IT’s GO! TIME!!.. GO!OD LUCK!!

Yes, that’s right!  It’s GO! TIME!! 

First comes the tutorial…PART ONE…and then we will get to the GO! GIVE AWAY!! 

As you know I received an Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutting Machine and for the last few days I have been playing with my new pal!  To say that I love Lady GO! GO! is an understatement!!  She is sew easy, quick and accurate…she is every quilter’s best friend! AND she is light and portable..perfect for travel!

My challenge for this tutorial was to ONLY use the 1 1/2” and the 2 1/2” strip cutter to make a quilt and to use only scrap fabric from my stash.  In other words…I would only use my rotary cutter for squaring up blocks…

So let me show you what I did…

I gathered some homespun cottons left over from other projects…a little scrappy but what the heck..

I pressed each piece ready for the cutter…

I got the Lady GO!GO! Cutting Machine out with the two strip dies..isn’t she pretty!!  Did you notice that she matches my Pea pod (laptop)?

Then I measured the width of the blades on the cutter…You can’t have the fabric hanging over the die and besides, I don’t want to waste any fabric.

    I quickly cut my fabric this width to fit through the machine…    Done! I laid four layers of fabric on the die… 

Put the cutting mat on top

 and rolled it through..lickity split!!

  It took me a little over an hour to cut all this fabric!!  Using my old rotary cutter this would have taken me two days (seriously..I have arthritis in my thumb and wrist..it would have taken me TWO DAYS!)

Now I need to cut 2 1/2 inch squares for the centre blocks…sewww…I cut 2 1/2 strips… 

 and then cut the strips to fit through the machine going the other way…

..line them up like this…making sure they are nice and straight…

Ooops!!  Forgot to take a picture of my nice stack of 2 1/2” squares…in ONE roll through!!  They looked like these little guys only black.  These yellow squares are the 2 1/2 inch corner blocks…made in one roll just like the black stack!  I’m so loving this!! 

Well that was FUN!!  Now comes the sewing!!  We are making courthouse step blocks.

Using the strips sew one strip to each end of the black centre block.  Trim..then…

sew strips onto the other sides like this..…

Now using the different coloured strips go around the block 3 more times (always starting on the same side that you first started on) until you have finished the block…it will look something like this. 

   Do this 23 more times…until you have 24 blocks.   

Now we are going to make 2 1/2 inch strip-pieced sashing…so….stitch strips together and cut to fit the machine…use your cardboard guide (makes it so easy!!)…

 

Roll it through…

And..PRESTO…I love saying that!!  So easy!

..minutes later…got to love it!!

This is the end of Part 1 of our tutorial…pretty easy wasn’t it…and fast!!

Now comes the FUN PART!!  YOU COULD WIN YOUR OWN GO!! YES!! YOU!!  Thanks to the Accuquilt Go!s  generous offer, I get to give away a GO! Fabric Cutter to one of my followers! And that just might be YOU!!  SO exciting!! 

I’m so thankful and thrilled to have made such wonderful blogging friends…thanks to GO! I get to thank one in a very special way!!  So THANK YOU ACCUQUILT GO! for letting me play Santa!!

So the Rules of the Give Away are VERY simple~

1. For one entry, leave a comment that you are a follower.  If you would like to become a follower then please do so…it’s always nice to make new friends!!

2. If you blog about my give away then let me know and I will enter your name again.  Please do this in a separate comment.

The Give Away will end on Aug. 31.  GIVE AWAY IS NOW OVER!! I will randomly pick the lucky winner and post the results that morning!!  Please make sure that you have left a way for me to contact you.

That’s it…pretty easy…just like the GO! machine!  If you have an extra minute then you should stop by the Accuquilt GO! Online Store…and have a look at the different dies.  Accuquilt let me pick out three dies … you really should see which ones you would like…because you never know!!  You just might WIN!! 

So while you are doing that, Lady GO! GO! and I will be frantically sewing the rest of this quilt…I have 10 more blocks to sew and more pieced sashing to cut…(that’s the fun part!!) 

Have a Special Sunday and Happy Quilting and GOOD LUCK!!~P

Marie’s Sew and Tell…

Although Marie doesn’t have a blog (yet!), we frequently ‘chat’…mostly about wool and wool projects and dyeing wool and finding wool bargains and Wool Crazy blocks…and…well…you get the idea…anything that has to do with wool!  Obviously Marie shares my love of wool and is just as Wool Crazy as I am!! 

Recently Marie sent me these pictures~ which I just HAVE to share with you!  She entered her projects in her local County Fair and by the looks of things she cleaned up!!

This is from an Eleanor Burn’s pattern…called ‘Night and Day’.

One of my favourites!!

An adorable penny!!

A wee baby quilt…

Rooibos…a Schnibbles quilt…loving it!!

I LOVE this tumbler quilt..look at how the edges are wavy…!!  Gorgeous!!  WHAT?!!  No blue ribbon…well I would give you a BLUE for this one for sure!!  You were robbed!!

Oh…oh…has she got the selvage bug??  Too cute..and it looks like the Judges thought so too! 

Is there ANYTHING this gal CAN’T do?  Wow!!

Have you EVER seen SEW many blue ribbons?  You could easily make a blue ribbon quilt!

Thanks for sharing, Marie!!  I think you need to start sharing on a regular basis…in other words…YOU NEED A BLOG!!  :o)

Tomorrow I start my Accuquilt tutorial… then I can have my GO! Give Away!! Sew exciting!!

Have a super Saturday and Happy Quilting!!

Wild and Woolie…

Kaaren from The Painted Quilt invited me to join a Round Robin Wool Crazy Pin Cushion group…Where four of us each start our own wool pin cushions…make the round 8 inch wool crazy mat, stitch the first appliqué and then mail it on its way.  It will visit three quilters on it’s journey. 

Its first stop will be in Oregon, USA where it will meet Lori (Humble Quilts)!  Then its on to Ontario, Canada where it will meet Kaaren and finally to Karen’s (Log Cabin Quilter)

The ‘theme’ of my little mat is “The Four Seasons”…Spring has come…I wonder what season Lori will be stitching?

We will be posting about our little mats as they make their little journey…wouldn’t it be nice if I could hand deliver my little mat?  Can’t you see it?  “I’M HERE!!”

But then I have to stay home and wait for my little bundle which is coming from Karen…And I wonder what I will be stitching next?  SEW exciting!!

Have a FUN Friday and Happy Quilting~P

PS  Kaaren from the Painted Quilt has released the second Raggedy Andy BOM…and he is adorable…hurry over now before you forget!!