Simple, but very effective, very geometric, and very graphic.

Illustration of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray and white rectangles.
Courthouse Steps block

Let’s put the blocks side by side with all of the blocks going the same direction. Okay, this is fun. And it would make an awesome scrappy quilt, wouldn’t it?

A digital mockup of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring pink squares, grey and white rectangles arranged in a geometric pattern.

Let’s turn the blocks sideways and see if we get something different. Pretty much the same thing, just different direction.

Pattern design of the Courthouse Steps quilt block featuring alternating shades of gray, pink centers, and white accents in a geometric layout.

Let’s alternate every other block next. Huh. Better. Definitely more movement in this one, wouldn’t you agree? I almost detect a bit of a curvy look happening, which is interesting with a square block.

A quilt design featuring alternating Courthouse Steps blocks in shades of gray, pink, and white arranged in a grid pattern.

Now I think I’d like to see what happens when I group the blocks in 4’s. That’s interesting.

A digital quilt design featuring multiple Courthouse Steps blocks arranged in a grid pattern with a mix of gray, white, and pink colors.

Let’s add fabric to see what happens, shall we? I’m using Lori Holt’s warm and homey Riley Blake collection, Autumn. I can almost smell the apple pie…..

A patchwork quilt featuring a Courthouse Steps block design with a variety of colorful fabrics arranged in a grid layout.

I want to tweak the blocks one more time. In this example, I turned alternating rows which then gave me an interesting boxed effect in rows 2 and 4.

A colorful quilt design featuring the Courthouse Steps block, showcasing a mix of fabrics in varying patterns and colors arranged in a geometric layout.

Whoah! Stop the bus! Here was the basic idea behind my VRD Rose Card pattern, Boxed In (hence the name), although it’s not totally the same. I wasn’t even thinking about any of our VRD patterns when playing with Courthouse Steps, but – there it is. LOL!

A quilt design titled 'Boxed In' by Tricia Lynn Maloney, showcasing a colorful patchwork pattern with various fabrics arranged in geometric blocks on a table.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Okay, let’s go back to our Courthouse Steps block and tweak it a little bit by changing the width of some of the rectangles. I left the side rectangles the same, but I made the top and bottom rectangles narrower.

Diagram of the Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by gray rectangles.

Let’s use the first setting from above to see how the blocks plays in a design. I really think this looks pretty cool and it reminds me of paper lanterns.

A digital representation of a Courthouse Steps quilt block design featuring a central pink square surrounded by white and gray rectangles, arranged in a grid layout.

Let’s tweak the color a little bit. Again, I’m using a couple prints from Lori Holt’s Autumn collection. WOW! What a mod yet classic 2 color quilt! Love it!

A digital quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block layout in brown and turquoise colors, arranged in a grid pattern, with a light grid background.

Cool! Check out this block arrangement! It’s the same layout as our previous 2nd design, above.

A quilt design featuring a Courthouse Steps block pattern in brown and light blue color scheme.

Hmmm. I just don’t feel that’s it totally complete yet, so let’s add another fabric to see what happens. In this example, I’m using some lovely Hoffman 1895 Watercolors batiks. Love it!

A quilt design featuring a central pink pattern framed by dark and light gray rectangles, creating a geometric composition.

Just….one….more….tweak. As you can see, designing a quilt can get kind of addicting. Yup. But, I think you’ll agree with me that this is the final design. I changed the block directions a bit, changed the black centers to grey, changed the black background to a light grey and added more fabrics from Hoffman.

I think it’s perfect now.

A digital quilt design showcasing alternating blocks of the Courthouse Steps pattern in shades of pink and gray, framed by light blue fabric strips.

There’s not much else I can say………except I’m very satisfied with this final design. Seriously. Sometimes it takes just one more try to get where you want to. And I’m not just talking about quilt design, you know.

What would you do to tweak the Courthouse Steps block to create your own design?

Don’t forget to do your homework for next Thursday! I’ll see what I can find in the prize department while you play with the Churn Dash quilt block to see what you can come up with.

Ta! Ta!

Until next time –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

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

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

What a fun blog post last week! It was great to share a little bit about my quilt design process with you. It was such fun, we’re doing it again this week, but with a different quilt block.

Before even starting this post, though, I must admit I cheated a bit and began playing with this week’s quilt block. Let me tell you – it never fails to amaze me how a simple block can create such amazing designs.

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

Playing with Nine Patch Blocks

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

The Spool Block

According to Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, this specific Spool block appeared in the book, Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts by Alice Gammell in 1973. Of course, it wasn’t really a new block in 1973, but this simplified Nine Patch version appeared in Polly Prindle’s. Previous versions included set-in seams as well as 4 small Spools in a single quilt block. Today, though, we’re going to start with Polly Prindle’s version.

Cover of 'Polly Prindle's Book of American Patchwork Quilts' by Alice Gammell featuring quilts displayed on a decorative rack, accompanied by a bouquet of colorful flowers.
Polly Prindle’s Book of American Patchwork Quilts
Image from Amazon
Cover of 'Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns' by Barbara Brackman featuring various quilt block designs.
Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns
Image from Amazon
A quilt block design featuring a 3x3 layout with red and cream colors, showcasing a Spool block pattern with alternating triangles and squares.

As you can see, our Spool Block is a Nine Patch block with a 3×3 layout. Of course, we’ve added some Half Square Triangles (HSTs) to create the Spool shape.

Time to Play!

The first thing we’re going to do is to simply our Spool block by using flippy corners instead of HSTs for the top and bottom of the spool. This tweak would actually save time when piecing the blocks for a quilt without changing the overall design. And we all know that saving time is golden in the quiltmaking process. The tweak also cleans up the look of the block by removing some of the seams.

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

Let’s see what a quilt looks like using just this block, shall we? This design shows the blocks all pointing in the same direction. Hmmm. I like it, but I think we’re just getting started with the Spool block today.

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

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

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

Next up – let’s alternate block direction by row. Better and better! I really like the play between the different block directions. Reminds me a little bit of the vertical and horizontal strips I added to last week’s classic Nine Patch block.

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

Let’s add some fabrics to this one. I’m using a few prints from Moda’s Acorn Hollow collection. This layout definitely has some potential. I’m not usually a big fan of 2 fabric quilts, but I am liking the crispness of the design with only the 2 fabrics.

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

Okay, let’s go back to our Spool block again. Instead of it being a 2 color block, let’s make it a 4 color block with a black center.

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

Huh. Intriguing. Let’s see how it looks in a quilt. This is the same layout as our first red/white layout above. What a difference color can make!

Now let’s alternate the block directions. This is the second red/white layout above.

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

I like it, but with so many colors, you kind of lose the interesting design. Let’s back off on colors a little bit by adding more neutrals. Not loving it, but I do like the diagonal thing happening.

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

Not quite what I was expecting. Let’s tweak the colors some more. I’m going to use red, black, white, and grey which is one of my favorite colorways when I’m trying to perfect a design. I like working with these colors because of the strong contrast. I also changed the center square to black, so I get an interesting black shape in the blocks now – kind of looks like a megaphone to me.

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

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

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

Let’s add some fabric now to see what it looks like. Here it is in 4 Hoffman batiks. I like it – it has a woven effect which keeps my eye moving over the design.

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

Let’s play with the block arrangement a little bit more. I think there’s another better option still out there. We just have to play a bit until we get there. Almost there.

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

I think it needs just one more thing tweaked. I’m going to reintroduce the 5th fabric in the block for the center squares. Yup! Got it. This is the one! A beautiful finished design! LOVE the 3-D effect. Lots of movement. Tons of interesting things going on.

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

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

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

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

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

Isn’t quilt design a fascinating journey? For me, it’s a lot of “what if?” questions. Also, I’m not afraid to make something really ugly – I can always delete it, right? And sometimes “something ugly” just needs another tweak or 2 to become something amazing.

I hope you give designing a try. I think you’ll be surprised at how fun it it. Whether you use graph paper and a pencil or Electric Quilt 8 software, I think you can come up with something that’s truly your own, something you love.

Stay tuned next week for another fun quilt design adventure! Any suggestions on a simple quilt block you’re just dying to see turned into an interesting quilt design? Leave a comment and tell me!

Until next week –

Sew. Laugh. Design. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

rosecards2 Comments

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

Free Quilt Blocks and Patterns · Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

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

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

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

Happy Independence Day!

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

July 4th with Quilts

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

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

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

Get your 12 QOV Collection HERE

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

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

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

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

Celebration

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

Daring Spirit

Farmhouse Blues

Fernanda

Gallant

Honor

Pride

Salute

Star Rail

Stars N Stripes

Yesterday

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

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

Dolls and Quilts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sweet and Simple Doll Quilt

By Tricia Maloney

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

18″ x 23″

Fabric

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

½ yd for backing

20″ x 25″ thin batting or flannel

¼ yd binding

Cut

20 – 5″ squares

20″ x 25″ for quilt back

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

Sew

  • Sew 4 assorted 5″ squares together into a row. Make 5 rows.
A selection of four fabric swatches in varying shades of pink and red, showcasing different textures and patterns.
  • Sew the rows together.
A patchwork fabric display featuring a grid of pink and red shades in various textures.

Finish

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

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

Sweet and Simple Doll QuiltDownload

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

Catch you next week right here!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Celebrate. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

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

VRD Augustina Quilt Tutorial – Perfect Summer Project

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

WHEW! If you’re like me, you are having a heatwave right now. 90’s every day. It even hit 100 on the thermometer on Monday! YIKES! I’m sooooo not ready for these temps. It’s like we went straight from 50’s to 90’s in a couple weeks.

90’s are definitely not normal for this time of year here in northwestern Pennsylvania. AND we have high humidity to go with the heat which makes me want to just melt into a puddle on the ground every time I have to step outside. I literally had to scramble on Sunday to get the window AC units in, but we’re all good now. I just don’t want to go outside anymore.

A woman in a floral dress appears distressed while crawling on a sunlit street, with water droplets visually distorting around her, creating an impression of melting.
I’m melting into a puddle………!!!!

Luckily my dungeon studio is still cool enough (sadly, it is not air conditioned) to work in comfortably. I have several fans on to keep the air moving, but when the heat finally infiltrates my space, it’ll get quite uncomfortable. That usually isn’t until August and September, though, but we’ll see what summer brings this year. Northwestern Pennsylvania is an interesting place to live – record amounts of snow and cold in the winter, a wet and cold spring, then – POOF! – record high temps in June. Only the strong survive……..

I finally got a little quality time with my sewing machine this week so I decided to put together a new tutorial for you. Augustina is a such great project for summer!

Of course Augustina is fast and fun – it’s a VRD pattern, but it’s also not so big that you feel like you’re wrestling an alligator while your body is dripping with sweat. I promise you, this quilt really is quick – I made the top in a couple hours and that included both cutting and photographing my step-outs for the tutorial. It’s a very satisfying afternoon project.

VRD Augustina Quilt Tutorial

Augustina is a great sized quilt for a small throw or a juvenile quilt. And this is a pattern you are going to turn to over and over again for a beautiful quilt with little effort, yet it looks like a million bucks (sorry, it’s late and I couldn’t think of another phrase to use). So don’t forget to get your own Augustina pattern if you don’t have it yet.

A vibrant quilt pattern titled 'Augustina' featuring colorful fabric blocks in shades of purple, yellow, and orange, with floral and geometric designs. The quilt is displayed on a warm orange background, showcasing its cheerful and lively aesthetic.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Let’s get started!

The first thing we need to do, of course, is round up our fabrics. Augustina is a fat quarter project, so you can march right over to your stash and find some coordinating fat quarters or you can use this project as an excuse to visit your local quilt shop to buy new fabric. Yeah, I know, we quilters really don’t need an excuse, but it is handy to have one anyway, isn’t it?

For this tutorial, I am using Flower Shoppe fabrics from our quilty friends over at Hoffman Fabrics. The flower fabrics are all amazing Hoffman digital prints – have you seen these in person yet? The colors are so bright and clear – I feel like I could pick these flowers right off the fabric. We’ve paired a few Hoffman batiks to balance out the gorgeous flower prints.

Please remember when using digital prints, that they do not react exactly the same as regular quilting cottons. Always start with a new needle in your machine so you are not pulling threads when sewing as well as a new rotary cutting blade so you are cutting cleanly through the fabric instead of sawing at it, which can damage the fibers.

A collection of fabric pieces featuring floral patterns, including sunflowers and roses, stacked with an Augustina quilt pattern booklet on a cutting mat.

Next up…..cutting.

SHHHHH! The secret of this quilt is that the pieces are big. Big pieces mean you don’t have to spend loads of time cutting little squares, rectangles, or triangles. Big pieces are a huge time saver! Big pieces also mean you can use bigger prints (when you use big prints in small pieces, the design gets all chopped up and you tend to lose what you loved about the print to begin with). Yay! Let’s GO BIG!

In the photos, below, we’re cutting our accent fabric into strips and then into rectangles.

A rotary cutter, a cutting mat, and a ruler placed on top of a blue marbled fabric in preparation for cutting.
A rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler placed on a green cutting mat with yellow grid lines, with a strip of fabric in the background.

Below, we’re cutting our FQs into strips and then into 2 different sized rectangles.

A rotary cutter and ruler placed on a floral fabric with orange poppies, laid on a green cutting mat, ready for cutting.
A rotary cutter rests on a floral fabric featuring orange poppies, positioned on a green cutting mat marked with measurements.

VIOLA! Cutting done. Easy peasy. Here’s all the pieces we need to make Augustina.

A selection of colorful quilting fabrics featuring vibrant floral patterns, including poppies and roses, arranged on a green cutting mat with a ruler and rotary cutter nearby.

Before we can sew Augustina together, we have to lay out our fabrics. I’m going to put them up on my handy dandy flannel board which consists of a flannel-backed table cloth clamped to the tops of my fabric storage unit doors. As I’ve mentioned before, this idea came from my pal, Mary Lee. Kudos to you, Mary Lee! It’s a great option if you don’t have a spare wall to put up a more permanent quilt wall solution. I can simply take it down when I need access to my yardage stash. I’ve actually had this tablecloth for years now, so it’s even an economical option.

A colorful quilt top featuring sunflower and poppy floral patterns, laid out for sewing with a light blue background and various fabric strips.
A layout of quilt fabric pieces showcasing bright floral patterns including sunflowers, poppies, and abstract designs, arranged in vertical strips with a green cutting mat below.

Hmmm……I think I need to move some fabrics around.

A colorful quilt top layout featuring floral fabrics in various patterns and colors, arranged in vertical stripes.
A vibrant patchwork layout of floral fabric squares and rectangles arranged in vertical rows, showcasing bright colors like red, yellow, and green against a light background.
A colorful quilt top layout featuring floral and patterned fabric swatches, arranged on a design surface with green cutting mat underneath.

After several switcharoos, I think I’m happy with the layout now.

Let’s sew!

This quilt is sewn together in vertical rows. I took my time, only taking one vertical row off of my board at a time. I worked from the top down to sew the pieces together. It doesn’t matter whether you sew your strips top down or bottom up, just be consistent with all of your rows or else you might get your fabrics out of kilter.

A sewing machine with colorful fabric pieces, including floral and orange prints, laid out for stitching.
A partially assembled quilt top featuring colorful floral fabrics in various patterns and colors, arranged in vertical strips against a crafting workspace.

Okay, all the fabrics are now sewn into vertical rows.

Vertical strips of colorful floral and solid fabrics are laid out for a quilt project, with a cutting mat visible below.

Now I’m going to sew the vertical rows together into pairs. As this quilt has an odd number of rows, the last row will have to hang out all by itself for a while.

Vertical strips of colorful floral fabrics arranged on a flannel board in preparation for quilting.

Next, I’m going to sew the first 2 pairs together into a foursome. Then I’ll sew the third pair and the last row together into a trio.

Two vertical quilt sections showcasing a colorful patchwork of floral and solid fabrics on a cutting mat.

One last seam to sew the 2 sections together and the Augustina top will be finished. Fast as can be! There isn’t a lot of matching seams, but you do want to make sure your accent pieces are relatively even-looking across the quilt.

And here it is! Our completed Augustina quilt top.

Colorful quilt top featuring floral and solid fabric blocks arranged in a vertical pattern.

Although it was hot, I decided to take Augustina outside for a glamour photo. Sigh…….it was a little breezy out and I couldn’t get a photo with it hanging nicely for you. Bummer. But I do love how it looks surrounded by all the green – the flowers look like they are about to burst right off the quilt! That’s digital fabric for you – the number of colors that can be printed on fabric is phenomenal and creates stunning designs.

A colorful quilt featuring floral patterns and various fabrics, hanging on a clothesline outdoors with green grass and trees in the background.

And that’s it! Finito! Next I need to layer, quilt, and bind it…….someday, anyway.

If you’re looking for another great summer quilt pattern, check out the Jubilee tutorial from a few weeks ago. It’s also a super go-to project.

That’s it for me today, gotta go have me some summer……..in the air conditioning. LOL!

See you next week, same time same place —

Sew. Laugh. Stay Cool. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD

Rose Cards · villa rosa designs

NEW June VRD Rose Card Patterns and an Impromptu Road Trip

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Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Guess what day it is, folks!?!  It’s the Thursday after the first Friday in June, and you know what that means ………. NEW PATTERNS!  Yippee!

Check these beauties out!

Here is the set of 5 monthly patterns for June. Definitely a little something for everyone, don’t you think?

A set of five monthly quilt patterns for June 2025, featuring the names Escalate, Sunita, Limerick, Tomah, and Well Seasoned, with a price of $8.95.

Get all 5 print patterns HERE

Aren’t they lots of fun? Tomah is spot-on for your upcoming July 4th celebration. Escalate makes a BIG bed quilt and uses 1/2 yards. Sunita uses just 3 fabrics! Limerick and Well Seasoned are both fat quarter friendly and make nice throw-sized quilts. Although we offer them as a set of 5, you can get them as individual patterns, both as digital or as print.

Digital patterns HERE

Print patterns HERE

And in case I haven’t said this for a while, there is zero shipping on print patterns in the US (we only offer the digital format internationally). Yep, that’s right – ZERO shipping on print patterns regardless if you purchase 1 or 100!

But wait……there’s more!

I can’t forget this month’s table runner, can I? It’s called Stars & Ribbons and will make a wonderful statement on your July 4th table next month.

A table runner titled 'Stars & Ribbons', featuring a red, white, and blue quilt design, displayed against a backdrop of colorful flowers.

Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE

Which pattern are you going to make first???

I was planning to do another tutorial for this week, but life got in the way.  Ho hum….. Hopefully I’ll have a new tutorial for you next week.

Instead, let me tell you about my impromptu road trip!

Road Trip

So today I’m on an acquisition road trip with pal Robin and her brother Dan in Robin’s big blue truck.  We are heading to Apollo PA, which is in the Pittsburgh area, to pick up a new desk solution for me for my studio/office space.

Currently, my desk is an old sewing table with a wooden top and metal legs.  Good and sturdy, but not very ergonomic because it’s a bit too high for short little ol’ me.  I’ve been on the lookout for a new desk for a while now, hoping to maybe find an L-shaped desk with at least one file drawer and as much storage as one can possibly cram into a desk to help keep me organized – most of the time my desk looks like an office and quilt store collided. LOL!

Sigh……I have found that if I don’t have a specific place to put something, then I just end up with piles on my horizontal surfaces. My defense – I think paper and fabric multiply like rabbits…….. So because of my tendency towards clutter, I am totally a storage junkie.  Can you relate?

I’ve been watching Facebook Marketplace for a gently used desk and the other morning, an intriguing possibility popped up.  I’d seen it before, but I didn’t take a closer look then. This time, I stopped and took that closer look and I liked what I saw – a group of Ikea (YAY! LOVE Ikea!) office pieces that could be arranged in lots of different configurations.  A tall shelf, 2 desktops, a small desk (which had one of the desk tops on top), 3 drawer units, and a chair. Exactly what I have been looking for, but I didn’t know that I was looking for it until I saw it!  Does that make any sense? I really really like the flexibility of the pieces.  

A garage space showing a dark brown office desk setup, including a desk, shelving unit, and a chair, with tiles on the floor and natural light coming through a window.
Here are all the desk components.

The pieces looked to be in decent condition; however, there were a few hesitations before I messaged the owner. First, the pieces were dark brown instead of my usual white. I thought about that for a quick second and decided I could accept it because the flexibility made up for the color. Second, and it was a biggie – the pieces would definitely not fit in my cute little red Jeep Compass.

I needed a truck!

I messaged the seller and asked a few questions. She was quick to reply. OK, now what???? I still needed a truck. So, I sent an SOS to my quilty pal, Robin, who just so happens to have a really big blue truck.  Yay!  Problem solved.  ROAD TRIP!

Interior view of a truck while driving on a highway, showing the dashboard, a driver steering, and a passenger on the right.
On the road in Robin’s big blue truck to pick up my new desk and storage! Dan is driving and Robin is navigating. Lucky me! I get to chill in the backseat.

It was around 2 hours to drive to get to the seller’s home in the Apollo area, which turned out to be a lovely farm with horses running in a fenced field right beside the driveway to the house. What a pretty setting it was! I wanted to get a photo of the horses for the blog, but by the time we were all loaded (which seemed to take only minutes with the owner’s husband and Dan teaming up), the horses had all headed to get water further down in the field and I couldn’t see them anymore. Dang it!

A man loading furniture into the back of a blue truck, with a sunny sky and greenery in the background.
Dan took on the important task of arranging the desk pieces in the truck. What a pro – he fit them together just like puzzle pieces and we had room to spare.
Two women smiling for a selfie outdoors with a sunny sky in the background.
Robin and I were the supervisors while Dan and the owner’s husband loaded the truck. Tehehe!
A blue pickup truck loaded with black furniture pieces secured in the bed, parked on a gravel driveway under a sunny sky.
Here’s Robin’s big blue truck all loaded up and ready to head home.

It took longer to come home than it did to get to Apollo because we stopped off for dinner at Eat n’ Park and then to get fuel. Once we made it to my home, we unloaded all the pieces and Dan helped me get them into the space I had carved out in the back of the garage.

A cluttered workspace filled with dark brown Ikea office furniture pieces, including desktops, drawer units, and a chair, ready to be assembled in a studio.
Here’s my desk and storage – I can’t wait until I have space for them in my studio/office.

Of course, before I can set up my new workspace, I have to do a HUGE clean/sort/purge in my studio/office to make room.  Not only is it my work area, it’s also the pantry and storage (most of the crates are mine, but not all of them). Luckily, I’ve been cleaning the garage and I have some space to store the pieces until I’m ready for them.  Now that the pieces are stashed in the garage, I think that will really motivate me to get the clean up in my space done ASAP so I can arrange my lovely Ikea pieces into a configuration that will work for me.  

I am thrilled there are lots of storage drawers with multiple file drawers! That means I will have no excuse for a messy desktop anymore. There is also a wonderful cube storage shelf as part of the desk system.  Finally!  A place for my books. Piles of books – begone!

I’ve been trying to visualize different configurations, but I know I’ll have to wait until my space is cleared out so I can create my dream office space in my dungeon studio. It will be some time yet before I will be able to get everything just the way I want in my studio/office, so there won’t be any before/after photos right now. Of course, I’ll show it off when I’m all done, so you’ll just have to stay tuned.

A BIG thank you goes out to Dan, Robin, and her big blue truck!

That’s it for me this week. I think I’ll head outside to enjoy a little sunshine now because I think summer has come before spring even had the chance to hang out.

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD