I have a new scrappy quilt underway. It includes "all my favorites". All my favorite fabrics and colors that is. These are some of my very favorite fabrics from my stash including my favorite shade of each. I've wanted to make a quilt like this for a while. This will be my new "traveling quilt". It's not going to be a quick one. With 832 small HSTs, I'll be doing it for a while.
Luckily, I'm trying a new method for those HSTs. I haven't used my
Go! Baby for quite a while. Recently, I received an email from
Accuquilt offering to ship me a new die to try. I've had a love/hate relationship with my Go! Some of my dies worked great, others, not so much. I'm so happy with my Go! Baby again since this new little die that arrived on my doorstep! I requested the 2 1/4" HST die. It's a odd finished size, but that doesn't really matter to me for the project I have planned. This guy chops up perfect triangles for sewing. There is very little waste, and they sew together perfectly without trimming. So far I really am in love with this die.
In my die collection I now have. (
I received all of these from Accuquilt for promotional purposes, except the circle die which I purchased):
I always forget the size my fabric should be for each die. I simply wrote it on the foam. For this die I start out with a 3 1/4" x 7 1/4" rectangle.
My test scraps sewed up perfectly and quickly with no trimming at all.
I was able to cut and prep everything for this quilt at our guild sewing day this past weekend. I was very pleased with the results.
I have occasionally been asked in the past if purchasing a Go! cutter is worth it. Here's my two cents on the subject after having it for a couple years:
I initially had mixed feelings, thinking I really don't use it that much. I was surprised at how many projects I actually used this tool for as I scrolled through my finished projects. I think the important thing to consider when making a purchase like this is how much you will
truly use it.
I was once asked by a friend who was getting into quilting if she should buy one. I proceeded to ask her what she would actually use it for. She was surprised I even asked and exclaimed. "Well, quilting of course!" She had no idea which dies she would purchase or how she might even use them. She simply saw it as something cool to purchase if you quilt. If this is you, don't buy it.
If, on the other hand, you can scroll through the list of
available dies and think, "I would love to make a quilt with that die!" it could be a good choice. If there are 4-5 dies you love and would use, it's probably worth it. I personally wouldn't purchase shapes that are already easy to cut (such as simple squares or strips), but rather dies that will definitely make the quilting experience easier. I haven't found much use for those shapes in my quilting. Although, cutting all the drunkard path pieces for my Retro Flowers quilt would have been a huge pain using a pattern template, but with the die, it went so quickly. The massive number of circles I needed for my bubbles quilts would have been a nightmare by hand. Finally, I have wanted to make another HST quilt for a while, but have avoided it because of the trimming (and I don't really love Thangles either). With this new die I am now able to make this quilt.
Finally, on considering the Go! vs the Go! Baby. I've been perfectly happy with the Go! Baby. The smaller dies are more suited to my taste as well as my quilting style. It's less expensive which certainly makes this a more feasible purchase. There honestly aren't any dies for the full version that I love and "need", so I have no regrets about having the Baby vs the Go!. It all goes back to what you will use it for. If most of the dies you want are larger and require the Go!, head in that direction. If you are like me and love the smaller dies, the Go! Baby would be appropriate. As with any larger purchase, do the research first and seek out the best prices possible before purchasing. Depending on where you live, you might even find a deal on your local online classifieds or Craig's List.
There are certainly pros and cons to this product. I hope that my opinions help for any of you on the fence about purchasing. It has to be worth it in the end. Make sure you really want it and will actually use it before investing. Mine has allowed me to create some projects I wouldn't have done otherwise, but it's certainly not a necessity for most projects.
**The products in this post were provided to me at no cost by Accuquit. I have tried to provide helpful, honest feedback for those interested in these products.