My Thoughts on the AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter

Several quilters have asked me my opinion of the new AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter ever since I purchased one. The overall answer is: I like it. There are both things I like as well as dislike about it. It makes cutting my fabric scraps much faster. This is a tumbler quilt top I made from scraps I had on hand. I used the AccuQuilt Go! cutter to cut the tumbler shapes for this simple lap-sized quilt. At the time I cut these fabrics I was working through piles of fabric from a couple boxes of scraps I had accumulated over several years. I'm a fairly frugal person so I do not usually throw away a scrap of fabric that is larger than 2 1/2" square. After all, I spent good money on that fabric! And I love scrappy quilts! My thinking is, "Why throw away something that I can use." Admittedly that means I tend to hang onto things that others might throw away. Now it seems many more people have come back around to the "Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle" concept that I picked up growing up. I know we frugal types have been around for a long time. Recycling just goes in and out of vogue over time.

At the time I was working through those big boxes of scraps I was cutting the largest pieces into 5" squares and tumbler blocks. I have the Go! cutter dies for both these sizes. Here you can see the start of those stacks. My 5" (charm) squares have increased to a larger plastic tub at this point. I have separated them according to color and tried to coordinate them together for future quilts. The tumbler stacks are also color-coordinated at this point. I think they are so easy to sew together. The die cuts off the dog-ear corners so no extra triming is required. I like that feature of the tumbler die.

When I first considered purchasing the AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter it was because of pain I was experiencing in my right shoulder. When I was working at J&R Vacuum and Sewing I injured my shoulder (rotator cuff, frozen shoulder symptom) after lifting a sewing machine up onto the counter during a machine repair check-in. I felt a hard twinge of pain and heard a pop at the time. The shoulder has hurt every day ever since that time. I went through physical therapy for awhile. The doc said this type of injury would take a good 18 months to heal. I can confirm this length of time, and actually longer, for a fact. There were days it hurt so much I just wanted to cry. It interfered with everything from taking a shower, washing my hair, getting dressed, walking the dogs, carrying anything (weight restriction of not more than 10 pounds for a long time), quilting and other hobbies, etc, etc. The scary thing the doc said is that those people who have this happen often have it happen to the other shoulder at some point, too. I hope and pray that doesn't happen to me. Once is more than enough!! There are times it still pops and goes back into that achey, painful state where it takes a week or so to calm down again. Even when it is in that more calm state, there is still an underlying soreness to it. If I keep busy I can usually keep my mind off it, but later the soreness returns. It is something that is just always there.

Anyway, here I am distracted . . . I mentioned this as a lead-in to the main reason I bought the Go! fabric cutter. The reason for the purchase was to find a less painful way that allowed me to cut quilt fabric. I was having trouble pressing down on my ruler to hold it in place when I cut with my rotary cutter at the time. I tried the Go! cutter at the store and it seemed that I would be able to turn the handle to cut just fine. I take turns cranking the handle with both hands in turn as my shoulder gets tired. But I've found when the cutter is at the proper height on my cutting table it usually goes smoothly. There are times I use my ruler and rotary cutter, and times I use the Go! cutter . . . depending upon how my shoulder is feeling that particular day.

These next couple photos show other size squares I have cut from my fabric scraps. They range in size from 5", 4 1/2", 4", 3 1/2", 3" down to 2 1/2" squares and assorted 2 1/2" strips. I recently also cut some 2" scrap squares for the Scrap Therapy class I took. I figure combining these sizes will give me 12", 9" and 8" blocks for use in a variety of quilts. I love scrap quilts. I have lots of scraps cut and ready to go, even more than you see here. There are probably half a dozen future quilts sitting there in my scrap bins right now ready and waiting to be sewn.

The questions I always get about the AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter basically revolve around: "Would I recommend the cutter to others?" and "If I were to buy it again, would I, now that I've had the experience of using it?" The answers are both yes and no. Not necessarily in order to those two questions, but depending upon what you are looking for.

If you have shoulder pain or other physical limitations that interfere with your ability to cut fabric, and you are able to crank the handle with ease - Yes, buy the cutter. You will be able to cut your fabric much easier.

If you have lots of scraps and fabric and want to cut them up quickly - Yes, buy the cutter. You can cut through fabric piles faster.

If you like to sew up quilts quickly or sew with a group (such as a church group, guild, as a business) who make quilts quickly - Yes, buy the cutter.

If you have the money for the cutter and a bunch of dies and you are a 'gadget girl' who likes to have cool tools - Yes, buy the cutter.

If you are a perfectionist who likes all their quilt blocks perfectly and precisely cut - No, you might want to re-think this purchase. I know this cutter is advertised as being an ACCUcutter and the advertising tag-line is "Perfect cuts make perfect quilts" (oops! just kidding!) "Better cuts make better quilts". I have found it really is not all that accurate. This was the most disappointing thing about it for me. You see, I can cut with a ruler and rotary cutter more accurately than my Accuquilter Go! fabric cutter can cut. There are still times I do, in fact, use my ruler and rotary cutter exactly for this reason.

In fact, after having first purchased my cutter with it's sample die along with the 5" square die, I returned the 5" die because I thought it was defective. The squares I was getting were not 5" squares. They might measure 5" (or very nearly 5") on one side, but the other opposite measurement was often off. And it would vary from square to square. It was inconsistent - sometimes measuring 1/8" to under a 1/4" off. That just doesn't cut it for me (Pun intended! :) hee! hee!) so I took the first 5" die back to the store (the die itself measured 5"x5" on the blades) and they replaced it with another one which also measured 5"x5" on the blades. I went home and joyfully cut a bunch more squares only to realize they were off, and inconsistent, as well. I re-read instructions. I went on-line to look for hints and tips. I tried cutting less fabric at a time, even only one layer at a time. I was still off.

You will notice on the instructions there is a statement to test-cut your fabric first before cutting all the pieces for a quilt. The direction of the grain is important. The fabric can stretch and move as it is being cut. The instructions are on-line as well as packaged with the cutter.

At this point I still do not always get accurate cuts with the Accuquilt Go! fabric cutter. My better results come with pre-starching the fabric before I cut it. But it still isn't always accurate. If I find a solution I'll be sure to write another post about it. My sewing friend was with me when originally looking at the cutter. After seeing my results, and cutting some fabric herself on my cutter, she said she is glad she did not purchase one.

I am currently using the blocks I've cut, but fudging on my quarter inch seams at times to sew them together. It is aggravating when I have to flip the blocks over and sew a seam from the other side in order to allow my feed-dogs to gather-in one side that I am sewing so that the seams I've pinned together will line up accurately. I have a Pfaff with dual-feed that I like to use, and that defeats the use of having dual-feed. Usually a quilter doesn't want to have their fabric sliding when they are sewing. But when one square is slightly bigger than the one it is supposed to line up with, I lay it so the slightly longer side is down against the feed-dogs, dis-engage the dual-feed, and allow the feed-dogs to ease-in the longer fabric so they line up at the seams that are pinned. It's a hassle. The next big quilt I make with these blocks I will probably try sewing a four-square patch then square up the block before proceeding with sewing them together further. It's an extra step with squaring-up, but would mean I could use my dual-feed as intended and less agravation in the long-run.

I heard there was an AccuQuilt group on Yahoo. I haven't looked there yet, but perhaps they have some info on the slight in-accuracy of the cuts. Obviously it is a result of the fabric moving and shifting during the cutting process. I don't have a good remedy for it yet.

I like having pre-cut squares on hand. There are so many patterns and books available that use the 5" charm square, the 2 1/2" jellyroll strips, and other basic quilt square sizes. When I just want to chill out and do some relaxing, mindless sewing while I watch a movie on DVD, I grab my pre-cut squares and start sewing. That makes having the Go! fabric cutter nice to have on hand. There's always pieces ready to sew.

Making Time to Sew

I have been thinking about how to make more time to sew lately. It's an activity I enjoy doing. I like sewing so much I seem to lose myself in the act of sewing where I lose all track of time when I sit down to sew. So I don't know why I sometimes put off sewing and get side-tracked doing other activities that aren't as enjoyable. I know there are the everyday household activities that need to be done. Things like getting groceries and shopping, cleaning up the house, laundry, cooking, etc. Then there is the time I spend sitting around watching tv or working or playing around on the computer. These are things that usually keep me occupied. Some of these things I really enjoy doing. Things like time spent on the computer and cooking are enjoyable. And I seem to lose all track of time when I'm on the computer. I think being in virtual world (on the computer) and sewing world are my two most favorite things. They sometimes compete with each other, but they don't need to. If I were to plan my days a bit better I'm sure I could work in the time to do more of the stuff I enjoy.

That's one of my objectives that I want to work on more. I want to be more organized and schedule more time for the fun things in life and work more quickly to get through the things that are neccesary but less fun. So scheduling my time better is one way to make more time to sew.

Another thing I have been thinking about is fine-tuning the layout of my home and studio to make working, sewing, cooking, cleaning and family time flow better. I got a huge amount of work accomplished the last time I spent a concerted effort on re-organizing my studio. The new organization that resulted from that de-cluttering process made the sewing and art supplies and tools more readily accessible, easier to find and use when I needed them. Lately I have been noticing there are still some things that could be fine-tuned a bit more to enhance those benefits even better. So, de-cluttering, re-organizing and fine-tuning my environment periodically is another way to make more time to sew.

During that last re-organization there were a few areas of the house that were left alone. I have been thinking about those rooms lately. I want to do some further de-cluttering then re-organize and re-decorate those rooms in my house.

This time I will be drawing out a floor-plan of the house and re-thinking what each room is used for. The floor-plan will help me to see at a glance if an idea will be feasable before I commit to moving things around. We have several rooms in our house that are under-utilized. This isn't the best use of our space. My goal is to re-vamp the rest of the house to make better use of all of our space here. After all, why have a home with rooms you barely ever enter? Why not re-think the use of those rooms to allow you to use them for the things you enjoy . . . the things that bring more enrichment to your everyday life?

Re-thinking and re-decorating to enhance your space makes the time there more useful and enjoyable. I think we should have beautiful, uplifting and enjoyable spaces surrounding us. After all these are the places we spend our days living and working within. We can chose to make them pleasant and refreshing. Even small changes made over time will be of great benefit if you are not able to make big changes all at once. Sometimes I think we become too comfortable in an existing setting just because it's familiar. Sometimes it slowly becomes a rut to the point we cannot or do not know where to begin to make a change.

I am one of those people who likes to make small changes fairly often. I am feeling a need for some change now. Recognizing and identifying a rut and taking action to make changes is another way to make more time to sew. It may take some time to do this, but in the long run you will be able to accomplish so much more. Plus you will have the added benefit that comes from beautiful and inviting surroundings that lift your spirits. There will be more peace of mind.

Cutting Scrap Fabric for Quilts

I love making scrap quilts! I've been cutting up my scrap fabric pieces throughout the summer. Most of what you see here in this post was already cut prior to getting my AccuQuilt Cutter. But now that I have it I have been adding to the pile of five inch charm square blocks. Plus I've started a new pile of tumbler blocks. Years ago when I was in my 20s I made a tumbler quilt. I cannot say what's become of it after all these many years. It's gone now. But I remember tracing around a tumbler shaped template and hand cutting all those tumbler shapes for that quilt. The sewing went much faster than the cutting in those days. That was before rotary cutters existed! Now with this new cutting equipment the cutting goes a lot faster than the sewing. It's fun to have these handy tools! I'm enjoying this one. My sewing friend was here today for our weekly Sew-In. Guess what we did? That's right - cut fabric!

I know my first quilt using these five inch charm squares will be the Disappearing Nine Patch. Ever since I read about, and saw samples, of this quilt I knew what I would be doing with my charm squares. I need to do some research into seeing how many five inch squares are needed for a lap-sized and a full-sized quilt. I have a feeling there's quite a few quilts sitting right here in this pile of 5" squares. I think I'll get my little assembly line started on these this week and see how fast those quilts go together.

This summer I was cutting fabric squares in a variety of different sizes - just to get them cut and organized. My thinking was that regardless of the size, I would use them up eventually. I tried cutting the largest size strips and squares first. Then made use of smaller scraps to cut the smaller 2 1/2" squares. That's the smallest size in this range of quilt squares. I will eventually use them all - it seems better to me to cut up all my smaller fabric scraps rather than have them taking up space on my shelves and bins. There was just so much fabric, smaller than a fat quarter, that seemed like so much clutter using up space in my sewing studio. Now it's getting more organized and ready to use. Makes me happy to be organized and know they are there, ready to be put to use.

I ended up with two bins of 2 1/2" fabric strips for jelly roll quilts, a huge overflowing bin of 5" charm squares, and two bins of assorted squares ranging from 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", 4" and 4 1/2". Perhaps I'll sew up a bunch of table toppers with these odd-ball variety of squares just to be done with them. I decided I want to just collect the 2 1/2" strips, charm squares, 2 1/2", 3 1/2" and 4 1/2" size squares. It seems to me these would be the most often used sizes to make 12 1/2" quilt blocks - handy to have around for quick-to-make gift projects.

Time for a Little Re-Arrangement

I needed to do a little rearranging of some tables in my sewing studio to gain better access to my thread wall. I had my sewing cabinet back-to-back with a folding table, adjacent to the back side of my pressing station. It made for a nice big table area to work on if I was piecing together a large quilt. But at the same time it was awkward to get around that much table space and it was difficult to reach my thread spools on the thread wall behind it. The whole space just was not handy at all. So I did some moving around. I removed the folding table completely. It will go into the bedroom we are currently remodeling and soon will be painting. That will be the guest bedroom. The folding table will function as my photo studio area. I plan on sewing up some different colored fabric background cutains to hang as backdrops for photos of products I will sell in my etsy shop this fall.

Now that I've moved the sewing cabinet back-to-back with my pressing station I can easily walk through to reach my thread wall. I've got some empty spool pins there because it was terribly hard to reach them to replace the spools I pulled down to use. They were ending up in a basket near my machine instead. That in turn made it harder to see all the colors and see at-a-glance which one I needed to reach for. I am enjoying this space so much more now that things are not so difficult to maneuver around.

The wire dressform is a decorative element I found at Hobby Lobby awhile back. Right now it's holding a fabric ornament I made for a class I once taught. I have another one of these currently attached to the stylus I use to access my sewing machine touch-screen and another one is acting as a scissors fob on my double curved embroidery scissors. I'll have to post something about making these sometime and show you a close-up. That will be a future post one of these days.

I like the look of various jars holding my sewing supplies. I like that I can see through into them to know what is inside them. And I also like that they have lids to keep the dust out and to keep the contents in. If I had more display space I would do lots more rows of these kinds of jars. The things enclosed inside are (1) buttons, (2) threads, (3) ribbons and trims. I've also got two plastic bins filled with more ribbons and trims, but the pieces here are shorter, odd-ball scraps and pieces not worthy of winding onto cardboard spools. I also have LOTS more jars and boxes of buttons. These are just a mixed selection for easy access. My other buttons are higher up on the top of my fabric shelf and in boxes tucked away at the moment. That's another area of 'stuff' that needs to be 'thought out' for better ease of access. I think I'd use more of my stuff if it wasn't such a chore to find it and get to it. Definitely in need of more refined organizing although I am quite happy with the progress so far. It is so much better in my studio now than it had been. I guess there's always room for improvement when I get the organizing bug next time.

I taste-tested a drink sample at Starbucks once. I liked the little paper cup so I kept one afterward to take home. Originally I had been thinking I'd use it when I made a doll. Right now it is at home on this shelf holding those little papers with fortunes you find inside fortune cookies. I only keep the ones that I like what they say. The ones that have no meaning to me, or are silly, I toss right away. I thought at some point I might use them to sew into a fabric collage or a fabric art journal. I haven't accomplished that yet, so they wait patiently here on my shelf. Yep, you got it . . . I'm a saver. You may be asking why I am saving all these little things anyway? Does anyone else have this 'saving stuff' habit? Sometimes I will eventually use these little tidbits in some project and I'm glad to have saved them. Other times I decide I'm never going to get around to doing what I imagined and go through a cleaning and tossing phase. It just depends on my mood and how much space I need for other things. What about you? Are there other 'savers' out there?

Anyway, I am enjoying my space now with easier access to my threads. I've got several machines set up ready to use at any given time, so I can always find time to sew even if just for a short time. That's the beauty of having things set up, ready to go. I really appreciate that I have a studio to work in - where I don't have to worry about putting things away and cleaning up right away. I can take time here and there as I find time during my day to work around other tasks . . . or even spend the whole day in here if I want to do so.

At the moment my Creative Vision is at my local sewing machine dealer. It is receiving a check-up and a new up-date. It should be fun to play around with it in a few days when I get the machine back. There's supposed to be some great new things in this up-date. I'll let you know how it goes.

Pin Cushion Collections

I realized the other day I have unwittingly started a haphazard collection of pin cushions. As I have been going through my sewing studio to organize and straighten up the place I've found lots of pin cushions. I recently went out and purchased a new box of pins since some of the old ones have become dull through use and bent out of shape. Upon clearing some of the clutter I found I must have had the idea of replacing my pins awhile ago. I ran into another new box of pins. Now I'm happy to report I'm well stocked in new pins.

Replacing pins is something one does not think about replacing often, but it is one of those little things that can be frustrating when sewing. If it's been awhile since you've purchased new pins, it may be time to do so. Just like your sewing machine needles get dull with use, your pins do as well. Approximately 8-10 hours use is the maximum for machine needles in order to maintain quality work. If you let them go much longer they are dull and end up tearing the fiber of your fabric and abraiding it rather than piercing neatly through it. You will end up seeing frayed edges along your stitch line once the garment or article you are sewing is washed. How disappointing that would be when you go to all the trouble to do a nice sewing job only to wash the item and see a row of frayed and worn fabric at the seam lines.

To celebrate the new, cleaner state of my studio I treated myself to Heather Bailey's pin cushion pattern. I've had my eye on this one for some time, but wasn't prepared to purchase it at the time. Now I want to sew up a few more pin cushions and will likely discard some of the old ones that have seen better days. I love visiting Heather's blog! She has such a fresh, colorful look and lively tales to tell. So, this will be something new I'll be working on in the next week. I purchased some of Heather's fabrics some time ago. That'll be the perfect fabric to use of course. And the felt for the leaves on the fruit is in my stash as well. Pictures to come . . .

A Couple Weeks to Heal & Refresh

I'm on the road to recovery and ready to take on more activities. In fact I got the go-ahead from my doctor the other day to do so. I've been given the nod to be able to go up and down stairs again. That means I have no excuse not to get back into the sewing studio downstairs. I'm looking forward to it.

The past two weeks of recovery I've spent a lot of time sleeping and resting while reading or watching television. In the meantime I've been noticing all kinds of things around the house that need to be taken care of. Things like spring cleaning, sorting and purging stuff (lots of clutter) as well as revamping my sewing and studio areas. I've been catching up with various sewing room blogs with ideas to get more organized and get rid of stuff that hasn't been used for a long time.

Currently there's piles of fabric I started to sort and pre-cut into usable strips and squares. I have a good size stack of 5" squares to make charm quilts. My supply of 2 1/2" strips has dwindled down to nothing thanks to the near completion of my Strippy Squares Quilt. I plan on cutting more strips to have on had for these quick and easy strip quilts. One of my goals is to cut more of both the strips and charms from lots more of my fabrics.

I also have lots of old magazines that I have already started going through -- tearing out articles and recipes I want to keep for future use. That is something not too taxing to do while recuperating from my recent surgery. There are still plenty of magazines to go through. I need to get a handle on all those past issues I've files away. They've grown beyond my storage capacity. Right now it's all about simplifying and reducing clutter for me.

This new blog is being adorned with some background embellishments I've recently discovered through a couple websites that have come to my attention. I had been noticing more and more blogs showing up with fancier, more decorative appearance to them. There are a few quick blog designer tools at Delightful Dots and also The Cutest Blog on the Block. I'm sure there are probably other websites that offer this kind of easy access blog template service. These are two that I've run across recently.

Playing with these new templates has increased my desire to get back into my web designing and web programming studies. I've been away from the books for about a year. I haven't lost it all, but I know some of the details have become fuzzy over that time. Getting back to my HTML and CSS books is another thing I want to invest some time into. There is a lot to learn, and to remember. Looking at some of the coding from these sites has helped inspire me to want to develop more of my own personalized pages for my website. I spent some time this past week getting back into some coding for my soon-to-be future website. It still needs lots of work.

So the pull right now is to spend time cleaning up, organizing, getting back into the sewing studio with some new work, and also hitting the books and revamping my website with some web programming. That covers multiple directions to direct my attention. I need a plan -- a schedule -- and some lists.