Welcome to the Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop!

Hello There Friends! 

Welcome to you, both old and new friends!  I'm sew glad that you are here.

I'm thrilled to be part of the very first Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop. 

                        

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. 

                                                      
 

Yikes!  2010 -- that seems like ages ago now.  Pat and I met up at every Market I attended after that until 2017, when 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, and even a few large quilts.  You can check out my VRD Rose Card patterns HERE.

Then in 2021, I started a new life-changing position working for VRD as a virtual assistant -- we are located on opposite coasts of the US.  Writing the weekly VRD blog, Villa Rosa Quilts, is just one of the fun and cool things I get to do.  I also get to write patterns, do graphics, and work closely with fabric companies for cross-promotional purposes.  Yay!  Best job ever!

The Villa Rosa Designs Fast & Fun Blog Hop

Now that you know a little bit about me, let me tell you all about the Blog Hop.  By now, you've seen many quilts made by the awesome bloggers participating in this Hop using Rose Card patterns in the Blog Hop Collection.

 Here is our Blog Hop Schedule:

01/19/23 Thursday

Villa Rosa Quilts — Today, 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 mmmquilts

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

I hope you're keeping up because there are quilts to see and prizes to win!   Villa Rosa Designs created a special collection of Rose Card patterns and asked each participating blogger to make one of the 5 patterns.  You'll have to hop from blog to blog to see which quilt each blogger created!  And while you're there, stay a while and look around.  Don't forget to leave a comment and register for prizes!

Here are the Rose Card patterns included in the Blog Hop collection.  You can purchase all 5 of the patterns at the special price of $8.95 HERE.

I'm honored that my pattern, Snow Goose, was chosen as part of the Fast & Fun Blog Hop Collection!  

I thought I'd share more about this pattern with you for the VRD Fats & Fun Blog Hop.

Snow Goose, My VRD Rose Card Pattern

I was inspired to create this table runner because I love watching the gaggles of geese fly over and it makes me smile to hear them honking at each other.  I can just imagine what they're saying to each other -- LOL!  

When I'm outside and they're overhead, I stop and watch, because I think geese are simply amazing -- they fly hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles and even from way up there, they know where they're going. And they return to the same areas year after year.  Wow!  Nature is fascinating, isn't it?

 

Image by wirestock on Freepik

When I learned a new way of making Flying Geese using the flippy corner method with strips, I knew I just had to design a project and after some tweaking, Snow Goose was born.  I dipped into my stash of blue batiks for the wings and a solid white for the bodies.  And I just love how it turned out.  You can never go wrong with a blue and white quilt, no matter how many blues you use.

Snow Goose is a great project to use up leftover strips from other projects.  Of course, you can use fat quarters, too, and make several runners out of the same group of fabrics.  You could also make this runner into a larger quilt, see below.

Here are some photos I took of my Snow Goose runner:

After I make a project for a Rose Card pattern, I take many photos of the quilt and then choose the one I like the best for the cover of the pattern.  Since I'm not a great photographer, I prefer taking my quilt photos outside in natural light.  

Winter photos can be a little more difficult, though, due to grey days and sometimes lots of snow, so occasionally I have to be a little more creative about finding an indoor space to take photos.  I lucked out with Snow Goose and was able to get out between snow storms to grab these photos.

My mom (Hi Mom!) actually chose this photo over the others above and it became the cover of the Rose Card pattern.

 Now, let's play a little bit! 

What happens when you switch the lights and darks in Snow Goose?

 

What if you use bright fabrics with black?  

 

Or maybe a scrappy Christmas Goose?

What if you make 25 blocks (5 blocks across by 5 blocks down) to make a 50" x 50" quilt?  I'm thinking it needs a blue border, what do you think?

 

 

 

Yes, a 3" finished border (making this quilt 56" square) adds a nice frame effect to the geese, keeping them from escaping the edges of the quilt.  Tehehehe.......

 

The ability to adapt, expand, modify, and even shrink down Villa Rosa Rose Card patterns is just one of the things I love best about VRD patterns.  Of course, they are always FAST & FUN to make!

Blog Hop GIVEAWAYS

I know you've been waiting for this!  Here's your reward for reading all the way down my blog post.

Thanks to the Blog Hop Sponsors -- 

Moda, Hoffman, Electric Quilt, Creative Grids, Timeless Treasures,  The Gypsy Quilter, Quilts of Valor, Annie's, and Banyan Batiks

We have some awesome prizes up for grabs!

1)  1 set of the Blog Hop patterns, donated by Villa Rosa Designs (each blogger will give away a set)

2)  2  chances at the Grand Prize Boxes filled with lots of quilting goodies donated by the Blog Hop Sponsors and even some of the bloggers (each blogger will choose 2 people to go into the Grand Prize Boxes drawing)

3)  3 Individual Sponsored Prizes (each blogger will choose 3 winners)

And I'm adding some fun prizes to give away here on my blog too!

4)  2 packs of a selection of VRD table runner Rose Cards

5)  2 packs of a selection of my VRD quilt Rose Cards

6)  1 signed copy of my latest book, Blue Moon Block of the Month Quilt Planner

 

7)  1 signed copy of my book Orphan Block Quilts

 

                                                    
 

 

8)  1 signed copy of my book A Russian Journey in Quilts, which is out of print now

 

                                                         

9)  1 signed copy of my book I Love Precut Quilts!

 

 

 You have up to 2 chances to win the above prizes here on my blog!  

All you have to do is:

 1)  Leave a comment on this blog and tell me how you would change or adapt the Snow Goose pattern.

2)  Become a blog follower/subscriber and leave a comment on this blog telling me you are a follower/subscriber 

 Please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win! 

Remember, you have until Sunday, January 29th 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!  

Until next time --

Tricia, AKA The Orphan Quilter