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.

New Toy!

Look what the lovely people at AccuQuilt sent me! I'm hoping to crack it open sometime this week and play with my new toy :)