An Afternoon With The GO! Baby Cutter

I spent yesterday afternoon getting to know my AccuQuilt GO! Baby cutter. I actually read the manual. Okay, I read some of it. The important bit that told me how to place the die, fabric and cutting mat. Which was so simple I didn't really need to read the manual -- I just didn't want to do something wrong and ruin the cutter. Because I'm really good at breaking things. 

When I was asked if I'd like the chance to get my hands on the GO! Baby cutter, I immediately thought 'YES' because I hate cutting fabric. The less I have to do with the rotary cutter, the better, I say. But I still had to think about it because I wasn't sure if there were any dies I'd actually use. 

I took a look at the dies available on AccuQuilt, and I knew for sure I wanted the tumbler die because I'd always wanted to make one, but I'll be damned if I'm going to stand there and measure angles and cut them out myself. I also chose the half square triangle and diamond dies because again, I'm not fond of cutting things with angles. (Well, except for my 60 degree triangles because I have the rulers.)

So I sandwiched my fabric between the die and cutting mat, and placed it under the roller. And it wouldn't go through. I started to think to wonder if I was too dumb to own a cutter, and kept thinking about Amber saying how even her 5-year-old could work it! With a little effort, I managed to roll the die sandwich through, and after that initial hiccup, it was easy peasy.

I cut a stack of half square triangles in no time at all (there's only a few pictured because the stack is mostly on my design wall) with corners cut off and all. I know half square triangles are easy enough to make but I think this way opens you up to a few other options.

The only thing about using the cutter to cut fabric is that there's a bit more waste than you'd have if you cut with a ruler and rotary cutter. But what I did was measure the area the die covered and cut my fabric strips to minimise waste as much as I could, and that worked out well. Also, I'd suggest you keep a pair of scissors nearby because while the cutter does a good job, there are always a few random threads left intact.

So bottom line is that I'm enjoying the cutter. I like not having to stand over the cutting mat with rotary cutter in hand, measuring and slicing. And I really like how quickly I have my pieces so I can get to sewing quicker! :)

And yes, I'm making something Halloween-y! Stay tuned!!! In the meantime, you can go sign up and get 22 free patterns from AccuQuilt.