About a week before Christmas, I received a GO! cutter from the nice people at AccuQuilt. I had always been curious about their cutters and finally had the chance to use one at Quilt Market back in October. Needless to say, I was impressed. Fast, accurate cuts? Sign me up!

Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays was over, I was itching to give the GO! a workout. Early in December, I had pulled a stack of fabrics (mostly Shelburne Falls by Denyse Schmidt) for an improvisational pieced quilt and as I looked around the studio, I decided that the same fabrics would make a pretty sweet equilateral triangle quilt. I have always wanted to make one, but had never gotten around to it. With the equilateral triangle die on hand, there really wasn't a better time! I started by consulting the instructions that came with the die and then took a look at the AccuQuilt blog for even more detailed info. With some scraps, I cut my first triangle - easy peasy! Next it was on to the fabrics for the quilts.

I found it most interesting that AccuQuilt recommends cutting the triangles with the lengthwise grain of the fabric, that is the grain that is parallel to the selvedges. This is unlike my (and most quilters')  normal cutting method - in most cases, I cut strips across the width of the fabric, with the crosswise grain, and the subcut the widths into the pieces I want. But, cutting with the lengthwise grain makes a whole lot of sense as it the direction that the fabric stretches the least. And because equilateral triangles have two sides on the bias (the stretchiest part of a piece of fabric), it is logical that you would want the most stable grain for the third side. I ended up using fat quarters, subcut into 5" lengthwise strips. For the quilt I made, which is a small baby quilt, I used 2 strips from each of 20 fabrics. I was able to cut 5 triangles from each strip, bringing my grand total to 200 triangles. 192 triangles were used in the quilt.

The cutting went fast - less than 30 minutes for all the triangles. I was able to cut 6 strips of fabric at a time! Sweet! Also, repositioning the fabric strips for each subsequent cut was simple. I rolled up the excess fabric and sent it through the cutter because the die only cuts the fabric that is placed under the cutting mat. This means you don't have to subcut for each triangle - win!

Any concerns about fabric waste were quickly put to rest because the time I saved using the GO! cutter definitely made up for the minimal scraps. I also really like how portable the cutter is. My studio is on our third floor, but I often cut fabric downstairs in the family room to be closer to the kids and Fatty. It's lightweight and easy to carry up and down two flights of stairs with some frequency.

The piecing was easy. The notches that the die cuts makes lining up the triangles a breeze. There aren't any dog ears to trim, either. Saves more time! Like anything overly repetitive, I did find piecing the triangles a bit boring so I broke it up over the course of a few days. BUT! I love, love, love how it came together. Now, the top is awaiting basting and quilting. With any luck, I'll get to it this week. I promise to share more details when it's all finished.

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Although AccuQuilt gave me the GO! cutter and the die, all opinions are entirely my own.

Have you ever wanted to move beyond quilting cotton to other fabrics in your quilts? I wrote a blog post for Sew, Mama, Sew about just that. It's full of good information to get you quilting with everything from denim to linen to velveteen and more. As part of the post, they are also hosting a giveaway of my book, QuiltEssential. Pop on over to throw your name in the hat!

Back here towards the end of the week with more on the triangles up there.

Hey! I'm over at Shari's blog today sharing my favorite read from 2013. Go! Read! Come back!

Nice to see you again.

Popping in here for a short moment this morning. School was canceled for the second day in a row due to zero/subzero temperatures and I am soaking in every single moment I have with these girls. Of course, I might be regretting all the late nights and sleeping in starting at 6:30 tomorrow morning. But seriously, this break, even extended, has been a huge blessing. I have more to say about that, but I'll leave that topic for another day. Instead, I thought I would share the other two gifts I made this Christmas. Both were fast, just like this post is going to be.

First up, Myrtle the Turtle.

I made this for my nephew, Rory. I had pinned it back in the summer when I first saw the tutorial on the Purl Bee. I just thought it was so cute! The Purl's version uses Liberty of London Tana Lawn for the shell, but I went with a regular quilting cotton (one of the DS Quilts prints found at Jo Ann's a couple of years back). I used quilting cotton for the head, legs, arms, tails, too. The bottom is wool felt and the button eyes are vintage. It was a fast sew and I had just enough poly-fill on hand to stuff him up. Word is that he's well loved.

Next up, the tutu from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew.

I've been wanting to make one of these since I saw it in the book. Now that my niece is two and a half, I thought it would be a good addition to the dress-up box. Like the turtle, this was pretty quick to come together. I used five different colors of tulle, all of which were 54" wide. The pattern says that most tulles are 108" wide, but I could not find any myself. I consulted with Kristin, who has made a few herself, and she assured me that it wouldn't matter. She was right! Also, on her advice, I cut the tulle to 28" so that the final length would be 14" - not too long for a little lady, but with some room for growth. I ended up making this entirely on Christmas Eve morning - it took about 1 hour, start to finish, with the hardest/most tedious part being pulling the gathering stitches on the tulle. That said, I'd make it again in a flash. It was fun!

Looking forward, I have been thinking about last year and what is to come this year. I know that you all may be sick of year-in-review/resolution type posts, but I think I've got one (or two?) in me still. Stick with me. There's a quilt top that is almost finished and another one started so good, crafty things are on their way as well.

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Happy New Year!

I figured it would probably be best if I shared my final finish of 2013 before we move on to 2014. Meet the Pixelated Heart Quilt.

I had a lot of fun making this quilt, mostly because I was excited to have the time to sew a gift this Christmas and because the Happy-Go-Lucky fabrics from Bonnie and Camille are just so cheerful. The pattern is by Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches. I had seen her smaller version and loved it - such a great use of saturated and low-volume prints.

I made a larger version of the quilt that is available as a free pattern on the Robert Kaufman site. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow. I didn't follow the cutting instructions completely. Because I wanted to use a solid background (Kona Snow), I got out the graph paper and did some extra math to figure out how I could cut larger pieces of the white instead of 155 5-inch squares. I knew it would look better without all the seams and would save time cutting and sewing. I'm not sure if it saved fabric or not - I didn't really check that. You should also note that the pattern says the finished quilt is 75" x 75" and that isn't the case if you use  5" squares (4.5" finished) - it's 67.5" x 67.5".

Piexelated heart 2

For the quilting, I free-motioned flowers in an off-white thread using Rachel's tutorial for chrysanthemum quilting. I loved doing the actual quilting and I am really happy with the texture it gave the quilt. It was fun to fill in the negative space with flowers of different sizes - I even quilted the recipient's name in one spot. I didn't get many photos of the finished quilt (rushing to get it in the mail!), but I think you can see the quilting here well enough. The quilt back is a solid green (it's a Moda Bella Solid - not sure of the exact color) and the binding is more Kona Snow.

I've got two other, much smaller gifts to share and then it is on to the 2014 sewing. I've already started cutting two quilts!