Monday, March 18, 2024

Fast and More Fun blog hop with Villa Rosa Designs

It's here, it's here, the Villa Rosa Designs blog that is.  I am thrilled it is my day to show you what I made for the Fast and More Fun blog hop.  Welcome to my blog, I'm Vicki and I love to quilt.  My first quilt I ever made was when I was 20 and getting my own apartment. Crafting and quilting has been in my blood, handed down from my parents. I have done numerous craft shows over 35 years. In 2017 I started my Etsy shop, which you can find HERE where I sell my table runners and quilts.  Also I have a pattern shop on Etsy, PatternsbyVicki.  Now back to what you are here for...the blog hop!


When I was asked if I would like to participate this year I couldn't answer fast enough, YES, of course!!  First blog hops are so fun, but add in the Villa Rosa Designs that really ramps it up!  Have you ever tried their patterns?  They are printed on Rose cards the size of a post card. And at only $2 each you can try a bunch of them. You can also get them as a .pdf too. These are the five patterns we could choose from for this hop.  You can purchase them HERE if you like or enter into the drawing for a chance to win, info below. 

The Clover table runner is the one I chose to whip up.  And when I say whip up I mean it is really a quick make that has a stunning finish.  I didn't have access to my long arm right now so I wasn't able to quilt it up, that will happen next month.  This measures 17"x 56".

As I mentioned this is very quick since there is very little cutting.  While sewing it I used my little clippies to help line up the seams. 


These are the fabrics I used. But just think of all the possibilities of seasonal fabrics for this runner! 


 Or how about using it as a bed runner. You could easily increase it's length by adding another set of blocks.


But wait I have one more project to show you.  I made this quilt a while back and it happens to be one of the five patterns that Villa Rosa picked for us bloggers to make for the hop. So I thought I would include it also. This pattern is Ebb Tide. Another quick and easy make using fat quarters and a background fabric. This one measures 47"x 61".


I had fun custom quilting this one.


 Thank you Villa Rosa for great patterns and for asking me to participate!! Thank you to all the sponsors who are donating prizes too!

There are 28 participating bloggers, I hope you will hop over and leave them some comment love on their day.  At each blog you can sign up to be in the drawing for prizes and let me tell you the prizes are amazing and there are a lot of them!!  To enter leave me a comment below and be sure to add your email so we can notify you if you win. If there is no email I won't be able to track you down:)  One of our bloggers says she is getting a lot of anonymous commenters, we can't respond to those so please please leave your email so we can email you if you win!  And we also try to respond to each and every comment, but if you are anonymous we can't!  You don't have to follow my blog but I would love it if you did!! Registration for the prizes closes on Sunday March 24th.

You can find more information about Villa Rosa Designs and the hop on their blog.

Thursday, March 14th

Friday, March 15th

  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 16th

  1. Bernie Kringle -- https://needleandfoot.com/
  2. Sandra Walker -- https://www.mmmquilts.com/
  3. Linda -- https://www.homesewnbyus.com
  4. Debbie Huber – http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
  5. SIY (Branyn/Jennifer)  – https://siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17th

  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 18th

  1.  Nann Hilyard – http://withstingsattached.blogspot.com
  2. Jaftex (Jennifer) -- https://scottfortunoff.com/
  3. Jan Altomare --  https://www.cocoaquilts.com/ 
  4. Tricia – http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19th

  1. Joy -- https://www.cocoaquilts.com/
  2. Emily Leachman -- http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
  3. Vicki S -- https://knitbug2.blogspot.com You are here!
  4. Rose Mikulski -- https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
  5. QOVF (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

https://villarosaquilts.com

Monday, March 11, 2024

New project

Fellow blog friend Sara has been whipping up the cutest project bags and it tempted me to let my inner squirrel out and make them also.


I found a freebie pattern from Center Street Quilts for Moda.  It uses clear vinyl for the lower front. I want to find a good source for cute zipper pulls.  For the purple fabric on either side of the zipper I fused Craft Fuse to the fabric before I sewed them to the zipper. This made them nice and crisp feeling and I felt like the zipper installation was easier too. 


It measures 12"x 12".  


So perfect for all those hand projects, cross stitch, knitting, embroidery or how about holding toiletries for those trips you might be taking. I might be making a few more of these as they are fun to make.  Have you made any project bags? 


Want to check out what everyone else has been doing? Head over to these linky parties to find out.

Don't forget the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop starting in just a few days, March 14th.  With 28 bloggers participating and fantastic prizes you'll want to hop along for sure!  My day is March 19th. 





Monday, March 4, 2024

Table scraps

How is it that we got into March already!  Ok I know, day by day, LOL. But seriously the time has flown by so fast already this year, before long it will be summer.  Well in my creative mind I am thinking ahead to summer at least and making a project for the Table Scraps challenge at The Joyful Quilter. The color for February was red and the theme was hearts. I didn't have the right fabric with me for hearts so I settled for just using red. I'll get to the red in a minute;) but first we have some blue and white, lots of flying geese units.


That turned into partial star blocks. 


And when sewn together with stripes of red and white you get a bunch of these, see I told you I would get to red in a minute, LOL. 


I have four identical patriotic table runners for the Table Scraps challenge that have red in them! Here is just one so you can see the whole runner.


I see the color for March is Purple and the theme is Birds, what will we whip up this month. 

And don't forget the fun Villa Rosa Blog hop is coming March 14 and there are 28 bloggers participating. You don't want to miss out all the inspiration and prizes, lots of them! 


Here are some deals at Accuquilt--- Thru March 17th MARCH MACHINE MADNESS -- 25% off select GO! Qube Products (Use Code: SAVEQUBE)

These are affiliate links. 



Wednesday, February 7, 2024

A new tripple zipper bag

Well what do we do on a rainy day, well sew/quilt of course!!  I really needed a new little bag/pouch to carry my phone, keys, chapstick, a few dollars etc.  This free pattern/tutorial from A Quilter's Table was perfect for that the first time I made it so I went for it again. 


Looking back for a blog post when I made the first one it reminded me I wanted mine one inch longer and wider than her pattern. For some reason that day I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the process. It's not hard but I guess I had other things on my mind that took up my brain cells, LOL.



Sometimes it's good to try something a little different. So I decided to put binding on the raw edges instead of having them shown on the lining of the bag. Thus it looks even wider. Not sure I like that size so the binding might come off yet. I think I could have the raw edges inside and do the binding on them in there. Or I could do like before and serge the edges inside. We'll see.  I haven't added a strap yet to make it into a cross body bag like my first one.



The back.



The inside of the main bag. 

Saturday, February 3, 2024

A Blog Hop is coming

 A Villa Rosa blog hop is happening in March. I am tickled to be included! I'll be secretly sewing away soon:)  I think my project will center around this charm pack. 


Tune in for lots of fun! Villa Rosa pattern cards are simple, quick, yet effective designs. I have done several over the years.  Another great feature is that their patterns are only $2, either get a hard copy in the mail or a digital copy so you can whip one up in short order.


Friday, February 2, 2024

Getting back to blogging

 Hello, hello my fellow quilting peeps. While I have really enjoyed my blogging break it's time to get back to posting. Even though I wasn't writing posts I have been keeping busy.  


Many red scraps have been used in making strawberry blocks, four done so far. 


Next up was getting out the gold scraps and cutting many 2.5" squares and some HST's in golds and greens too.  The strawberry and pineapple blocks were all cut with Accuquilt dies from the 8" cube.  Speaking of Accuquilt, I have been accepted for another year as a Go! Getter. I am excited to see what is ahead for this year. 


Also on the agenda has been a little sock knitting in the evenings.  The gray marl Kroy sock yarn was a bit boring so I decided to jazz it up a bit with a variegated purple/blue. It's also a Kroy yarn but it is a different weight but it still worked for the heel, stripes and toe.  I am currently working on the foot of the second one. 
While I did try to read a few blogs here and there I mostly stayed unplugged. I would love to hear what you have been working on!  Tune in Saturday for an announcement!

As an affiliate of Accuquilt they let me know the current sales. 

All month long are MARKDOWNS -- Save up to 65% on select items for a limited time so check those out and see you need want any of them:)

Thursday, December 21, 2023

A brown Christmas

It's going to be a brown Christmas this year as we don't have any snow, we might get rain instead. So unusual for us, but loving the little warmer temps near or in the 40's. Are you having a white Christmas or not this year? 


Earlier this week I decided I needed another little hand project for night time TV watching. So I pulled another easy one from Melissa's blog. She is so generous with her cute designs. I love that they are small and easy to do. This one is called Winter Tree Sampler.

I have been kitting up some table runners for future piecing time. That way when I have a few minutes to sew I can just pull one of them and get busy. Do you ever do that?  I would show you the stack I have but it's pretty boring. So instead I will show you a donation quilt I pieced last week. It's a Villa Rosa pattern called Cinnamon Stix. So quick, easy and a fun result. Have you ever bought any Villa Rosa patterns? They are only $2.00 each, such a good price.  While I love getting their hard copy, I went with a PDF so I could get it right away! 


I pulled a border fabric and some fun prints and sewed it right up! I did have to change up the border a bit as I didn't have quite enough to do it the way of the pattern. 


I am so thankful for those of you that follow my blog, read it and leave me some comment love! Right now I am feeling the need to have a little blog break, so I decided to take the month of January off starting with this post.  I'll still be checking out your blogs from time to time.  

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  





Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Snowman projects

Last weekend I had a bit of free time so I decided to put the finishing touches on these three little cross stitch pieces. They had been stitched in the last couple years, once the stitching was all done I put them aside. The plan was to make them into little bowl fillers.  


But as you see that plan morphed into something else!  A little garland to hang on my entry way quilt hanger sounded like a better idea as I have lots of snowman items to sit about here and there. 


After trimming to the correct size, I turned the raw edges to the back and hot glued them onto a piece of foam core board. 


Gluing a piece of felt to the back to make it neater, adding a bow and a little piece of trim to the outside edges they were ready to be strung together with jute twine.


Another Snow Dudes table runner was needed.


I used a new to me fabric for this one. With tiny white dots all over it kinda mimics snow. 



Lots of Accuquilt sales still happening. 









Friday, December 1, 2023

Winter Cross Stitch Snowman

 Okay fellow bloggers how in the world did it get to be December already!!! Doesn't seem possible does it.  But let the Holiday decorating begin!


As you might remember last Sunday my slow stitching was a little snowman cross stitch design. Well here he is all finished and ready to help with my Christmas decorating. If you are interested in stitching him as well, you can find the free cross stitch chart at Melisa's blog


Mr. Winter will join some of the other snowmen I have made over the years. He was so fun and quick to stitch up.  I might just have to go find another stitchery to keep my hands busy at night while watching TV.


This is my favorite decorating corner.  My treadle sewing machine sits in the foyer and I change out the decor for each season/holiday.  Okay peeps I better go do some more decorating, this year I am not going to go as crazy with the decorating. Rather I am going with a less is more theme this year. 


And one table topper done. This is from my pattern called Around and Around. 


Happy December and I hope you all have a great weekend! 
Linking with




Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Red Truck/wreath panel

This panel grabbed my eye a couple years ago, I made it up and sold it right away. I went on the hunt and found another one. And then it seems several other panels made it into the lineup to get finished first. In looking through my holiday panel stash a couple weeks ago this one finally made it to the top for piecing! 


And it took until this week to quilt and bind it. Too many other things needed doing first.


I even had the same fabrics still in the stash to go with it!


And why not quilt it the same too. So much easier/quicker to follow the same idea.


It feels so good to have another holiday wall hanging ready for my shop.



There was a need to remake this runner too.



I hope you all are having a very productive week! Why not show your creativity in these Wednesday linky parties. Wednesday wait loss and Midweek Makers



Sunday, November 26, 2023

What I am slow stitching

With the holiday decorating season upon us I decided I needed to stitch a new little snowman that is a freebie from Melisa. And since the hand knit socks are all done now was the perfect time to start stitching. I think I could finish him up today as he only needs his little checks stitched and some snowflakes added. Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

JoAnn's had a great Black Friday sale week that I couldn't pass up.  I snagged some Keepsake Calico, which I would show you but I folded and put it all away already! But I also checked out their flannel sale and found a pretty blue with polka dots to recover my big ironing station.  Pressing can be fun with a new cover to look at:)



In my quilting world I finished up another Through The Window snowman table runner to restock my Etsy shop. I'll be remaking some other snowman ones this week too. 





SALES

       CYBER MONDAY! --  an extra 30% off your order when you use code CYBERDEAL- Monday only


Thursday, November 23, 2023

Hexagon snowman toppers

There was a need to replenish some of these snowman toppers for my Etsy shop this past week. I had the parts cut for this one and the snowflakes were stenciled already so it was quick to put together and quilt it.




This one took a little more as only the triangles for the center were cut out and stenciled. So a little cutting and applique along with adding the borders was needed before quilting.


I tend to quilt these the same way each time which helps speed up the process a bit.


I also needed to remake the tree skirt!  I loved the first one so much I decided to do it exactly the same.


I used a wide backing for this. The tree skirt is 45" in diameter. 


Accuquilt- 



As always I appreciate you using my affiliate links!!   Are you Black Friday shopping or staying in?  The hubby and I did a little internet shopping, otherwise I am staying in and doing a little more quilting. Oh and I might have just hopped over to JoAnn's on Tuesday and picked up a little fabric. It was 3.99 a yard for their Keepsake line, couldn't pass that up!  It took me longer than it should have as there was a line for cutting, with only one clerk!!  And then another line for checking out, again only one working. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry. 

Linking with Friday favorite linky parties