You may have noticed this beast of a bag when I shared my Luna Sol booth recap post. Guess what? Today's the day I push this jumbo baby out of the nest! I'd like to introduce you all to my new bag pattern, the Guild Duffle.

The Guild Duffle gets its name from the running joke about how many projects I bring to show at my guild's Sew & Tell session. I need a pretty big bag to lug them all! I anticipate most people would use this as an overnight bag or a carry-on during flights (I designed it to meet size carry-on guidelines), I'm mostly going to be using mine to ferry lots of quilty goodness around. 

The Guild Duffle measures 14” H x 18” W x 8” D and features two jumbo gusseted pockets with press snaps, thick handles, piping, a double zipper, a removable bag base, and a detachable, adjustable strap. I like to think of this gal as the Collegiate Tote's big sister since they share several qualities.

My pattern testers made some big beauties that I hope will inspire you!

@leahrene made a bewitching out of Cotton + Steel prints, cuz who doesn't feel a little witchy when dealing with travel? :-p

@marci_girl's playful duffle in Koko Seki prints are giving me some serious color palette goals. And that red piping! This bag just kills me.

A photo posted by ⭐️ DIYer, Sewist, Quilter ⭐️ (@houstondiy) on Jun 4, 2016 at 7:57am PDT

Stephanie put her own twist on the Guild Duffle by swapping out the corded handles for canvas webbing and press snaps with leather tabs.

A photo posted by Kate White (@ifitaintkate) on Jun 24, 2016 at 6:17pm PDT

Kate took a similar approach with leather pocket flap tabs an flat handles.

The Guild Duffle is available now in my Craftsy shop! Happy sewing!

Luna Sol Blog Hop

It's the final day of the Luna Sol blog hop, and I'm going to finish it off Oprah style. YOU GET A FREE PATTERN! AND YOU GET A FREE PATTERN! FREE PATTERNS FOR EVERYONE!

To keep everything neat, I've separated the projects into individual posts / links, so click the big bold links to get each freebie. If you'd like to read more about the inspiration behind Luna Sol and see more projects, check out this post.

-Moon Bunny Bag-

With the moon motif playing such a big role in Luna Sol, a round bag was an easy design choice. I adapted my Owl Carry It Bag pattern with a simple appliqued silhouette of the bunny sitting on the crescent moon, the same image from my selvedge!

-Phased Quilt-

The Phased quilt uses the the Luna colorway and the Sizzix Drunkard's Path dies for a modern interpretation of moon phases. The whole and half circles may look randomly scattered, but this quilt is actually comprised of one block, repeated nine times.

-Celestial Bunnies Mini Quilt-

Thank you so much for following the Luna Sol blog hop. As a special thanks, we have an extra special giveaway with three prizes!

1. Fat quarter bundle of Luna Sol
2. Large Luna Sol Aurifil thread set
3. Small Luna Sol Aurifil thread set

To win, leave a comment with your email address! I'll pick three random winners on September 28th and contact the winners. 

In case you missed the previous posts in the blog hop, here's the schedule and participants:

Sept. 19 - Fabric Mutt

Sept. 20th - Bryan House Quilts

Sept. 21st - Stars & Sunshine

Sept. 22nd - Modern Sewciety

Sept. 23rd - Sew Scatterbrained

Celestial Bunnies Applique Pattern

I love machine applique for quick and cute representational projects. To make the moon bunny mini quilt you will need:

• (1) 24" square for background
• (4) 7.25" x 4.5" pieces for bunnies
• (2) 6.5" squares for moon background and crescent
• (8) 1.75" squares for sparkles
• (12) 1" squares for circles
• Paper-backed fusible web 
• 26" square batting
• 26" square backing
• .25 yard for binding
• Thread to match your appliques (I used my coordinating Aurifil collection)
• Applique templates, printed at 100%

Trace the appropriate number of each template onto your paper-backed fusible web. You'll need (4) bunnies, (1) moon background, (1) moon crescent, (8) sparkles, and (4) of each size of circle. Fuse the web to the wrong side of your fabric and cut the pieces out.

Fold and press your 24" background square in half vertically, horizontally, and on both diagonals to create creases. Unfold. Position your applique pieces as shown in the photo, using the creases as a guide and fuse them to the background. Stitch around each piece with a blanket, applique, or zigzag stitch with matching thread. 

Now you can make your quilt sandwich and quilt your mini! Cut (3) 2.5" WOF strips from your binding fabric, sew end to end, and bind. 

Phased Quilt Tutorial

When I began designing the quilts for my fabric line, Luna Sol, I knew I had to have something reminiscent of moon phases. Cutting lots of curved templates can be slow though, and I anticipated a time crunch. What a perfect opportunity to put the Sizzix Fabi I won at Fall Quilt Market to work! I contacted the folks at Sizzix and they sent me the Drunkard's Path Quarter Circle and Arch dies.

This is my first project using the Sizzix Fabi and I wanted to kiss the thing afterwards for making it such a speedy process.

All seam allowances are ¼". Press seams open for best results.

Materials

• ¼ yard 41880-2 Midnight
• ¼ yard 41881-8 Eclipse
• ¼ yard 41881-7 Twinkle
• ¼ yard 41879-1 Interstellar
• ¼ yard 41878-2 Midnight
• ¼ yard 41878-1 Interstellar
• ¼ yard 41882-2 Midnight
• ¼ yard 40171-12 Blue-Orchid
• 2⅞ yards 40171-20 Aqua-White
• 3¾ yards backing
• ½ yard binding

Cutting

• From each of the ¼ yard cuts, cut (9) 8” x 4½”
• Stack and cut using the quarter circle die. You will have (18) quarter circles per print for a total of (144).
• From the Aqua, cut
• (9) 6½” WOF strips and subcut (72) 6½” x 5”
• Stack and cut using the arch die for a total of (144) pieces.
• (1) 8½” WOF strip and subcut (36) 8½” x 1”
• (3) 1½” WOF strips and subcut (6) 1½” x 17½”
• (6) 5” WOF strips
• From (1) strip, subcut (2) 5” x 10” and (3) 1½” x 17½”
• Binding  - cut (6) 2½” WOF strips

Instructions

1. Finger press all quarter circle pieces in half to find the centers. Do the same for the arch pieces. Place (1) quarter circle and (1) arch right sides together (RST), matching up the centers and ends. Pin, sew, and press. Repeat until you have (144) drunkard's path blocks.

2. Divide the blocks into (18) groups of (8) blocks, made up of one block in each of the (8) quarter circle fabrics. 

3. Sew blocks together to make (4) semi-circle units per group and press. 

4. Sew (2) semi-circle units together to make a full circle block. Make (1) full circle block per group.
Sew a 8½” x 1” Aqua strip to the straight edge of each remaining semi-circle unit and press.

5. Sew the full circle block and the (2) semi-circle units together as illustrated and press. Repeat for all groups until you have (18) of these rectangular blocks.

6. The quilt is made up of (5) A and (4) B blocks. To make an A block, lay a rectangular block so that the full circle is on the left side. Position a 1½” x 17½” Aqua strip below. Place another rectangular block below the strip with the full circle on the right side. Sew these pieces together and press.

7. To make a B block, repeat the previous step, but rotate the rectangular blocks 180 degrees so that the full circle is on the right side for the top block and on the left for the bottom block.

8. Arrange the blocks as illustrated in the diagram. Rotate some blocks as indicated by the rotated letters on the diagram. Sew the blocks together to make (3) rows of (3) blocks each and press. Sew the rows together and press.

9. Sew the (5) 5" WOF strips together end-to-end and press. Subcut (2) 51½” border strips and sew them to the left and right sides of the quilt top. Press.

10. Cut (2) 60½” border strips and sew them to the top and bottom of the quilt top. Press.