How many of you had the chance to see Monday’s solar eclipse? Could you see it from your own area? Or did you travel somewhere to see it?
Our area was overrun with people coming from all over to see the Eclipse — hotels and restaurants were full and the highways were all backed up. I was lucky that I could hang out on the back porch to see it — there was no need to go anywhere. Believe me, I was very happy not to have to go anywhere else, too.
My Mom (Hi Mom!) was super excited about the eclipse and had been for days. She put The Weather Channel on early on Monday so that we wouldn’t miss a thing as the eclipse arced across the US until it reached us here in northwest Pennsylvania. I popped outside frequently to watch as the moon’s shadow was creeping across the sun. I couldn’t stay outside for long, though, because my dog, Bailly (who was safely inside), would scratch crazily at the glass sliding door every time I went outside. My Dad (Hi Dad!) got in the spirit and came out from time to time to check it out, too. And yes, we all wore our special eclipse glasses.
It was so fascinating to watch the moon’s shadow slowly covered up the sun until almost totality, but, much to our disappointment, clouds covered the sun just as the eclipse moved into totality. We saw glimpses of it through openings in the clouds off and on, but we never did get to see complete totality in our location. WHat a bummer.
Of course, we had seen it on TV in other locations, but it wasn’t quite the same as seeing it yourself. Luckily, my oldest niece, Meg (Hi Meg!) took a great video of totality in our area and she shared it on Facebook, so I did get to see secondhand what I had missed.
Did you make your version of the Eclipses quilt?
Did you even get your Eclipses pattern yet? You can find it HERE as a physical pattern OR you can find it HERE as a digital pattern.
Here’s my Eclipses quilt top.
Mine was not the only Eclipses quilt in my area to celebrate the total Eclipses! My friend Kristine (Hi Kris!) and my cousin, Robin (Hi Robin!), made their own Eclipses quilts, too.
Kristine even machine-embroidered the center strip of her quilt with the Eclipse information and her location. What a great idea!
Kristine’s Eclipses quilt.
Robin made a wall-sized version like me. We even used the same fabrics, so they look similar, but not exact because of our fabric placement.
Robin’s wall quilt version of Eclipses.
What a fun project! I hope you will share your Eclipses projects on our VRD Facebook Group. Did you miss the Eclipses tutorial last week? You can find it HERE.
Now, guess what today is??? If you’re a new follower (Hey! Thanks for becoming a follower!), you probably have no idea why I’m so excited, do you? Let me explain —
This is the Thursday after the first Friday of the month and that means NEW Rose Card Patterns!
NEW VRD Rose Card Patterns for April 2024
Cue the trumpets and the confetti! Yay! Here they are!
Aren’t they great? What a lovely variety of patterns! I love that this group has new quilt patterns from multiple designers and you can see each designer’s own flavor. Which one do you want to make first?
You can get your own set of the 5 April patterns HERE for the low price of $8.95.
But wait……..there’s more! (Of course there is, did you even have a doubt?) Although there is no new table runner pattern this month (I’m sorry, the Blog Hop kept me hopping!), you are going to love the new Snack Mat — Bunny Ears!
Don’t you love it??? Yes, I know that Easter was actually at the end of March this year, but Easter is usually in April and bunnies are such a fun spring theme. You can get your own Bunny Ears pattern HERE.
Blog Hop Update
I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that all the winners have now been selected and contacted. Congratulations if you are one of them!
We did have a few folks who did not respond, so we had to randomly select new winners for those prizes. So the process takes longer than you’d expect it to. Now that everyone has responded, we will be starting to ship out prizes to the winners. Some of you will be receiving your prizes directly from some of our Sponsors. Thank you for your patience!
Next week’s post will be all about celebrating and announcing the winners of the Blog Hop — they are from all over the US and beyond.
Thanks for hopping with us! Here’s to more quilting adventures for us to share together in the future!
Wow! I can’t believe that it’s been 2 weeks since the end of the Blog Hop. We are still getting all the winners organized, so please be patient with us. I promise, just as soon as all the winners have been notified and we have shipping information, then I can start getting prizes out to winners. It will probably be done in several stages, so hang in there if you have been notified that you are a winner. Thank you!
On another note, are you excited about next week’s eclipse on April 8th? Are you in a place to see it or are you traveling somewhere for viewing? I am very excited that NW Pennsylvania will be able to see it, so all I have to do is step outside and look up. Fingers crossed that it isn’t cloudy — that would be a total disappointment if we all can’t see it. Yes, I did finally get my eclipse-viewing glasses, so I’m all set now.
In celebration of this eclipse, I created my own version of Creative Sewlution’s Eclipses which was one of March’s new patterns. I had to hustle to get the top and photos done for today, but I did manage it. And, boy, am I glad I did — it is an amazing design and I can’t wait to show you how to put it all together!
Didn’t get your Eclipses pattern yet? You can find it HERE as a physical pattern OR you can find it HERE as a digital pattern.
But before we do (sorry about the teaser…), I have one more thing to talk about.
A Teeny Tiny Bit of Quilt Math
Have you ever looked at a big quilt and imagined it as a smaller size so you could use it on a wall? The Eclipses quilt finishes at 59″ x 75″, which is a throw quilt or a REALLY BIG wall quilt. I definitely do not have a big empty wall to hang a quilt of this size, but I really really wanted to make Eclipses.
So, what to do???
Why, I’ll make the quilt smaller so it fits my space! Brilliant!
Have you ever made a quilt smaller or larger than the pattern? There are lots of different ways to alter the size of a quilt, but I thought I’d tell you how I did it with Eclipses.
OH NO — IT’S MATH!!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!!! LOL!
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Teheheh…. You know how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE quilt math!
You can resize most simple quilt patterns by dividing each measurement by whatever fraction you want to make the quilt.
Let’s say I had a 60″ x 60″ quilt with 12″ blocks. No sashing, no borders. Just blocks. Why look, here it is!
Hmmm, that’s just too big. I want to make a nice little wall quilt exactly like the pattern, but half as big. So if the quilt pattern quilt finishes at 60″ x 60″, then I think cutting the dimensions in half to 30″ x 30″ would suit my needs.
So, here’s where the fun begins.
Time to divide all the measurements by 1/2. My 12″ blocks will now finish at 6″. I still need to make the same number of blocks, though, which is 25.
Our repeated block is actually a humble Shoofly block. Isn’t it interesting what happens when you put the blocks side by side without any sashing? Hmmmmmm. Something to play with another day.
There are a couple different ways to figure out the new cutting measurements to make the 6″ finished block.
Redraw the block on graph paper
Divide the original cutting measurements in half (for example a 4″ square would become a 2″ square)
I don’t usually use graph paper for designing. Most of the time I use a combination of #2 and #3. It also helps if you have some experience with quilt designing.
Shoofly is an easy one to resize, which is why I chose it for this illustration. Because it’s a Nine Patch block, we know that each of the 9 squares in the block will end up being the same size, so we will divide 6″ by 3 (3 squares across, 3 squares down) which equals 2″. Each “square” should finish at 2″. So, we will cut the squares at 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ (the 1/2″ is for the seam allowance, so the finished size of the square is 2″ x 2″).
Now what about the Half Square Triangle (HSTs) in each corner? They have to finish at 2″ x 2″ in order to fit properly into the 6″ finished quilt block.
Aha! You do need to know a little bit about quilt math here. Rule of thumb for HSTs is to add 7/8″ to the finished size (to make room for the seam allowance and cutting). So we’ll simply just add 7/8″ to our 2″ finished squares and we get a cutting measurement of 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″ for our HSTs. Not sure how to sew HSTs? Check out our 2023 Quilt Block Basics Series HERE. Some folks even like to cut their squares a bit larger and then trim them down to the correct size. Do likewise if you prefer.
Something to remember — not all quilts can easily be resized. Who wants to work with pieces that end up needing to be cut 3 5/22″ in size??? Definitely NOT me!
Now that I’ve totally confused you (sorry, not sorry), let’s do the tutorial for Eclipses — the method of construction is the same whether it’s full-sized or mini.
VRD Eclipses Quilt Tutorial
Here are my yummy fabrics for my Eclipses quilt — 1895 Watercolors from Hoffman Fabrics with an 885 Dot rich blue for the background. I love the Dot batik for the background because it actually has little pops of other colors to add lots of interest.
So let’s get started by cutting out all the pieces for the quilt. I do like to cut everything for the blocks before I sew. I save cutting borders until the end if a quilt has borders, though. That way, I don’t have to stop between steps and keep cutting the fabrics I need next. It saves time for me as well as keeping all my pieces organized.
First up is to add yellow/orange “flippy corners” to my grey rectangles. I draw a diagonal line from corner to opposite corner and SEW ON THE LINE. I really like to use my Frixion Pens for this step. I love to have a lot of different pen colors to use on different colors of fabrics — besides, lots of colors just makes me happy. Here, I’m using red.
Trim 1/4″ away from the sewn line. Then open and press.
But wait! We’re not done with our “flippy corner” yet! We’re going to add another, smaller “flippy corner” to our yellow/orange corner.
Uh oh! Now what? I won’t be able to see my red Frixion pen on the blue background. Sadly, there isn’t a white Frixion pen, so I use my trusty Bohn Chalk Pencil, which is white so it will show up on the dark blue background square.
Okay, layer that background square on the yellow/orange corner. Draw a diagonal line from corner to opposite corner and SEW ON THE LINE once again. Trim 1/4″ beyond the line. Then open and press.
Go ahead and repeat for the all of the large grey rectangles on 2 sides.
Moving on, we have MORE “flippy corners to do”. In fact, we have to add “flippy corners” to ALL of the rectangles. Add background corners to the yellow/orange rectangles and yellow/orange rectangles to the narrow grey ones.
Sew the 2 units above together into a block. Repeat for all the narrow rectangles.
Yay! Here’s my favorite part — slapping them up on the design wall and rearranging them until I like what I see. Make sure to follow the diagrams on the pattern so your blocks are lined up correctly. Don’t forget the sashing and side borders.
I like what I see — the orange is distributed nicely and adds a good pop of color. Let’s SEW! I am going to start with the left side of the quilt, but I am taking the left background sashing down until I’m ready for it in a few steps.
I’m going to sew the blocks bottom to top to make a vertical row (which might feel a little weird if you’re used to sewing horizontal rows). Don’t forget to press your row. (One thing I really like about working with batiks is that they press so crisply that I don’t need any pressing spray to flatten them, which saves a bit of time). I am going to go ahead and repeat this step with the right side blocks.
Now I’m going to sew the narrow background sashing strip between my vertical block rows. I’ll look one more time before I start pinning so that everything is lined up.
I like to make a crease in the center of my pieced strip and the sashing strip because it helps keeps things aligned. Then I match up the center creases and put in a pin. Next I pin the ends together and add a few pins in between the center pin and the end pins. This helps to distribute any fullness and make my pieces more plumb.
After pressing the seam towards the background sashing strip, I’m going make a center crease in the right side pieced strip. Then I’ll use those center creases again to line up the right side pieced vertical strip with the narrow background sashing strip. By lining up the center creases again, this will help to make sure both sides of the pieced strips are across from each other and not skewed.
In the photo below you can see how well my blocks are lining up by matching the center creases.
WOW! It’s coming together and starting to look like the cover quilt. Yippee!
Now let’s add wide background sashing strips to the left and the right of my quilt section. Again, crease and line up the centers.
Whew! First section of the quilt is done, now let’s repeat for the right half of the quilt.
Almost there……….now I’m going to sew the right section to the center wide background sashing, creasing those centers and matching them up so everything fits together nicely.
VOILA! Here is my wall quilt sized Eclipses quilt top. I wonder if I can get it finished by Monday the 8th?
I really like how it turned out! What do you think?
Well, that’s it for me this week. I hope you get to see the eclipse on Monday, April 8th. Here’s hoping the skies won’t be cloudy so we can all breathlessly witness time standing still for a moment.
I can’t believe that a week has passed since we began our second VRD Blog Hop. It’s been Sew Much Fun! And FAST, too!
Our participating bloggers have shared their VRD quilts, tips and tricks, and inspiration by the boatload — just what we all needed to help us jump-start a new fun project! You can visit Villa Rosa Designs HERE to see our catalog of over 600 Rose Card patterns for even more inspiration as well as kits and fabric galore.
Here’s the special VRD Rose Card collection curated for our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop:
Get your own Pattern Set HERE or you can comment on all the participating blogger sites to register to win your own set.
Interested in seeing the patterns we selected for our very first Blog Hop in 2023? You can see them HERE.
While we are still Hopping, let me show you one of my next blog tutorial projects. I am planning to make 31 with this brand new collection by Satin Moon Designs for Blank Quilting. The collection is called Holiday Style and it is coming to a quilt shop near you in May 2024, so start planning your projects now.
You’ll have to stop back to check out my 31 tutorial sometime after the Blog Hop is all wrapped up and all the prizes are shipped.
Hey! Did you know we do tutorials on this blog??? You can see which VRD patterns we’ve done so far by finding the Tutorials link under the Blog Topics category over on the right side of the blog. Want to see a tutorial for a specific VRD Rose Card pattern that we haven’t done yet? Just ask and we’ll see what we can do.
Bloggers and Sponsors
GROUP HUG! An enormous hug goes out to all of our 28 amazing bloggers for participating in the 2024 Blog Hop and showing us their own spin for the VRD Rose Card patterns above. Thank you, Bloggers, for taking the time to be part of the second VRD Blog Hop!
PSST!A quick reminder from the bloggers — if you posted a comment as “anonymous” and/or did not include an email address, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE revisit the blogs where you posted and leave another comment with a contact email address. Sadly, with no email address, there is no way to contact you if you win. Comments will close midnight on Sunday, March 24th.
Here is our Blog Hop Schedule again in case you missed any participating blogs or need to add last-minute comments:
NEWSFLASH! — There’s ONE MORE blogger surprise just for you! Our lovely sponsor, Hancock’s of Paducah, just created a blog to share their delight and excitement about Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card Patterns. You can stop over to cheer them on HERE. They aren’t able to accept comments at this time, but they know that you’ve been registering on all the other blogs for prizes. Enjoy one last stop….
And of course, need I mention all the prizes up for grabs??? See below for MORE PRIZES!
We couldn’t have done this Blog Hop without the support and generosity of our sponsors. Please join me in offering a round of applause for each of these lovely sponsors —
I’m bummed that our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop is wrapping up today. Sadly, all good things must come to an end sometime. And this Blog Hop really was a SUPER GOOD THING!
I really enjoyed reading each participating blogger’s post each day, didn’t you? I must confess that I read them over breakfast because I honestly couldn’t wait to see which quilt each blogger created! And I absolutely loved reading the comments on our VRD post as well as the comments on the other blogs. What fun!
THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to hop from blog to blog with us this past week. I hope you really enjoyed the Fast & More Fun Blog Hop with more quilts, more inspiration, and of course more prizes. And I hope that you discovered new quilty friend bloggers to visit on the ‘Net.
If you haven’t finished reading all 28 blog posts for the Hop and/or leaving comments on each to register for prizes, you have through Sunday, March 24th, to do so. Use the links above to visit each participating blogger to catch up on your reading and your prize entries.
Winners will be drawn next week and notified. Please be patient with us as we navigate the shipping process. And we will post all the winners just as soon as the winners are selected and prizes are shipped.
One Last VRD Fast & Fun Blog Hop Giveaway
Let’s review all the prizes that are up for grabs for our Blog Hop:
Everyone, Everywhere is eligible to win prizes and there are several opportunities for you to win prizes:
Individual bloggers may be hosting giveaways on their blogs for you to win. Please visit these bloggers to find out about their giveaways and how to register.
Villa Rosa Designs is giving away a 2024 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog (International card set winners will receive a digital collection of the patterns).
Sponsor prizes have been donated by our lovely Sponsors, above, and even from some of the bloggers, too! These prizes are divided into 2 different categories —
5 Grand Prizes — Yup, I added another one to the Grand Prize list!
Kaffe Fasset Precut Collection
Big Box filled with mystery quilty goodies
$100 digital gift certificate to Hancock’s of Paducah
Electric Quilt 8 Download (winner to be selected on the EQ blog HERE)
An Eversewn Sparrow 25 Sewing Machine from Jaftex (winner will be selected on Scott’s blog HERE) — this was a happy surprise addition to the Hop Prizes, so make sure you get registered
Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be precuts, books, notions, or other cool quilty goodies.
WOWZER! That’s a lot of chances to win prizes so I hope you comment on ALL the blogs to increase your chance of being a winner. No purchase is necessary to participate in the Blog Hop or to win prizes, but please make sure you leave your email address on your comment or else we can’t contact you if you are a winner
Now, how about ONE LAST GIVEAWAY???
3 MORE QUILTS!!!
Left: Jubilee 45″ x 60″
Middle: Kalinda 45″ x 54″
Right: Star Spangled 48″ x 60″
In addition to the 3 quilts above, we will be giving away a set of the Fast & More Fun Rose Card Patterns and 3 commenters will be added to the Grand Prize drawings.
Here’s how to win one of these finished quilts:
You have up to 3 chances to win the quilts listed above on this blog post. Please leave a single comment for EACH of these categories (if you comment that you loved the hop, you are a blog follower, and hang out at VRD on Facebook all in one comment, it will only count as one chance to win).
1. Leave a comment onthis post and tell us your thoughts about the VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop.
2. Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this post telling us that you are a blog follower/subscriber ( if you already follow — thank you — just leave a comment letting us know).
3. Join our VRD Facebook group and leave a comment on this post telling us you joined our FB group (if you are already a member — thank you — just leave a comment letting us know).
Ready! Set! GO!
Please note that to be registered to win any prizes on this blog, you first must leave a comment. To leave a comment, you will need to click on the comments link just under the blog title at the top of the blog OR you can find a comments link along the side of the blog post towards the bottom right. After you click the “comments” link, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the comments in order to find the space to leave your own comment. Be patient — there may be a lot of comments to go through until you get to the bottom.Thank you.
Don’t forget — registration for prizes closes Sunday, March 24th.
Winners will be selected randomly next week and will be announced once all winners have been contacted.
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESSIN YOUR COMMENTSO WE CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER!
Well, Quilty Friends, I thank you for hopping along with us this past week. I sincerely hope you had as much fun as we did! And I invite you to come back and visit the Villa Rosa Designs blog, Villa Rosa Quilts. We have SEW much fun here!
Let me rephrase that — Happy Blog Hop Kickoff Day to you!
Hi there! I’m Tricia, your Villa Rosa host for the Blog Hop. All of us at Villa Rosa Designs are tickled pink (and all the colors of the rainbow) that you are here to come along on a fun quilting adventure — our second Blog Hop here at Villa Rosa Designs. We’re calling it the Fast & MORE Fun Blog Hop.
You all know the saying — “Go big or go home?” We’re going B – I – G this year just for you! More Bloggers! More Fun! More Quilts! More Inspiration! More Prizes!
We have a super talented group of bloggers ready to share some awesome quilts made with Villa Rosa Designs (VRD) Rose Card patterns.
In fact, we’ve put together a special collection of 5 patterns just for this Blog Hop!
Here are the 5 patterns in the 2024 Fast & Fun Blog Hop Collection:
Lucky you! You can purchase a set of these 5 patterns HERE. Or visit our website HERE for even more great Rose Card patterns (over 600 of them).
Or you might just win a set. READ ON to find out how!
Villa Rosa Designs is the brainchild of owner and Rose Queen, Pat Fryer. Pat wanted to create Fast & Fun, affordable, and high quality patterns for quilters featuring precuts like 1/2 yards, fat quarters, 10″ squares, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, fat eighths, and fat sixths as well as other fabrics like panels and novelties.
Since its launch in 2010, VRD has become much more than a handful of easy-to-make quilt patterns. Rose Cards, Villa Rosa’s signature postcard-sized patterns, combine great design with simple packaging and an attractive price, making Rose Cards one of the best selling pattern brands on the market today! And since 2010, Villa Rosa Designs has grown to include a collection of very talented designers, each with their own unique style.
Now that you know a little bit about Villa Rosa Designs, let me tell you about the VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop!
What the Heck is a Blog Hop???
Good question and an easy one to explain. Most of you probably already know what a shop hop is (and may have participated in one before), where you travel to each shop participating in the event. There’s usually giveaways and a special pattern to collect at each shop.
A blog hop is very similar to a shop hop — instead of going from shop to shop, though, you go from blog to blog. You will usually find some kind of theme to a blog hop with opportunities to win prizes. And you can even hop from blog to blog in your jammies from the comfort of your own home. Yippee! Count me in!
Let’s HOP!
We’ve teamed up with the most awesome group of bloggers! They have accepted the Blog Hop challenge to create at least 1 of the 5 Blog Hop Rose Card patterns above. To see which blogger has created which pattern, you’ll have to visit EACH blogger during the hop which runs from today, March 14th through next Thursday, March 21st.
You will have the opportunity to win lots of great prizes during the blog hop! All you have to do is hop from blog to blog every day from March 14th through March 21st following the Blog Hop Schedule, above, to see which quilt each blogger made and to find out how to register for prizes on each blog.
Registration for prizes will close on Sunday, March 24th.
Before I jump into all the cool prizes you might win, I want to take a moment to thank all of our incredible sponsors, who donated all kinds of quilting goodies for you to win. Thank you Sponsors! Without you, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be possible.
It is free to participate in the Hop and there is no purchase necessary. Everyone Everywhere is invited to Hop along with us this week and register to win prizes.
There are many opportunities for you to win prizes during the blog hop:
Individual bloggers may be hosting giveaways on their blogs for you to win. Please visit individual blogs to find out about their giveaways and how to register.
Villa Rosa Designs is giving away a 2024 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog. International winners will win a digital set of patterns.
Sponsor prizes have been donated by our lovely Sponsors, above, and even from some of the bloggers, too! These prizes are divided into 2 different categories —
Grand Prizes (each blogger will select 3 entries to go into the Grand Prize drawings):
Kaffe Fasset Precut Collection
$100 digital Gift Certificate to Hancock’s of Paducah
A BIG BOX of mystery quilty goodies
An Electric Quilt 8 download — the winner for this prize will be selected on the EQ blog, so you will need to register there for this prize
Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be books, patterns, fat quarter bundles, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, 10″ squares, or notions — it will be a fun surprise, I promise!
WOW! That’s A LOT of prizes if you do the math!
Here are some photos of prizes to get you motivated! LOL!
Left: A Box filled with Individual Sponsor Prizes Center: The Kaffe Fasset Precut Collection Grand Prize Right: The Mystery Box of Goodies Grand Prize (most likely we’ll be adding more items before the Hop is over)
Sooooo, how do you win?
Hop from blog to blog using the schedule and links above from today, Thursday March 14th through Thursday March 21st and register for prizes at each blog you visit. The more participating blogs you visit and register at, the more chances you have to win prizes! It’s really that easy, I promise.
Winners will be selected randomly. Each blogger will select 3 names to go into the Grand Prize drawings and then 3 winners will be selected randomly to win from the bloggers’ entries. Each blogger will also randomly select 3 winners for the Sponsored Individual Prizes and 1 winner for a set of the Blog Hop patterns.
Prize registration closes Sunday, March 23 2024.
Winners will be announced just as soon as all winners have been notified. Prizes will be shipped as soon as possible. Please be patient if you are a prize winner, this process can take a little time.
Villa Rosa Designs Thursday March 14th Giveaway
Thank you for reading all the way through this post! As a reward, you can register to win QUILTS!
Left: Eden Rose 41×48 Center: Gingersnap 45×61 Right: Hey Day 60×80
These 3 quilts are made from Villa Rosa patterns and are completely finished — machine quilted and bound — and ready for you to enjoy. Awesome Applesauce!!!
Here’s how to win one of these quilts:
You have up to 3 chances to win the quilts listed above on this blog. Please do a separate comment for each of the following 3 opportunities — if you answer all of them in one comment, then it only counts as one comment. So sorry if this was not clear.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell us what your favorite Rose Card pattern is (or one you would like to make if you’re new to VRD).
2. Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this post telling us that you are a blog follower/subscriber (if you already subscribe — thank you — just leave a comment and let us know).
3. Join our VRD Facebook group and leave a comment on this post telling us you joined our FB group (if you are already a member of our FB group — thank you — just leave a comment and let us know).
In addition to the 3 quilts above, we will be giving away a set of the Fast & More Fun Rose Card Patterns and 3 commenters will be added to the Grand Prize drawings.
Please note that to be registered to win any prizes on this blog, you first must leave a comment. To leave a comment, you will need to click on the comments link just under the blog title at the top of the blog OR you can find a comments link along the side of the blog post towards the bottom right. After you click the “comments” link, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the comments in order to find the space to leave your own comment. Be patient — there may be a lot of comments to go through until you get to the bottom.Thank you.
Ready! Set! GO!
Don’t forget — registration for prizes closes Sunday, March 23rd.
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESSSO WE CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER!
Well, Quilty Friends, I thank you for reading the whole way to the end.
Good luck to each of you and please enjoy the Blog Hop! Don’t forget to stop back each day of the Hop to follow the links to bloggers for that day.
Aren’t they amazing??? I am so itching to make the Eclipses quilt by Creative Sewlutions before we have the Eclipse in April because I live in one of the viewing areas to see the total eclipse. Our local hotels are already booked up for the event.
Oh my gosh! I haven’t ordered my special viewing glasses yet. I’d better get on that, huh?
But wait — there’s more! Of course there is, right?
This month we have a cute new runner designed for your special fabrics you do not want to cut up.
We also have a snack mat this month perfect for those mugs of celebratory drink and green snacks on St. Patrick’s Day. Remember when I mentioned last year that in 2024, we’d be adding some new Accessory patterns? Well, here’s the first one. It’s super cute and quick to make up and you can use some of that St. Patrick’s Day fabric you’ve been hoarding.
Can’t wait to see your Shamrock Snack Mats on our Facebook group, so get ’em made and post those pics!
So…….which pattern are you going to make first? Me, definitely Eclipses. I know — let’s do that one as a tutorial after we wrap up the Blog Hop!
Now, let’s talk about the Blog Hop. You know, March 14th is next Thursday. Gulp! I just hope I’m ready. Are you ready? It’s going to be super amazing.
VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop
Are you getting excited??? The Villa Rosa Designs Fast & More Fun Blog Hop is literally just around the corner!!! It all starts right here next Thursday, March 14th!
Gather up all your quilty friends and family and join in on all the Blog Hop fun together! There are lots of prizes up for grabs, including quilt pattern sets, books, precuts from fat quarters to 5″ squares, and more.
This year, we also have 4 — count ’em — 4 very awesome Grand Prizes for you to register for on all of the Blogs. You’ll have to wait until March 14th to see them, though! Yep, I’m a tease…. (wink, wink)
Below, please find a list of our super fabulous Bloggers. Check them out and see what they’re all about.
Of course, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be possible without all of our fantastic super generous Blog Hop Sponsors. A great big THANK YOU HUG goes out to each of our Sponsors!
Mark your calendars for next Thursday’s Blog Hop kick off post — you won’t want to miss it. There are so so many prizes just waiting to be won. You just might be a winner. But you can’t win if you don’t join us on our Blog Hop adventure.
I’ll see you right here bright and early on March 14th for the kick off of our Fast & More Fun Blog Hop!
Mother Nature sure has been trying hard to confuse us up here in NW Pennsylvania! We’ve had temps in the 60’s! Can you believe it? I wouldn’t, except I’ve been reading the temp on the thermometer. Yesterday, I even had peepers (tree frogs) on my basement window in the rain. This is WAY too early for the little dears to be awake! I’m wondering what Mother Nature has in store for us in March and April. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have snow in June?!?
I’ve been on a quilting roll since my curated list of Spring VRD Rose Card patterns a couple weeks ago (you can find the post HERE if you missed it). So I wanted to do another tutorial this week. I reached into my magic project crate and pulled out Pacific Grove.
But first, let’s chat about the upcoming Blog Hop!
Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop March 14-21
Well, it’s now officially 2 weeks until our VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop, which kicks off right here on March 14th. I hope you’re getting excited about it.
Prizes keep coming in — it’s like Christmas around here! Except it’s not for me at all, instead — it’s ALL FOR YOU.
So far we have 2 AWESOME Grand Prizes lined up. Nope, I’m not going to show them to you yet. You’ll have to wait until March 14th for our Blog Hop kickoff post. Everything will be explained at that time, I promise.
We now have 26 bloggers participating in the Hop. And who knows? Maybe more if anyone comes late to the party.
Remember, the fun begins March 14th right here on the Villa Rosa blog. So make sure you stop by and hop along with us for the week.
Okay, now let’s get to the quilt tutorial!
VRD Pacific Grove Quilt Tutorial
I’ve been wanting a reason to make Pacific Grove for a while now. I’ve always thought the quilt on the cover of the pattern looked like a work of art. What do you think? Wouldn’t it look amazing framed and hung on a wall? On my wall???
Finally, today is the day to finally make my very own Pacific Grove work of art.
Get your own Pacific Grove physical pattern HERE or a digital pattern HERE.
Special thanks to Hoffman for providing the fabrics for this tutorial.
Before we get started, I do want to say that digital prints can be a little finicky so it’s important to start with a new sharp needle in your machine. If you use pins when you sew, make sure they’re sharp. Why? Because you don’t want to break any threads. Take a look at this photo. Do you see area inside the red circle? See the 2 broken threads? You don’t want this to happen to your quilt because it will probably be visible on the front, not just on the back. Lucky for me, this was in the seam allowance. Whew!
So, let’s get start by cutting the main print and the background fabric. I kind of don’t want to cut this lovely fabric up, but I know it will look fabulous in the Pacific Grove pattern.
Now that the pieces are cut and ready to sew, it’s time to assemble 2 side units. Easy piezy!
Next up is putting together the center of the quilt. I really like how this quilt is coming together into vertical rows. That makes it really simple to put together. And I’m not having to match up a bunch of seams. Yay!
Now that the sides and the center are made, I’m going to work on the purple background strips. Here you can see in the first photo how I creased the center of the side strip and the center of the sashing strip. Then I matched those creased centers and put a pin right there. After I found the centers, I went to the outside edges and lined them up. You’ll see in the second photo that not only do I place a vertical pin, I also place an horizontal pin . That horizontal pin helps to keep my strips straight instead of bowing as I sew (I learned this little trick a long time ago from a quilter friend when I was a new quilter). After the center and the outsides are pinned, I always add a few more pins in between to keep everything from shifting when I sew.
Yay! Here you can see the design taking shape now that I’ve sewed the purple strips to the sides of the quilt center.
Next I’m gong to sew the side units to the center. Again, I will crease and match my centers. I think it’s looking really lovely with these digital prints.
Time to add purple background strips to the sides. It has a bit of an Art Deco feel to it, doesn’t it? Or maybe a stained glass window?
Time to sew background strips to the top and bottom of the quilt. Isn’t it looking amazing???
The borders are next up. What’s cool about this pattern is that you add the top and bottom borders on first before the side borders. When I did the purple strips, I added the sides first. But it does make sense to do it this way because it uses the fabric more efficiently — you don’t have to piece the top and bottom borders if you add them first. Ingenious!
Here is the finished quilt top. It looks like an Art Deco stained glass window garden to me!
With so much open space, I’m just itching to starting machine quilting it, but that will have to wait for a while, I’m afraid.
Duet Quilt Tutorial Update
Last week I was debating whether to add a border or not to my Duet quilt top. Then I took a deep breath and just added that outer border. I chose a light batik because Duet felt a bit dark to me. The binding will frame it all nicely — it’s dark blue.
TWO WEEKS TO GO AND COUNTING DOWN……..until the Blog Hop. Get ready.
I hope you were as inspired as I was after seeing my curated Spring VRD Rose Card pattern list last week. If you missed the post, you can find it HERE. I was SEW inspired, that I used a new blog quilt tutorial as an excuse to make a pretty new quilt top. (Nah, you’re right — I didn’t really need an excuse. LOL!)
But, first, let’s talk a little bit about our upcoming VRD Blog Hop!
VRD Blog Hop March 14-21
Oh my gosh! The Hop is only weeks away. I hope I’m ready in time. Of course, I’ll be ready on time.
I thought I’d tell you a little bit about some of prizes that are coming in for the Hop from our awesome event Sponsors.
Here’s a glimpse of the goodies that have arrived so far! I can’t wait to send them off to the winners. Maybe you’ll be a winner this year. All you have to do is visit all of the blog posts each day to register for prizes! Lucky you! Yippee!
I am also happy to share that our International friends will have a lot more variety this year for prizes as several of our Sponsors are able to ship directly to you. I’m getting really excited about the Hop. I hope that you are too. Don’t forget to tell a friend…..or two about it (or everyone you know!) so they can Hop right along with you.
Be right here on March 14th for the kickoff to our week-long Blog Hop in celebration of Villa Rosa Designs and all of our bloggers and sponsors. Be here or be square (yeah, you knew I was going to say that.).
Okay, now let’s make a quilt!
VRD Duet Quilt Tutorial
After last week’s post, I just kept telling myself I had to do a new quilt tutorial for the blog. So I dove into my big magic crate of project kits and pulled out a Bali Pop to make Duet.
You can get your own physical Duet pattern HERE or a digital pattern HERE.
I’m really loving this Aurora Bali Pop for Duet. Isn’t it just so yummy with blue, green, teal, purple and all the shades in between. Special thanks to Hoffman for providing the fabric for this project.
Sadly, we don’t have the Aurora Bali Pop in stock at the VRD online shop, but we do have other great options you can use to make this quilt. You can check out our 2 1/2″ strip sets HERE.
Let’s get started!
The first thing I did was pair up my strips. You’d think it would be easy to do this — pair a dark with a light — but most strip sets do not have an equal number of each. So that meant I had to use the mediums as either a light paired with a dark or as a dark paired with a light. Here you can see my tangle of strips as I pair them up. And you can see my unique way of keeping my pairs together by stacking them at different angles. Sometimes I don’t know where my ideas come from. And I don’t really care as long as they work.
Happily, this strange stack did actually work and I took it to my sewing machine to sew my paired strips together. At the machine, right before I stitched each pair, I cut the strips in half. Or you could cut them in half after you sew them together. I chose to do it first because I really don’t enjoy sewing long strips together. Then I sewed and sewed using the assembly line approach until I had all the pairs sewn together. Check out my tangle of sewn strips in the second photo. Yikes!
Now that my strip pairs are all sewn together, it’s time to sew the 2 matching strip sets into a quartet. No, they really weren’t tied up in knots. I just started at one end and kept working my way through the assembly line, sewing one quartet together after another. Surprisingly, it was a pretty speedy process.
Woohoo! All those quartets are sewn and now I’m going to press the seams on each strip set going in the same direction. This will actually save me some time in a couple of steps.
I really love sewing with batiks. Now.
HOnestly, I’ve come late to the batik party, but I’m here now and that’s what counts. For a long time, my friends Mary Lee and Leslie, were always ooh-ing and awe-ing over the latest batiks while I was always like — okay, pretty fabric.
I’ve learned since then that batiks truly are a joy to sew with. They are smooth and supple, even crisp. And the colors — oh my goodness!
I have found that I do need a brand new needle when I’m sewing a batik project (yes, I know I should start every project with a brand new needle……). Batiks have a much tighter weave and a higher thread count than regular cottons. I have found that a used needle pokes holes in the fabric and may even break threads whereas a sharp needle kind of glides between the fibers. Food for thought……..
Let’s press!
Now all of my quartets are pressed, it’s time to cut the units. Do you stack your pieced strip units for cutting? I do, and here’s a technique I learned a long time ago — stagger the strips when you layer then so that seams are not sitting on top of each other. Cutting is a lot easier and more accurate when you are not trying to cut through a big lump of seams.
I stacked 4 quartets on top of each other when I cut the units. Then I just picked up the units from each quartet and stacked them together. It was kind of like dealing playing cards, in a way. Then I stacked up the units, keeping each quartet together. Easy piezy! Now back to the machine for more sewing!
Next I’m going to take 2 matching units and sew them end to end, making sure that the alternating fabrics are consistent. Then I will sew the second set of units exactly the same way as the first one.
Because I pressed all my seams in each quartet the same direction, sewing the units together is really easy as the seams matched up and nestled together (awwww! They’re so sweet!) when I layered them right sides together.
Quick! Sew, sew, sew!
Yay! Time to finish the blocks! I am going to sew the 2 units from the same quartet together side by side, flipping a unit so the 2 fabrics alternate completely throughout the block. 19 more to go….
Blocks all done! I’m going to press them one more time and then it’s time to do the block shuffle on my flannel board.
Okay, here’s my final block arrangement. The purples and the lights were a challenge to find a way to lay them out so everyone was happy. What do you think?
Back to the sewing machine to sew the blocks into rows and the rows together to make the quilt top.
I’m very pleased with how Duet turned out. I’m considering about adding a border to make it larger. Hmm, methinks I need to think about this a while longer….
Like a lot of our VRD patterns, Duet worked up quickly and I would say it’s probably a one day project to make the quilt top. It’s great to have some one day projects tucked away in your back pocket to pull out when you need a quilt in a hurry. I hope Duet will be one of them for you.
Well, that’s it for me today. One marathon quilt in a day is enough for me for now.
After our balmy winter weather last week, today I woke up to find snow on the ground. Not a lot, but enough to remind me that it is still winter. Then my mind immediately turned towards quilting for spring which always makes me feel sunny. So, I thought to myself, why not do a collection of spring VRD Rose Card patterns to get a dose of vitamin D along with a lot of inspiration? Maybe you need this little shot of sunshine right now, too.
Spring VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns
Below you will find a wonderful eclectic collection of Spring-inspired projects curated just for you. I have included a link beneath each image so you can easily grab new-to-you physical Rose Cards. As always, there is NO SHIPPING on patterns!
For our international friends, I am here is a link to our digital Rose Card collection, where you will find most of the patterns in a download and print format: Digital Patterns.
After all these glorious Spring-inspired Rose Card patterns, I’m ready to head to my machine and start making a little spring for myself here in my dungeon — er….sewing room.
How about you? Betcha can’t pick just one….
Have a great week and don’t forget about our upcoming Blog Hop March 14th-21st.
Get ready for a fantastic time. Oh yeah — there will be prizes, too!
Here in NW PA, things are looking like spring! Punxatawney Phil (the Groundhog) did not see his shadow on February 2nd, which (hopefully) means an early spring. I started seeing some signs of spring even before Groundhog Day — on January 31st, I saw a groundhog awake and out of its hole. Next we started seeing some of our spring birds returning — starlings and bluebirds. We haven’t seen any robins in our yard yet, but other folks in our area have already seen them. Yes, we’ll probably see more snow before spring is completely sprung, but in the meantime I will enjoy winter days filled with sun and warmer temperatures.
Of course, true to living in NW PA, we did have a few weeks of very cold and snowy weather, but right now, we are enjoying the lack of snow and the sunshine with daytime temperatures in the 40’s with a few 50’s thrown in just to tease us. I hope you are just as fortunate as I am in the weather department right now. With all the sun, though, I am wanting to be outside to enjoy it, not down in my dungeon studio/office. Oh, the conundrums of nice weather……
On another note, do you know what day it is today??? It’s the first Thursday after the first Friday of the month which means NEW VRD Rose Card Patterns for February!
NEW VRD February Rose Card Patterns
YAY! Who doesn’t love NEW PATTERNS? Especially new patterns EVERY MONTH? And we’ve got some great new ones just for you this month, including several from our new designers Rachelle Handmade and Creative Sewlutions.
You can grab your set of February Rose Cards HERE for the special price of $8.95.
We also have 2 — count ’em — 2 table runners this month! One from Rachelle Handmade and one from yours truly.
What a great collection of patterns, don’t you think? Lots of variety AND different styles to appeal to just about every quilter. Which one are you going to make first this month?
Quilts of Valor National Sewing Day
As I mentioned last week, I had signed up to attend my local QOV group, PA Stitcher’s of Valor’s National Sew Day event. Our event was actually 2 days, Friday and Saturday, instead of just Saturday. This meant we could get even more sewing in. But with 2 days of sewing, I still didn’t get my project completely finished. I should have looked over the pattern a little bit more and pre-made my almost 200 Half Square Triangles (HSTs) before the actual sew days. Then I probably could have gotten my project finished. Hey, I was just pleased that I got all the pieces cut out. And I did get the 12 blocks sewn together, so now all I have to do is sew the blocks together and add the 2 borders.
I pretty much spent the first day just making HSTs. My cuz and pal, Robin and I switched projects for a while that first day because her machine was giving her some issues and she was having a hard time sewing her blocks together (Yes, Robin made her quilt blocks ahead of time. Good thinking, Robin!). So she worked on my HSTs while I sewed her blocks together. Group effort, definitely! Robin’s top was finished the first sewing day.
Here’s Robin’s top. Very patriotic, isn’t it?
OH NO! I think I switched blocks in the upper right corner….do you think it looks weird???
Here I am with my “cuz crew” — Kim (left front), Lisa (left back), and Robin (right back) laughing and sewing the day away! I am the person on the right in the front — you know, the one with all the mess. LOL! That’s just how I roll, I guess.
Here’s Kim sewing her big HSTs while Lisa is reading her pattern.
Here I am (front) with Robin (back) sewing happily along while we chat and laugh. You can see my cute little gnome sewing buddy on the table beside my machine. Notice my mess isn’t too bad as this was taken on the first day and the photo above was from Saturday (insert eye roll here).
We had a total of 60 quilters in 2 locations over 2 day! Some of the sewers were able to get a project finished, or brought ones to donate that they had already finished. Here are some of the gorgeous quilts and tops turned in over the weekend.
Hats off to Collene, our fearless leader for PA Stitchers, who organized such an amazing sewing event! Lunch was donated both days and there was plenty of snacks to keep us going at full speed. One of the things I loved the best about the event was lending a hand to each other when we needed some help. It wasn’t a race and there was always time to take a break and wander around, seeing what each other were working on. I am smiling while I think about the experience. I look forward to doing it again soon.
Our local PA Stitchers group meets once a month to work on quilts for QOV. Such a worthy cause — I’m so glad I have skills that can help others. Please contact your local QOV group and get involved — there are so many veterans and active military personnel who need to be covered by a special quilt. So get involved!
And don’t forget to grab your own set of our brand new 12 Quilts of Valor collection HERE. These 12 quilts will give a lot of different options for making your Quilts of Valor quilts, including multiple options for your patriotic panels! All the patterns fit the size requirements for a QOV quilt and a portion of the sales will be donated to the QOVF.
Well, I think that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed the quilt photos from our National Sew Day weekend for QOV. Don’t forget to find your local organization and get involved.
I hope you are all staying warm and cozy, holed up in your sewing room making beautiful quilts! I am happy to say that I’ve been able to get some quilting in since the beginning of the year and thought I’d share a fun tutorial for a terrific small quilt, perfect as a baby quilt.
But before I get started with the actual tutorial, let me share a little bit about one of my favorite things about my job in the quilt industry. I actually wear many hats (don’t we all?) and one of the coolest ones is making sample quilts for fabric companies. Recently I whipped up this adorable Corners quilt featuring the Love and Learning collection by Hoffman. It’s a really sweet collection featuring a charming alphabet panel in your choice of light or dark background. I saw that darling collection and immediately thought it would look great in Molly Cook’s Corners Rose Card pattern.
Here is what the quilt looked like as a digital image before I actually made it:
Don’t you just love it? Yes, it has a little bit of pink in it, but don’t you think it would work for a boy or a girl? I do!
Anyway, I made a sample of this quilt for Hoffman and as I made it, I photographed the steps so I could create a new tutorial for the blog just for you, our loyal readers.
Do you have Molly’s Corners pattern yet? If not, you can get it as a physical pattern HERE or as a digital pattern HERE.
Let’s get started on our first quilt tutorial for 2024! Yay!
VRD Corners Quilt Tutorial
So the first thing you need to do is gather up your fabrics and your pattern. The first image shows the alphabet panel, the second image is the background and coordinates, and the last photo shows the binding, backing, and accent fabrics. Oh what fun!
After you’ve got your supplies together, then it’s time to cut each alphabet letter out of the panel one at a time. I don’t know if you can see in the first photo above, but each letter includes an item that begins with the specific letter as well as the item’s name.
Time to cut! I used a square ruler the size of the square called for in the pattern (or at least I thought I was). That way all I had to do was center each design and cut around all four sides of the ruler. Unfortunately the letters in the last row of the panel were wider than the rest and I ended up having to cut some of the designs a bit, but made sure the letter was not cut off.
OOPS! Then I realized my ruler wasn’t the right size. Luckily it was a bit bigger, so I could trim those squares down to the correct size.
Whew! Done with trimming down 26 squares. That took me a little while. Make sure you cut your squares to the correct size the first time!
Moving on……….
Next it’s time cut a bunch of strips and sew them together before we cut the units for the half frames. Sewing long strips together is not one of my personal favorite things to do. What’s your least favorite part of quilting?
Okay, the strips are sewn into pairs with a background strip sewn to a colored strip. Next let’s cut all of the units out of the strip sets. To create the corner unit for the block, you will have to sew a rectangle to the squares as in the second photo.
All right, now the hard part — to achieve the same layout as Molly’s sample quilt on the front of the pattern (see above), we will be making 4 versions of the same block.
For most of you, this won’t seem like a big deal, but there will be a few quilters who have trouble getting the right block orientation. Well, I am included in this group, definitely. Blame it on being a lefty for me.
I strongly urge you to use some kind of flannel board. Make one block at a time and place them in their proper order on your flannel board so you can more easily see the orientation of each block as you sew them together.
I did try sewing a group of blocks together using my usual speed sewing method, but that ended up being a disaster. I had to do a lot of ripping out and rearranging the pieces of my blocks. So, after that, I made one block at a time.
Once I had all my blocks up on my flannel board and double checked their orientation, I started sewing the blocks into rows and then sewed the rows together into the quilt center. I was holding my breath the whole time………
Once I knew I had conquered the center, it was time to add borders. I added the side borders first and then sewed the top and bottom borders on last.
Woohoo! The top is done! Time to layer, machine quilt, do binding, and add a label. Oh! My last thing to do will be shipping the quilt to where it needs to go. It will come back eventually…………
Have you made the Corners quilt before? Do you have any tips to share?
Update on Decluttering
Before I go, I wanted to give a little update on my decluttering project. I started with my cutting table first. Lately it’s been more of a storage surface than a cutting surface.
Holy moly! I found several groupings of fabrics paired with patterns as well as yardage and stacks of fat quarters. Some loose patterns, too. Ugh! Now I have to put the fabrics away and figure out where to house the projects. Decisions, decisions! This is why I avoid decluttering — I have way too much stuff and not enough space.
I need to start pulling stuff out I don’t love anymore and finding it all new homes. Time to start purging my stash or I will never ever find an organization system that works for me because you can only stack so many plastic crates. Well, I’m going to keep plugging away, so stop in next week to see what else I’ve accomplished.
Villa Rosa Quilts 