Thank you all for your great comments about my first two videos! They were fun to make and I have a couple more in the planning stages to do so stay tuned! In the mean time you can subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like ;-)
Remember a while ago when I found that bag of scraps that I had set aside for a quilt project? If you don't remember you can see them here. Well after I found that bag of fabric I had pressed it all and stacked it in a container and put it away on a shelf. Well, that was in January. Yesterday we had huge winds here that knocked out power for over 7 hours. Without the distraction of the TV and internet etc I decided to pull out this bin and use my new 1.5" strip cutter for my Accuquilt Go! I just started laying the pieces on the strips and cut all the random pieces into 1.5" strips.
At first the strip cutter was very hard to get through the cutter and I had to push the mat down and through the cutter a bit. Not hard or anything - you should never force the cutter; but, the foam was very stiff at first. After a couple passes through the cutter the die broke in and it was effortless. Most people don't realize that the dies and the cutter both need to break in when you first start using them. This was the stiffest die that I have ever used but it broke in nicely and was a real time-saver - I couldn't imagine cutting all those 1.5" strips on my own! I also wish that the die blades were just a little bit longer - maybe 0.5 cm longer - or maybe that's just me.
You can see the picture of the quilt that I am making from the book More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. Do you like my little sorters? I love these little containers - they are the plastic containers I get fresh mushrooms in from the grocery store and they work so wonderfully! They nest in each other and are free - I like free - doesn't everyone?
After 1 was finished cutting the strips I needed to cut the strips down into rectangles. For the 1.5" squares I just sent the pieces through the cutter again the other way. For the 1.5" x 2.5" rectangles I used my 2.5" strip cutter - the rest I had to rotary cut since I don't have any of those dies - hmmmmm maybe a little shopping is in order? I did, however, use my Value Die for the 4.5" x 1.5" rectangles. It's amazing to me how much faster die cutting is than rotary cutting! Don't get me wrong I still rotary cut! But chopping down the scraps this way was very nice - with very little waste.
Now I need to do all this again with the off-whites and creams in the other half of the container. Should I wait for another power outage or get to it now? I still have over 300 1.5" red squares to cut as well - but I am cutting this from a solid red Kona fabric.
You know - now that I am looking at this again - it would make a good leaders and enders project I think! What do you think?
5 comments:
Whew! that's a lot of cutting you're GOing to be doing. Thank goodness for AccuQuilt!
yes I do think it would be a great leaders and enders project.
Gotta love those accuquilt cutters!
~Kimberlee, www.TheSpunkyDiva.com
Katrina, that looks like a very pretty pattern. I have a quilt in mind to use up my 1.5" strips too. I wonder if you have ever heard of it. The pattern is called Oh my gosh! Once you look at the pattern you will realize why that name is perfect. I can't wait to see this project take shape. It looks like a great leaders and enders project too. I wish I had my sewing machine here in Ottawa but I have my binding to sew down.
I have to agree about the strip cutters. It seems to me that the blades need to be just a bit longer. (or else I really need to cut off the selvedges first.)
But I do find the cutter and dies VERY handy.
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