Hi, everyone! I cannot believe it’s already February. It seems like we were just chatting One Scrappy Santa yesterday, but now we’re on to hearts and pink and love. To celebrate this new season, I’m excited to share a “lovely” new tutorial with you over on the Havel’s Sewing blog!

Happy season of giving! I don’t know about you, but I’m deep in the midst of present gathering for family, friends, teachers, and service workers. While I love a personal gift full of meaning, there’s always a time and a place for a good ol’ gift card. But that doesn’t mean you can’t add a personal, handmade touch with a delightful fabric gift card sleeve.

If you’ve been around for awhile, you surely know about my love of big-stitch binding. I already have a tutorial for adding sweet hearts to your binding stitches, but why leave good enough alone? While binding a recent baby quilt finish, I started playing around and came up with another stitch option that I couldn’t wait to share. I’m calling it “stick and stitch,” ha! It basically adds a vertical bar stitch in between the standard running stitch typically used for big-stitch binding. It’s super simple but a fun change of pace.

Did last week’s list of my go-to needle-turn appliqué supplies whet your appetite for more appliqué fun? Well, then you’re in luck, because today I’ve got a new tutorial for you, plus a FREE pattern for you to download to try out your new appliqué skills. Excited? Then, let’s go.

While working on the test quilts for my Heart of Hearts pattern, I got the idea to add a little something to the binding. I love to do big-stitch binding because it’s quick and easy and adds another noticeable handmade touch to my quilts, but I wanted to incorporate another element into the binding to make it even more special. So I thought, why not hearts? I was so pleased with the result that I put together a little video to show you how to do it, too!

If you’re anything like me, most years, you’re guilty of piling your holiday-sewing task list so high you’re destined for failure, either because you can’t get to it all and end up feeling disappointed or because you do get it all done, but you’re too exhausted to enjoy most of it. Phew. Thankfully, I was a little better this year, hoping to sew only a small number of items (and nothing that would be too big a deal if it didn’t get done), which ended up leaving me a little time to sew these cuties together for some good friends — and to put together a little tutorial so you can do the same!

Today, I’m so excited to share a new tutorial with you over on the Havel’s Sewing blog! After making the Halloween BOO! Blocks pattern, I couldn’t resist adding on to it for more holiday fun. So meet the Christmas Cheer Blocks! With the simple addition of “H,” “J,” and “Y” blocks to the “O” in the original pattern, you’re all set for the holidays with blocks that can spell out “HoHoHo” and “Joy.”

With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, it’s officially time to turn our sights toward holiday gift giving. I suspect many of you snagged some gift cards over the Black Friday shopping madness, so I wanted to remind you about this fun tutorial for felt gift card envelopes that I did for the Havel's Sewing blog.