Hello There Friends!
Welcome to you, both old and new friends!
I'm sew glad that you are here. Today is my day on the 2024 VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop and I'm thrilled to be part of the 2nd Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop.
If you've come for the prizes -- I'm happy to tell you that you will be able to register for prizes at the bottom of this post. But before I give you all the prize info, please read on and enjoy my post celebrating Villa Rosa Designs.
A Little Bit About Me
If you've already recognized the writing style, you're not imagining things -- I am also the blog writer over at the Villa Rosa Designs (VRD) blog, Villa Rosa Quilts. Yep, it's me Tricia @ VRD. LOL!
I
met Pat Fryer, the owner and Rose Queen at VRD when I attended my very
first Fall Quilt Market in 2010 (which, incidentally, was Pat's second
Quilt Market promoting her new company, Villa Rosa Designs -- kismet, I
think) in order to promote my first quilting book, Orphan Block Quilts.
Sheesh! 2010 -- that seems like ages ago now. Pat and I met up at every Market I attended after that and in 2017, I became part of the VRD family of designers. Mostly I design the table runner patterns, but I also create patterns for baby quilts, throws, large quilts, and some smaller accessory patterns, too. You can check out all my VRD Rose Card patterns HERE.
In 2021, I started a new life-changing position working for VRD as a virtual assistant -- virtual because we are located on opposite sides of the US -- Pat and VRD in California and me here in Pennsylvania. Writing the weekly VRD blog, Villa Rosa Quilts, is just one of the fun and cool things I get to do. I also write patterns, do graphics, work closely with fabric companies for cross-promotional purposes, and whatever else I can do to help Pat and VRD. BEST. JOB. EVER.
VRD Fast & More Fun Blog Hop
Now that you know a little bit about me, let me tell you all about the Blog Hop. I hope you are having fun hopping from blog to blog to see all of these amazing quilts, meet the cool quilt bloggers, and to register for awesome prizes which were donated just for you by our wonderful sponsors (see below).
Today is Day 5 on the Hop, so if you haven't visited blogs for the first 4 days, here's the schedule so you can. Go for it -- the more blogs you visit and register for at, the more chances you have to win.
Blog Hop Schedule:
Thursday, March 14
Villa Rosa Quilts — https://villarosaquilts.com/
Friday, March 15
Kathleen McMusings — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
The Morning Latte — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
Homesewn By Us — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
Pieceful Thoughts — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
C & T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/
Saturday March 16 — National Quilting Day!
Needle and Foot — https://needleandfoot.com/
MMM Quilts — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
Texas Quilt Gal — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
Time 4 Stitchn — http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
SIY (Sew It Yourself) — https://blog.siysewityourself.com/
Sunday, March 17 — Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Quarter Inch Capers — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
Norton House Quilting — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
Quilting Gail — https://quiltinggail.com/
Wazoo! Newsbits — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 18
With Strings Attached — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
Jaftex/Scott Fortunoff — https://scottfortunoff.com/
Cocoa Quilts — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/
Quilt With a View — http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)
Tuesday, March 19
Shout 4 Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
The Darling Dogwood — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
Something Rosemade — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
Quilts of Valor Foundation — https://www.qovf.org/
Wednesday, March 20 — First Day of Spring!
Grace and Peace Quilting — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
Happy Cottage Quilter — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Joyfully Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
Patchouli Moon Studio — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
Electric Quilt Company — https://doyoueq.com/blog/
Thursday, March 21
Villa Rosa Quilts — villarosaquilts.com
The VRd Blog Hop couldn't even happen without the amazing support from our sponsors. Thank you Sponsors!
https://hoffmancaliforniafabrics.net
https://www.northcott.com/home.aspx
https://www.hancocks-paducah.com
https://foxchapelpublishing.com
I am honored that 2 of my Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card patterns made it into the 5 patterns selected for the Hop: Clover and Twinkle. Did you know that you can purchase a set of the Blog Hop patterns??? You can go HERE to get your own set. Or maybe you'll win a set....
Okay, now that we've got all that out of the way, wanna see my quilt???
Twinkle, My Blog Hop Quilt
When I designed Twinkle in 2019, I was torn about what fabrics and colors I should choose. I decided to use a white background and some fun bright 5" squares. It turned out really fun and flirty so I went with it.
In the back of my mind, though, I always wondered what it would look like with a black background.
Fast forward 5 years and I decided to answer that "what if" question for my Blog Hop post by creating a brand new Twinkle quilt featuring a solid black background paired with a great selection of 5" squares of Batiks.
I am really pleased with how it turned out! The Batiks shimmer and really pop on the black background, don't they?
When I went outside to photograph the Twinkle top (not Toes -- LOL!), it was really nasty -- the temperature dropped, it was very windy, and then snowflakes were swirling around as I was trying to catch a quick photo when the wind stopped blowing for a second. Just one teeny second was all I needed. It took me several tries as you can see below in my "windy" photos, but I finally managed to get a decent photo.
What was really cool while I was taking photos is that way up high soaring on the wind was our neighborhood eagle! Sure I was freezing, but it never fails to take my breath away to see our eagle (or eagles, last year we had 4 -- 2 parents and 2 youngsters), no matter how many times I see him/her (not sure which one it was today). I hope we get eaglets again this year!
Here are my "windy" photos. Seriously, I wouldn't have gone outside today to do photography if I hadn't wanted to get a good clean image for my blog post. If I hadn't gone outside, though, I wouldn't have seen the eagle soaring on the wind up above. Simply beautiful....
Maybe you noticed that I didn't add a border....yet. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do about the border. It needs something, but I'm not sure exactly what.
I will say I was really inspired by Cheree over at The Morning Latte last Friday with her gorgeous pieced border for her version of Gypsy, so maybe I will go that route. I just don't know. What do you think? Aha! I think this question will be my question for the prizes, below. I am SEW open to ideas!
Now, how about some PRIZES??!!
Blog Hop GIVEAWAYS
I know you've all been waiting for this! Here's your reward for reading all the way down my blog post -- thank you!
1) 1 set of the Blog Hop patterns, donated by Villa Rosa Designs (each blogger will give away a set)
2) 3 chances at 3 of the Grand Prizes (you will need to register to win the EQ8 download on the Electric Quilt blog, beginning on Wednesday, March 20th) donated by our rockin' Blog Hop Sponsors
(each blogger will choose 3 people to go into the Grand Prize drawings)
3) 3 Individual Sponsored Prizes (each blogger will choose 3 winners)
But wait! There's more!
I'm adding some fun prizes to give away here on my blog too!
4) A signed copy of my first book, Orphan Block Quilts
5) A mystery set of my Villa Rosa Designs Rose Card patterns
You have up to 2 chances to win the above prizes here on my blog! International Friends are welcome to register for prizes, too, as some of the Sponsors are able to ship internationally. Winners will be randomly selected following the Blog Hop. Winners will be announced after all winners have been contacted.
Here's what you need to do to be registered for prizes here on my blog:
1) Leave a comment on this blog post and tell me what you think I should do for borders on my Twinkle quilt.
2) Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this blog post telling me you are a follower/subscriber (if you are already a subscriber/follower -- thank you -- please leave a comment letting me know). PSST! The Blue "Follow" button is at the bottom of the Followers box on the top right side of the blog. You can also Subscribe with Netblogs, My Yahoo!, and Atom. I think I'm on Bloglovin, too.
Please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win! If there isn't an email address, I will move on to the next commenter.
Remember, you have until Sunday, March 24th to leave a comment to register for the prizes above.
That's it! Really! Easy Peasy!
Good luck to each and every one of you!
Enjoy the Hop (socks are optional)!
Best,
Tricia
P.S. Please stop back soon to see what I'm up to....