Happy Valentines! I know I'm a few days late, but this is always a wonderful week in February filled with sweet treats and beautiful flowers. I have lots of treats for you today including our growing number of free quilt patterns and many quilting tutorials.

First, I want to thank you all for being so patient this week. We ran out of our first set of Dresden Plate Templates really quickly and have been out of stock for the past week. A new batch has just arrived and they're on sale for $5 off!

I've used these templates to piece many beautiful Dresden Plate quilt blocks, and I'm working on a fun tumbler quilt using the materials in this month's Quilty Box. I've also used the templates for Ruler Foot Quilting on my home machine.

These templates can be used to do so many fun things so make sure to pick up a set while supplies last.

Last week I asked if you would be interested in learning about hand applique to secure your Dresden Plate to the background of your quilt block.

Many quilters wrote in asking for a hand applique video so here it is just for you.

As you'll learn in the video, I use very simple tools for hand applique - scissors, a thumb thimble, needles (#9 sharps) and thread. All of these tools are quite small and can fit into a ziplock bag along with your quilt project so hand applique is always an easy travel project.

So what do you think of hand applique? Honestly making this video has been a wonderful reminder of how peaceful and relaxing this stitch work can be. While it's certainly not speedy, not everything we make must be done quickly. Sometimes it's nice to take extra time and sew the stitches by hand.

That's it for this week. I hope you enjoy tackling some of our free quilt patterns and projects and that you'll have as much fun making them as I did!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day