I'll admit that I am a gadget person. And last Fall, when the blogisphere was filled with chat about the AccuQuilt Go!, I succumbed to temptation and purchased one. Then I let it sit. I don't know why -- maybe I was a little intimidated, maybe I was afraid that if I tried it I would find out that it wasn't worth it. For whatever reason, it's been sitting in my sewing room, nagging at me for months.
My semi-annual quilting retreat is coming up, so I thought I'd throw the idea out there to my quilting sisters that we could test this baby out together in March. All agreed that it would be fun, but warned of what might happen if we consumed our usual quantity of wine then played with it. Maybe it would be a good idea to test it out first?
Here's my first effort, a little doll quilt for my granddaughter's Bitty Baby, Abby. I used the small tumbler die, which makes 3.5" (finished) tumbler blocks. Holy cow, is this thing cool!!
The little blocks were cut in the blink of an eye. I could easily cut enough for a twin or full-sized top in less than half an hour. Because of the notched corners, they go together perfectly. I am already planning a larger quilt using alternating white and random bright prints, with a border strip of tumblers.
IMHO many of the dies are not worth purchasing, though. Unless you have real physical problems managing a rotary cutter, a regular ruler or one of those
June Taylor Shape Cut devices are just as effective, and much cheaper. The same thing goes for squares. But the odd-shaped blocks, especially this tumbler and the curved drunkard's path? No question that the Go! is a huge time/effort saver. And if you are into applique, they keep coming out with more and more nifty shapes that would otherwise be a real PIA to cut by hand. The big tumbler die, which makes a 7" finished block, would allow you to pop out a bed-sized quilt in a weekend. You'd need to think about the scale of that block, however, in relation to the size of your quilt-- that big tumber, or the big drunkard's path, could look overwhelming on a smaller top.
I'd like to see Accuquilt come out with some even smaller dies, like a 2" tumbler, perhaps. Stay tuned in March for the results of the Great Go! experiment at our retreat.
Her die for the Go! is based on her pattern for the popular postage stamp basket quilt. The tutorial was done 'way before the die came out for the Go!, so it shows her cutting the pieces out with a rotary cutter. The part that you want to pay attenton to is the part about the handle of the basket. The handle has given other bloggers fits, but the tutorial makes it ever so much easier.
