quick quilt | Needle and Foot

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.

You know how you set something aside for so long and then somehow your mind decides it is going to take forever to finish it and you don’t want to so you just leave it there? Yeah, me too. Last fall I pieced a cute strip quilt using a focus print from Pandalicious. I had yardage in the shop and thought it would be fun to make one and then make up some kits for others to make it.

So I made up the quilt top and got it basted. I started to free motion quilt each of the strips and all was going well. When I got to the large section of pandas in the middle, my tension got screwed up. Of course I didn’t know this and just kept going because the top side looked fine. Ugh. When I saw the back, I knew it all had to be unpicked.

Onward I went and got all the messy stitching ripped out. By then I developed some serious dislike of the project and set it aside? Why do this? It wasn’t the quilt’s fault. But I did anyway. Folded it up and put it on top of a pile of fabric.

This week I thought it was time to finish it. Of course, by now, the fabric is gone and I can’t make any kits. Sigh. Quilting the remaining sections (the pandas in the middle and both of the black and white sections on top and bottom) took no time at all. Like an afternoon of playing at the machine and it was done. So after sitting there for 9 months or so, it is done!

I attached the binding with machine stitching on front and back. It is adorable! I quilted the top and bottom sections with a meandering motif of interlocking squares. I am not sure what was going on, but there are some little tension issues on the back side. Not enough that I am going to fix it though. I suspect after being washed, it will all work out.

I did a very loose meander over the middle section going around the pandas. They are such happy little guys!

I took the photos in the early evening so the sun was creating lots of shadows. But no matter, just look at how happy this little quilt is. What should I do with this one? I will likely donate it. It will be fun for some child to snuggle under.

Why does the color look so strange in this one?

Happy to cross this off the UFO list and wish I had done it long ago. Makes me happy to get it finished up.

Anyone have anything fun planned for the weekend? Hahaha…. sorry to be so ridiculous! I feel like each day (weekend or not) is so much the same due to the quarantine. Our town is loosening up just a bit but we are still very careful. So it will be the usual. Taking walks, a little bit of gardening, shipping orders and sewing, sewing, sewing!

Want to leave you with a smile. Isn’t this just a classic fun-in-the-bathtub picture?? This girl makes me laugh all the time. She is such a joyous kiddo. Enjoy the day everyone!!

Linking to Brag About Your Beauties and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! Go check them out to see lots of fun projects.