All Systems are GO!

The Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutter

Guess what!? I ordered an Accuquilt GO! from Cutting Art today! I've been wanting one for months... and was half hoping that my husband might order me one for my birthday (in July), but no such luck. It wasn't until I 'threatened' to buy from the US via eBay that my husband realised that I was serious and agreed that I could order one as an early Christmas present. It then took another month or so to *actually* get him to agree that I could order it *right now*.

Incase you don't know what an Accuquilt GO! is, it's basically a die cutter (think Sizzix, Cuttlebug etc) that cuts fabric. How cool is that?

Ever since my husband and I finally got married (after 11 years and 2 children together!) in April, I've been thinking about making a 'marriage quilt' to commemorate our wedding. I did a bit of research and some thinking about what I actually wanted it to look like, and I settled on the traditional Double Wedding Ring design, incorporating the Rose of Sharon. I'm thinking that I'll do more of a medallion style quilt instead of having the DWR all over the quilt - partly because I've never sewed curved patchwork pieces before. While reading some issues of Australian Patchwork & Quilting (and similar) I saw an ad for the Accuquilt GO! and so I went hunting online to find out more about it.. and well, once I saw that they had dies for the DWR & the Rose of Sharon, fate was sealed!

Now it will only take me a short eternity to make the marriage quilt, as opposed to the long eternity it would have taken without the GO!.

Having said that, my first project is NOT going to be the marriage quilt, it's going to be my son's Christmas present.. Bean is 5 years old and absolutely Harry Potter mad. We're reading the books (halfway through book #4 atm) and it's all he and Blossom (3 and a half years old) ever talk about. It's been 4 years since I made his quilt, and so I thought it might be time to upgrade from his baby (cot doona size) quilt to a full size single bed quilt. I thought "Hey, surely there must be Harry Potter fabric.. I should do a google search" and found that yes, there is... it's just hard to get because it's been out of print for nearly 10 years! So I *did* purchase some through eBay in the US, precut into ~4" squares (left over from other projects, I gather) and combined with some co-ordinating non-Harry Potter fabric.

August Wind Quilt Designs - "Split Drunkard's Path"

Given the fabric is already in 4" squares I'm kind of limited by what I can do with it (aside from leaving it as squares) so I've been looking online for inspiration. The first thing that caught my eye was the Accuquilt Blazing Star die (because I was so busy browsing their website) and I also searched some other blazing star style blocks that use diamonds, but neither of the Accuquilt dies will suit my 4" squares. Back to the drawing board. What about a 'chisel' star? Nope, still too big. And then I found it. While googling "Drunkard's Path" (I don't even remember why - it could have been because of the super-cute owl tutorial on The Tulip Patch blog) I discovered a design by August Wind Quilt Designs that *looks* like stars, but is actually made by halving drunkard's path blocks!

And even better, Accuquilt has a 3.5" Drunkard's Path die, which should fit perfectly with my 4" squares - yay! But wait, there's still more! Cutting Art was having a 30% off sale on selected Accuquilt dies, so I was able to pick up the DWR die on sale, and I was tempted into also purchasing the baby 2.5" strip cutter (I mean really, how could I not? Not with all those metres of binding in my future!) on sale and then because I just couldn't help myself I indulged and bought the Sunbonnet Sue and the 3.5" Tumbler dies on sale too (as well as the Rose of Sharon & Drunkard's Path which were not on sale). So I have lots of cutting fun coming my way! I can't wait!