My Accuquilt Review

On August 18 I posted briefly that my Accuquilt Go cutter had arrived.  Katherine commented that she would like to see a review.  This is nothing if not a Full Service Blog, so here we go!  (Thanks to Katherine for posting, too!)
I purchased mine with the hope that it would improve both cutting accuracy and efficiency.  I believe it has delivered on both counts.  And it's fun!
If you're thinking of purchasing one, do your homework first in terms of price.  I'm all in favor of patronizing my local craft and fabric shops, but the Accuquilt ended up being substantially cheaper as an Internet purchase.  I bought mine on Ebay (new, in the box, with warranty) as a "buy it now" item.  No sales tax and shipping was free.
The "value" die comes with it, but I bought some other ones as well:

That's the value die on the right:  4 1/2" square, 2 1/2" square, and the half square triangles.  On the lower left is the tumbler die.

Here is a holiday quilt made from assorted Christmas fabrics using the tumbler die.  Super fast to cut out and I was pleased with how it turned out.  The back is a Debbie Mumm snowflake patterned red flannel (sorry, should have taken a pic of that too.)

I also got the Autumn Medley, and made this fall table runner.  To do fusible machine applique like this, iron the fusible to the wrong side of your fabric BEFORE cutting.  Then it comes out of the cutter all ready to go.  Without the Accuquilt, this would have been hours of work just to trace and cut out the shapes.  But it was quick and easy.  And those pumpkins are the cutest thing EVER.  

I think these circle dies will come in handy.  I've used the large one to make these selvage coasters.  To make a small "layered" item like this, put your fabric and batting on the cutter in the order that you want to sew them.  To make these, I put the bottom fabric, the batting, and then the top foundation piece on the die and rolled them through.  Then I pieced the selvages on the top piece, sewed the layers together, and pinked the edges.
It was a similar procedure for these square coasters, using the 4 1/2" square:

The coasters are great "gift with purchase items" for me, or just nice small gifts to keep on hand.  And they're great for using up scraps of fabric and batting. 

By far the most useful die for me is the 2 1/2" strip cutter.  I've used it for a quilt binding so far and I think this will be a huge time saver-- after all, even a lap size quilt will need something like 200 inches of binding!  I will post the completed quilt in a few days after I have finished hand sewing the edge (it has a story of its own, so stay tuned).  On the upper right side of the picture you see the flower die, which I'm sorry to say I haven't used yet.  But I will!  
So here's a very brief description/tutorial on how it works:

Here it is in the open position.

I'm going to make the oak leaf from the Autumn collection.  Put the die on the base right side up.

I cut a scrap that will just cover the shape with a little to spare on the edges.

Cover it with the cutting mat and roll it through.  I can do up to 4 layers at one time.

And there it is!








Any downside?  Just one small one.  After cutting out the tumbler block quilt, I had alot of scraps that look like this:

So a scrap Christmas project of some sort is definitely in my future.  That tumbler block in particular ate up alot of fabric.  I don't get stressed about fabric waste, but I know quite a few quilters that do.  So that's something to keep in mind if you're thinking of getting an Accuquilt.
There's a huge amount of info about this.  The Accuquilt website is helpful (www.Accuquilt.com) and there are also videos on YouTube.