Quilting and an Accuquilt

Recently, I’ve had some conversations with the folks at Accuquilt (affiliate link) about their amazing products. In the course of our conversations, Accuquilt has partnered with me to showcase their products and share a few projects. So, let’s talk about Quilting and an Accuquilt.

If you are unfamiliar  with Accuquilt, it is a fabric cutting machine designed for quilters, specifically to make cutting quilt pieces easier. It makes cutting your quilt fabric 90% faster than using a rotary cutter or (gasp) scissors. And, all of your cuts are perfect every time because you are using cutting dies.

But, Leslie, you really aren’t a quilter? That’s right, I’m more of a sewing.crafting.DIY projects kind of gal who wants to do a quilt every now and then. And I think the Accuquilt is ideal for sewing and crafting.

So, the day before we left for vacation two huge boxes arrived on my door step (I’m starting to think my UPS guy hates me ~ he doesn’t even ring the bell anymore). Amidst all of the vacation packing I managed to unbox everything and snap a picture.

Merry Christmas to me and thank you Accuquilt. While we were in Canada, I would take occasional moments here and there and look online for projects that I might want to tackle using the Accuquilt.

But first, I thought I really needed to get familiar with the machine. One of my F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E things about the Accuquilt is this: It.is.manual. As in, no plugs required. No cords to keep up with. None.Nada.Zip.

So, to get familiar with the Accuquilt, I decided to cut a few scraps and see what I came up with. And let me tell you, I.have.scraps. They are left over from making aprons for my Etsy store. A few years ago I made and sold aprons ~ and that produced mounds of scraps which I have not wanted to part with. {this is only the bottom of a cabinet, trust me there are two more cabinets full of scraps}

The Accuquilt Go! includes the cutter, a die that will cut a 4.5″ square, a 2.5″ square, and a 2″ half-square. It also comes with a 6″ x 12″ cutting mat and this pick that you can use to remove excess threads from the dies.

I pulled out a few scraps, gave them a quick press, and put them on the cutting die. The instructions say you can cut several layers of fabric, so I just folded my fabric back so I had a double layer.

Then I placed the cutting mat over the fabric.

And put it into the machine. Seriously, this is so easy. All I have to do give the handle a few turns to cut.

From scraps sitting around gathering dust to ready-to-sew-a-quilt in about a minute. I’m loving my Accuquilt.

Accuquilt also sent me this really cool 8.5″ die. I love the size because it cuts these nice big squares. I can pre-cut squares of fabric that I want to use for appliqué – have them all ready to go. I’m thinking this would be perfect for baby gifts. It would also make cutting large squares for a simple quilt easy, easy, easy. Think big squares sewn together  – perfect for a baby gift.

The best die I received was this 2.5″ Strip Cutter with Angled Lines.

This thing is turbo charged. With this die, I feel like the possibilities are endless. It cuts these nice long strips AND it has these angled lines printed on the die. (more on these later). Look how long these are ~ they are the length of my cutting table! (I had folded back the fabric to make them longer). When I think about modern quilts, this die really speaks to me. Long strips of modern fabrics stitched together – simple.modern.beautiful.

And in a few minutes I had cut fabrics into strips, squares, and triangles. While this layout isn’t an official quilt, you can see how easy it would be to layer fabrics and cut them for a quilt, a bag, a pillow cover, or anything you can imagine.

Like I said, The Possibilities are Endless.

Disclosure: I received the Accuquilt Go! and these dies in exchange for writing several posts throughout the year. All opinions are my own and I am really excited to share future projects. I am also an Accuquilt Affiliate and will receive compensation when you purchase through the affiliate links in this post or in my side bar.