Applique Quilt Block

I ran across the cutest quilt blocks by Amy Bradley. She has quite a few different dog blocks that you can put together to make a really cute quilt. She happens to offer the Schnauzer one free. I don't really consider myself a quilter but I thought I'd give it a try. I'd never really done applique before but geez, how hard can it be. I went to my LQS and purchased a few fat quarters for the project as well as some Heat and Bond. I traced the pattern pieces and attached them to the background fabric and began blanket stitching around the pieces...by hand. I couldn't believe how hard it was to sew through this stuff, especially where there were 3 layers of fabric. How could anyone ever make a whole quilt like this? I pressed on and several bandaids and pin pricked fingers later I was done. Back I went to the quilt store to purchase fabric to make a craft bag using my new quilt block. I explained to the owner how much trouble I had. Oh, she said. The Heat and Bond is for machine appilque. Oh, I said. Anyway, I bought some fabric, quilted it and put together a nice bag for myself. Here it is: