Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the hop! I am Sandra of mmmquilts, which came about from the original name of my blog which I started in 2013, Musings of a Menopausal Melon. It was started when I quit teaching because my husband took early retirement, and I was certainly not going to work if he wasn't. Along with that major decision we made a major move across Canada, and the blog (I love to write) became my way of keeping in touch with family and friends afar as I mused about our new direction in life, life in general, and quilting, which led to a whole new journey in and of itself! When quilting became the predominant subject of the blog, I shortened the name to mmmquilts, all one word, lower case. I also design patterns, which have appeared in several publications, and you can also find them in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts. On April 3, my eighth annual Quilt Along begins, running through June 15 at a nice relaxed pace. This year it is once again free to participants, with some great prizes to be won.

I was thrilled to be invited to participate for the second year of this hop which showcases five fast and fun quilts to make. The one I chose came together from start to finish within a few hours!

Rufus, my quilt model

This design is named Gypsy Rose, but I’ve named my quilt Around the Block for a couple of reasons. Read on for that explanation, as well as to enter for your chance to win some truly fantastic prizes, many of which are open to quilters around the globe this year.

Villa Rosa Designs, or VRD as they are commonly known, is, in Tricia’s words, (she is our wonderful blog hop host and author of the VRD blog) “The brainchild of owner and Rose Queen, Pat Fryer. Pat wanted to create fast and fun, affordable, and high-quality patterns for quilters featuring pre-cuts.… Rose Cards, VRD’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.” Tricia let us quilt-bloggers know that Pat is affectionately known as the Rose Queen because she absolutely adores roses, which led to naming her new business venture in 2010. For many years, her patterns were named for roses, which is why they are known as Rose Cards. In fact, if you look at a rose card pattern, you will see a rose in the top right corner of the cover. That is the specific rose for which the pattern is named. Cool right? However, to be clear and transparent, Pat advised us that she now realizes, 14 years after designing this pattern, the term gypsy is considered a racial slur and so she will be renaming it. I think it is so important to be constantly educating ourselves so as to be respectful of all humans. 

Here are this year's five featured patterns:

You can purchase these five patterns for just US$8.95 here. There are also lots of chances to win the set as well, one on each of the 26, I believe, bloggers, as well as at VRD's blog itself, and on a few quilt business sites!

Last year I made 'The Art of Riding Thermals' which was a spin on Tricia’s Snow Goose runner design. 

 

This year I chose to stay with the original design and size, a baby quilt. This design makes great use of just half of a layer cake, 20 squares. I have a few, not many, but a few layer cakes sitting around so I took a look. I’ve made three quilts with Amanda Jean’s Good Neighbors line, and had eighteen 10” squares in my layer cakes stack. Into the leftover stash I went. Did I have any other pieces? Yup! I found a few more fat quarter and less sized chunks so I knew I could do this quilt in these happy fabrics. Better yet, I’d use them up which has been my mission now regarding my stash for the past few years. It went so fast I don't have a lot of progress photos!

In a little over one hour I had the fabrics pressed, cut, and on the design wall.

Sewing them together took about an hour. Since I was determined to use up as much of the line as possible, I built the backing with a couple of fat, quarters and extra chunks, one of which is from a friend’s baby quilt I made several years ago. The colours and amount I had left worked perfectly.

It is no secret that I love Hobbs Batting. I had two chunks of their Tuscany Collection cotton/wool left over that were the perfect size to 'Frankenbatt'. May I just say how much I love this blend? Soft, drapes well, warmth, ahhh. A large flowing meander on Avril, my longarm, using Essential cotton in lime green had the quilt quilted in half an hour from loading to finished. 

When I was looking for extra pieces in my stash, I had found just enough of the grey stripe in the line that I knew I’d use for binding. And let me just say that it was just enough: I had to join the final ends with a straight rather than a mitred seam!

Here it is being blocked on the design wall:

So where did my Around the Block name come from? If you look carefully, the centre block is a four-patch, two green and two grey blocks. The rectangles go around that block. The other meaning to the name comes from the fabric line name, Good Neighbors. Good neighbours make for a happy block, and I am blessed to have many on mine IRL.

And here is the back. I remembered my satin label😊

This quilt will be one of my Hands2Help quilts. If you aren’t familiar with this long-running comfort quilt drive in May, hop over to Sarah’s blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict for details.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Gypsy Rose by Villa Rosa Designs

Size: 36”x 45"
Fabric: scraps and stash

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Collection Cotton Wool Blend 80/20

Backing: Stash and scraps

Quilted: on Avril 22 869 stitches

Threads: pieced on my Bernina with Isacord polyester; quilted with Essential cotton #21162 Lime

Now for prizes!

They are substantial!

Using the Random Number Generator, I will be drawing three names to go into the Grand Prize drawing. There are four grand prizes: an EQ8 download, a Kaffe Fassett Precut Selection, a $100 virtual gift card to Hancock's of Paducah, and a BIG box of mystery quilt goodies.

And I will be drawing three more names for entry into draws for individual prizes. These consist of precuts, patterns, books, notions, and more. Loads of opportunities to win, as you can see.

Lastly I will be drawing one name who will win the set of five fast and fun Rose Cards. 

I also am going to choose one winner from comments below who will get a SandraJaneQuilts pattern of their choice. Don’t worry; if you win my pattern prize you could still have been one of the other names drawn as I will draw from the total of commenters. 

How do you enter for all these prizes?

Leave a comment telling me your favourite spring thing—sight, smell, sound, activity…

*If you are a no-reply or Anonymous, please include your email writing ‘at’ for @ and ‘dot’ for within your comment. I will have to pick someone else if I have no email. Be sure to answer the question because if you don't I will choose someone who did! 😇 

Extra comments and duplicates will be deleted. 

Well I guess I should tell you my favourite spring thing, shouldn’t I?! I cannot choose just one so here are just a few several: lighter mornings, brilliant bird songs, seeing my first robin, the smell of rich wet earth and damp grass, snowdrops, softer air, buds, flower shoots, …. Okay I will stop there!

Here is the list of all participating bloggers and websites. Be sure to visit and comment on all the posts to increase your chances of winning one of the many prizes. Prize registration closes March 23 on all blogs.

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 (Valerie) -- https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16
1. Bernie Kringle -- https://needleandfoot.com/
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://siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17
1. Carolyn -- https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
2. Emily (Norton House) -- https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
3. Gail Sheppard -- 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. QOVF (Lexie) -- https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20
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 21
villarosaquilts.com

The prizewinners have been notified and will be posted here once they respond to my email! Thank you to all those who left such kind and thoughtful comments. I read every one!