Tag Archives: blog hop

Villa Rosa Blog Hop

It is time for the second annual Villa Rosa Designs blog hop! When this got started last year, I was very happy to participate and this year is no different. For a little bit of background, Villa Rosa Designs is located in Grass Valley, CA. This, as you may or may not know, is where I lived for almost 30 years. The owner, Pat Fryer, is a creative force and her shop carries gorgeous fabrics. In addition, she has a HUGE number of postcard size patterns for sale. You may have seen these in your local quilt shops. They are usually patterns that come together quickly, often using pre-cuts. Having produced over 600 patterns in the history of VRD, there are many to choose from. The VRD on-line shop is wonderful! Shoppers will find patterns and fabrics, quilt kits to go with the patterns and often times a fantastic sale section (for the bargain hunters out there).

This year, the bloggers on the hop were given a set of five patterns to choose from. I chose to use the Ebb Tide pattern.

I decided to make a quilt to donate to Project Linus and had some cute fire truck fabric the build around. This pattern allows for the fabric to be seen in large blocks which is perfect for a child’s quilt.

Here is a progress shot. I had the blocks (simple squares and rectangles) cut out as well as most of the sashing. I kept the fire trucks front and center as the focal point. The two squares of yellow add a vibrant pop to the quilt!

The simplicity of this pattern meant it went together extremely fast. This allowed me time to practice some free motion quilting on it!

The loops and circles are free hand. The straight lines and angles were done using a ruler.

The backing probably took more time to piece than the top! It was great to use up lots of pieces from my stash and I really wanted to include as much of the firetruck yardage as I could. I have very little left of that fabric.

This simple pattern was fun to put together. It made a super cute child’s quilt and were it used with a cool large scale fabric it would look wonderful. For collectors of Kaffe Fassett or Anna Maria Horner fabrics, this would be an excellent choice. I could also see this pattern used for chopping up sections of a panel. So many options here!

Thank you to Villa Rosa Designs for inviting me to take part in this fun blog hop. I think VRD patterns are a lot of fun and look forward to seeing the quilts made by the others involved in the hop. Tricia, coordinator of the hop, has lined up an incredible selection of prizes! The generosity of the sponsors of this event is amazing.

To be included for prizes for the event be sure to leave an email address so we know how to contact you if you win. Registration for the prizes closes on Sunday, March 24th.

From the comments on this post, I will select names to win a prize or to be entered into the Grand Prize Drawing. One person will win a set of the blog hop pattern cards (see photo above). The other names will be sent to Villa Rosa Designs to be entered to win one of many prizes. If you would like to be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment telling me if you have ever used a Villa Rosa pattern card. Does your local quilt shop carry them? Have you shopped on their website? I would love to hear of your experience with this company. If you are an international reader, please do let me know. Some of the sponsors are able to ship internationally and some are not.

Again, enjoy the hop. Go check out the other bloggers and see which pattern(s) they have made. I plan to do the same!

Blog Hop Schedule:

Thursday, March 14
https://villarosaquilts.com/

Friday, March 15
1. Kathleen McCormick — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
2. Cheree H — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
3. Roseanne Nelson — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
4. Wendy Tuma — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
5. C&T Publisher (Valerie) — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16
1. Bernie Kringel — You are here!
2. Sandra Walker — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
3. Linda — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
4. Debbie Huber – http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
5. SIY (Branyn/Jennifer) – https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17
1. Carolyn — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
2. Emily (Norton House) — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
3. Gail Shepperd — https://quiltinggail.com/
4. Susan Slaton — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18
1. Nann Hilyard — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
2. Jaftex (Jennifer) — https://scottfortunoff.com/
3. Jan Altomare — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/
4. Tricia – http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19
1. Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
2. Emily Leachman — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
3. Vicki S — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
4. Rose Mikulski — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
5. Quilts of Valor (Lexie) — https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20th
1. Nancy — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
2. Jocelyn — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
3. Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
4. Daryl Perry — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
5. Electric Quilt (Diane) — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21st
Tricia villarosaquilts.com

Villa Rosa has planned for a terrific set of prizes to be given away! You will not want to miss out on these opportunities! Check out the list of sponsors:

Hoffman Fabrics — https://hoffmancaliforniafabrics.net/
Moda Fabrics— https://modafabrics.com/
Timeless Treasures — https://www.ttfabrics.com/
Jaftex — https://jaftex.com/
Electric Quilt — https://electricquilt.com/
Banyan Batiks/Northcott — https://www.northcott.com/home.aspx
Benartex — https://benartex.com/
Hancock’s of Paducah — https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/
Fox Chapel/Landauer — https://foxchapelpublishing.com/
C&T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/
P&B Textiles — https://www.pbtex.com/

This event has been sponsored by so many wonderful companies!

Thank you Sponsors! Without you, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be possible.

Villa Rosa Designs Fast & Fun Blog Hop

Welcome to Needle and Foot! If you are visiting everyone in the VRD Fast & Fun hop and are new to my site, thanks for popping in. Feel free to take a look around. Like what I am writing about? Maybe you’d like to subscribe (remember I never share emails with anyone else). Today it is my turn to share what I made with a Villa Rosa pattern card for the VRD blog hop.

You are likely already familiar with this company, owned by Pat Fryer, but just in case here is a bit of background information taken from the VRD website.

“Villa Rosa Designs (VRD) was created by Pat Fryer, Owner and Rose Queen, with the idea to provide quick and easy affordable quality fun-to-make quilt patterns for quilters featuring popular quilting fabric cuts.

Since its launch in 2010, VRD has become much more than a handful of 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 in the country”.

The fun part for me in all of this is to promote a business located in my old home town of Grass Valley, California. Pat has a fabric store there and also travels to shows all over the country promoting Villa Rosa’s quick and easy patterns. She has several designers working for her and over 500 patterns in the Villa Rosa collection. (You can see them here). Her website also features lots and lots of gorgeous fabric.

This is the packet of five patterns used in the blog hop. When I looked at the selection of patterns we were to choose from, I decided to make S’Witched. Recently I have been focusing on using up fabric I have and this pattern works well for larger squares of bold fabric. Some years ago, I had cut into a collection of fabric called Garden Bright, by Sue Penn. Life happened and these squares were put into a project bag and shelved. I really like this collection and wanted to use some of it for my S’Witched quilt. The pattern calls for 10″ squares (a layer cake) but my squares were already cut at nine inches. VRD patterns are super flexible though so it worked just fine to change things up a bit.

Because shades of green are my all time favorite, I am super happy with this finish! The lighter backgrounds are from my stash. The really pale background is left over from a wide back I used on a different quilt. Wide back fabric is such a great deal – no piecing the back and there is (almost) always a nice chunk left over for another project. The light green is a cute polka dot from who knows where? I certainly don’t remember! Because my squares were smaller than the pattern called for, I added a border to add some size to the quilt.

I did end up piecing this backing. This has been mentioned many times lately, but I am really trying to use what I have. No matter how much I take from the shelves and bins, there is more to be used! I can happily say that every bit of this quilt came from my stash. This includes the batting which I joined from several large leftover pieces in my tub.

I quilted a lazy run of daisies along the border. For the bigger squares, I tried quilting curves, sort of like orange peels. They look ok but the blocks I quilted with these are actually rectangular and stretching that curve was sort of awkward for some reason. So while I am reasonably happy with it, I don’t love it. Know what I mean?

Labeling didn’t really happen. I have a fat quarter of Made with Love fabric and hand stitched a bit of it to the back. If it is donated, that will be enough. If it is given as a gift, I can add a bigger label or replace this little bit.

This pattern is very quick to come together. It is a four patch block which is cut into three pieces. Then stitched back together with the opposite portion next to the narrow center stripe. It would actually be fun to make with charm squares too.

Fabulous Prizes!!

When this hop was put together I was told there would be a giveaway. To me, this meant sets of the pattern cards or something similar. But Tricia, the marketing manager for Villa Rosa, went nuts and procured tons of fun prizes from some very generous sponsors! We invite everyone to enter to win. If your name is selected and you are from outside the US, you will receive a PDF collection of the pattern cards.

Villa Rosa Designs is giving away a 2023 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog.
Sponsor prizes have been donated by our lovely sponsors, and even from some of the bloggers, too! These prizes are divided into 2 different categories —
- Grand Prize Boxes (of which there are 2) are filled with tons of quilting goodies including books, fabric, precuts, notions, patterns, and more.
- 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, notions, and more.

There are many ways to enter to win. Visit all of the bloggers (see list below) in the hop and follow along with us. To enter here at Needle & Foot, please leave a comment sharing your favorite pre-cut. All of the VRD patterns start with a pre-cut. Of course you can always cut your own if you don’t have the right size. Or you could adjust the size of your blocks as I did with my quilt. Comments on this post will close on January 29, 2023. Prize winners will be announced soon after! (Usually I respond to comments but I am betting there will be lots of them. So this time I am just going to thank you now instead of responding to each one. I hope you understand.)

01/19/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Where it all begins
01/20/23 Friday	From Bolt to Beauty Kathleen McMusing Jaftex Companies
01/21/23 Saturday	Pieceful Thoughts Little Penguin Quilts
01/22/23 Sunday	Quilt with a View MMM Quilts
01/23/23 Monday	Cheryl’s Teapots 2 Quilting Devoted Quilter Quilts of Valor Foundation
01/24/23 Tuesday	Needle and Foot – That’s me!!!! Am I Shouting Yet? Electric Quilt
01/25/23 Wednesday	The Crafty Quilter Jo’s Country Junction Keepsake Quilting Stitchin At Home
01/26/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Blog Hop Wrap Up

Thank you so much for coming by – I hope you will try out some of the Villa Rosa patterns. They are inexpensive and super fun to sew. Also, if you head over to VRD’s website, there is a great selection of kits to be purchased as well as a fantastic group of sale fabrics! Hope you will enjoy the rest of the hop.

Update – Comments are now closed. Thank you for participating in the hop!

Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop

28 Replies

Just popping in to let everyone know the Fast and Fun blog hop begins tomorrow! This hop celebrates the patterns created at Villa Rosa Designs. VRD patterns are sold in lovely postcard formats and promote quick and simple quilts. Often graphic and modern in design, these can be used for wall quilts, baby quilts and lap size quilts. They are easily expanded by making more blocks and adding borders if you choose to.

The line up of bloggers promoting these patterns is shown below. Be sure to visit each one for loads of inspiration as well as the chance to enter and win some very generous prizes.

01/19/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Where it all begins
01/20/23 Friday	From Bolt to Beauty Kathleen McMusing Jaftex Companies
01/21/23 Saturday	Pieceful Thoughts Little Penguin Quilts
01/22/23 Sunday	Quilt with a View MMM Quilts
01/23/23 Monday	Cheryl’s Teapots 2 Quilting Devoted Quilter Quilts of Valor Foundation
01/24/23 Tuesday	Needle and Foot Am I Shouting Yet? Electric Quilt
01/25/23 Wednesday	The Crafty Quilter Jo’s Country Junction Keepsake Quilting Stitchin At Home
01/26/23 Thursday	Villa Rosa Quilts — Blog Hop Wrap Up

Check out the sponsors of this event!! Villa Rosa has really put together a great event. You won’t want to miss this!

Come back to this post and start visiting the various blogs tomorrow! I will be sharing my pattern and the quilt I made on Tuesday of next week. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have even seen a sneak peek already. Just a hint there…. 🙂

Making Connections; Quilting Book Review & Bloghop

92 Replies

About two weeks ago, I was contacted by C&T Publishing asking if I would provide a review of one of their newest quilting books. Always up for learning something new or reading pretty much anything about quilting, I was happy to help.

The author, Dorie Hruska, is a long arm quilter, mom, and blogger. She has her website, Forever Quilting, set up as both her blog and her professional site for her long arm business. I really enjoyed looking at her gallery to see the work she has done for others. Her quilting style is lovely with many intricate patterns.

The book, Making Connections, is all about free motion and long arm quilting. The goalof the book is to help the quilter choose a motif or pattern for the quilt and then to set a travel path up for moving around the quilt in the most efficient manner, with the least amount of starts and stops possible. This is really appealing to me. Like many of you, I struggle with how to quilt something once that quilt top is done.

Reading this book through, I noticed two things that I really liked. It is written as a workbook with very clear illustrations and directions. The practice builds in complexity as the reader learns the steps. Also, there are lots of grids printed in the book to draw on. The grids are bigger than graph paper but not quite big enough. When I practiced, I copied the page and enlarged it on our printer. Finally, the book is printed in landscape orientation, not portrait. This makes it much easier to use as you don’t have the binding on the left side making it awkward to draw.

I took away a few really helpful ideas from Dorie’s book:

Doodle the design before quilting. I know this, we all know this, but it helps so much! There is such muscle memory in free motion quilting and by drawing it several times over, that routine settles into our brain before we begin quilting.
While doodling the design and then while quilting, think, or say, the pattern you are moving in to keep you on track. For example, Up, Down, Over, Up, Down, Over – or whatever works. When Dorie maps out a path in the book, she sets this up for the quilter. As a beginner quilter at best, this was pretty helpful. Seems so simple, but that little mantra was kinda cool. 🙂
Don’t try to quilt the whole design in one pass. Dorie layers the design so you might do one pass, the come back and add a layer to add another detail. I get this and think, eventually, it will be helpful to me. I am not quite there yet. Some of the designs she illustrates for the reader are quite complex. She does use different colors so you know which pass you are working on each time. Also, she numbers the path so you can see what direction she is taking you in. This is quite helpful.

Note the complexity of the design, stitched in several passes.

The method used in this book is based on grids. The perfect example is basic patchwork, or nine patch blocks, where there is an obvious grid. The more experienced quilter would be able to apply it to more complicated blocks.

I didn’t have a quilt top on hand that would work for this so I didn’t actually quilt anything. I did do some drawing to get that path ingrained into my brain though. After drawing a bit, I made a quilt sandwich with some scraps of fabric and batting. I drew a 3″ grid on it to practice. Once I got going, my sewing machine gave me fits. So, I had to quit and I took the machine in for service. I have been putting it off and now it was sending me very clear messages that it wasn’t going to perform well! But ugly as the stitching was, the idea worked – I knew how to move along the design without getting stuck in a corner somewhere. This methodology requires planning though. It isn’t one where you move freely around on the quilt top, filling in sections as you go along.

If I were asked, I would tell the readers this is probably a book for an intermediate quilter. I think I could follow it for the basic design and travel flow but I don’t think, as a beginner, I could layer the designs and achieve a nice result.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and think it is a valuable resource for my library. As I continue to practice, this will be very helpful. Dorie and C& T Publishing have generously provided a book for me to giveaway to a lucky reader. If the winner lives in the US, a hard copy will be sent. For winners outside of the US, an Ebook will be provided. For those of you that want to go ahead and purchase the book, it is available through C&T Pubs or directly from Dorie’s website (she will send an autographed copy!)

To enter to win, please leave a comment on this post. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you are welcome to leave a 2nd comment for another entry. Sign up for my newsletter (which is sent out every month) for another entry. (Sign up form is at the top of the page on the right side.) That is three possible chances to win!!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

For even more chances, please visit the other bloggers involved in this hop. Lots of gorgeous quilting has been done to display all this book offers. Go check it out! Here is the schedule:

BLOG HOP SCHEDULE

Friday September 1st

C&T Publishing Blog; @ctpublishing on Instagram

Monday September 4th

Holly Anne Knight Blog; @stringandstory on Instagram

Susan Arnold Blog; @quiltfabrication on Instagram

Tuesday September 5th

Becca Fenstermaker Blog; @prettypiney on Instagram

Teri Lucas Blog; @genqmag on Instagram

Wednesday September 6th

Sherry Shish Blog; @poweredbyquilting on Instagram

Pam Morgan Blog; @sweetlittlestitches on Instagram

Thursday September 7th

Katy S Blog; @katyquilts on Instagram

Laura Piland Blog; @sliceofpiquilts on Instagram

Friday September 8th

Suzy Webster Blog; @websterquilt on Instagram

Bernie Kringel Blog; @needleandfoot on Instagram — You’re here!!!

Monday September 11th

Jamie Mueller Blog; @sunflower_quilt on Instagram

Nancy Scott Blog; @masterpiecequilting on Instagram

Tuesday September 12th

Sherri Noel Blog; @rebeccamaedesigns on Instagram

Anorina Morris Blog; @sameliasmum on Instagram

Wednesday September 13th

Yvonne Fuchs Blog; @quiltingjetgirl on Instagram

Barbie Mills Blog; @thequiltingmill on Instagram

Thursday September 14th

Afton Warrick Blog; @quiltingmod on Instagram

Kathy Bruckman Blog; @kathyskwiltsandmore on Instagram

Friday September 15th

Susan Arnold Blog; @quiltfabrication on Instagram

Dorie Hruska Blog; @foreverquilting on Instagram

2015 New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop

73 Replies

This week marks the first of four weeks that will be spent introducing a number of wonderful quilt blogs! In earlier posts, I mentioned that I am taking part in the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. There are about 70 of us in the group and for the past several weeks we have been working together to learn more about blogging and to help each other to improve our blogs. If you have come to Needle and Foot for the first time, via the Blog Hop, welcome!!

First, a bit of background.

I am one lucky person. Married to an amazing guy and mom to four kiddos, I live in the Sierra Foothills in Northern California. We have a bit more than three acres which allows us space for a large vegetable garden (which we couldn’t plant this year due to the wretched drought in California) as well as a coop for six hens. Three of my kids (the boys) are adults and are off living all over the country. My daughter is still at home and will enter high school in the fall.

I have been sewing for over 40 years now (which looks so strange when I see it in print!!) Growing up I sewed many of my clothes and when I became a mom, I sewed clothes for my kids. I started quilting when I was 17. I made three quilts over the next three years and then didn’t make another one until 2012. (If you want to read about the first quilt I made, here is a post.) When I retired from a career in Human Resources in 2012, I suddenly had time to devote to sewing again.The quilting bug (obssession, passion, craze, addiction – call it what you will) bit me hard and I have made a number of quilts over the past few years. If I were to try to describe my style, I would say that while I enjoy almost any type of quilt, I have a propensity to the modern. I love large blocky patterns – I don’t often make a very fussy block. I have always quilted all of my own pieces. It feels right to me that I make my quilt from start to finish. (I have only quilted one queen size and one full size piece, usually I make lap size or mini’s.) I use either straight line or free motion quilting depending on the project. My FMQ is absolutely a work in progress – it is challenging and requires tons of practice. With each project it improves a bit more.

This is my sewing space. Totally as it is – no cleaning or organizing before pictures! I sew on a Janome 6500P and also have an older Janome that is a little workhorse. I love them both.

Here are a few of my favorite projects:

This lap size quilt was made for my amazing daughter-in-law for her birthday. I love the pattern and it was one of the first times I used solids for the bulk of a project.

Naomi’s Birthday Quilt
February, 2014

The quilt below was made for my daughter. I love it because it is the first time I took on a large FMQ project. I had no idea what I was getting into and quilted this without knowing I had to drop the feed dogs for FMQ – I fought the quilt and the machine the entire time. I remember thinking this is so dang hard, why would anyone want to do this for pleasure. See all of that pebbling and all of those spirals? No free motion there, just an amazing amount of tugging and moving. It was nuts. I’ve learned a bit since then!

Julia’s Quilt
October, 2013

This final quilt was made for my sister. I love simple patchwork quilts! This is a lap size quilt with a huge heart pieced into the lower right corner. I love the texture of the matchstick quilting on the heart.

Patti’s Heart Quilt; March 2015

Though my quilting projects are often leaning toward modern, I have an unstoppable passion for anything vintage. I especially like two eras. I love the fabrics from the 1930’s through 1950’s. I recently acquired quite a collection and you can find more information on that here and here. In addition, I collect vintage linens, usually from the 1970’s. There is quite the stash of these in my sewing room now. I have lots of fat quarters listed in my Etsy shop if you are interested in vintage sheets. There is also a smallish collection of vintage patterns listed in the shop.

Here is a simple blogging tip for you: Take your time with each post! Last June when I started this blog, I was learning as fast as I could by reading other blogs and trying to figure out what worked best for me. Over the year, I learned so much. Something that really helps the quality of my writing is to write ahead of time. As much as my schedule allows me, I try to sketch out a post and then come back to it in a day or so. When I come back and edit the post I will invariably find typos or phrasing that isn’t as clean as I would like. It helps hugely to look at the post multiple times. I don’t mean spending hours pouring over it. Rather, I write it, save it and read through it at another time. If I write in a hurry and publish, there will be errors. If I can let it sit for a day and come back to it, I will usually catch a few typos. Also, I can improve phrasing or move pictures around that don’t look just right. That second reading improves the post almost every time.

Finally, three fascinating and compelling facts about me that you are probably dying to know.

1. My favorite vacation I have taken was my honeymoon in 1998. We went to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. It was breathtakingly gorgeous.

2. My husband and I dated all of six weeks before he proposed. We were married five months later. While I do not recommend this as common practice, we were lucky and are happily married 17 years now. To my children, when they bring this up (usually to give me a hard time about it), I always say, “do as I say, not as I do!” (Which happens to be excellent parenting advice!)

3. I am lucky enough to be the fourth daughter in a family of six girls. My sisters are my dearest friends and you can read about them here, here and here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you want to follow me it is easy – you can enter your email address at the top of the page or click on the Bloglovin button (with the plus sign in the middle) and add me to your feed. This blog hop is a wonderful opportunity to meet a host of new bloggers. In the hop with me this week are three other terrific quilt bloggers. Hop on over and check them out!