How to Make the Go! Cutter Pay for Itself

I love my gadgets, but growing up as a poor farm girl, making my love of gadgets pay for itself (or at least give the illusion of) is always at the back of my mind. That's why I am a longarm quilter and that's why I teach at my local Bernina shop, Sew from the Heart.

My lastest splurge is the Go! Cutter.... and OMG, I love that tool almost but not quite as much as my Berninas! But... I need to make him (yes, it's a him) pay his way if he's living in my sewing room. So today I decided to put him to work!

I have been quilting long enough to accumulate a growing stash of scraps. Years ago I broke myself of saving every tiny scrap. Now my rule is a 2-1/2" square or throw away. I have a tower of Sterilite drawers for small scraps. For strips, I hang a former hat rack (purchased at Linens N Things years ago) from my closet door.

If I put all the scraps and strips down into a yardage-type layout, I'm certain there would be a few yards of fabrics. What better way to make the Go! pay than to turn these presently unused yards into quilts!

The Birds in the Air block is often touted as being a great scrap block as it uses both small and large scraps. Most of my dies cut sizes that are a multiple of 2" finished, this so I can do scrap quilts. I have the 6" Triangle Die and since this block has a large triangle in it, the 6-1/2" die would be perfect for that patch.

To be certain I was cutting the right sizes, I used EQ7 and printed out the Birds in the Air rotary cutting chart for the 6" finished version. But this is a simple block and could just as easily been drawn up on paper. It took TWO Go! Cutter dies for this block: the 2-1/2 triangles from the Value Die that came with the Go! and the 6-1/2" Triangle die.  Being a quilter, I never refer to these patches as "triangles", they are always "half-square triangles", or as we quilters call them, HSTs. Also, as recommended on so many other blogs, I marked the cutting lines with a Sharpie.

The two 2-1/2" HST pieces on the value die are placed so it's easy to cut these pieces from a strip of fabric. Off to my stash of strips to find a couple to use for this scrap block. Hey, that new 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge from Nancy's Notions is perfect for this job. I set it to 2-3/4" and looked for a strip wide enough from my stash.

The 6-1/2" HST? Well, I had to use a small square up to find the right size for that scrap. Got the scraps together and loaded up the Go! Cutter Value and 6-1/2" Triangle dies and cut.



Oh, wait, the Value die can cut more than HSTs? I try not to let a pass thru the Go! go to waste... since 2-1/2" HSTs also go with 2-1/2" and 4-1/2" squares, back to the scrap drawer! I pulled a few more pieces just the right size so as I cut the triangles on the Value Die, I also cut 2-1/2" squares and 4-1/2" squares to store away for the future.

==>> BIG HINT:

Fabric can stretch up to 1/8” of an inch during the cutting process with the Go! Cutter!!! To minimize and even avoid this problem, following is recommended.

1. Fabric straight of grain should follow the long edge of the die.

2. Fabric with fusible will stretch less than fabric without.
3. Starch will help avoid stretch.
4. The most accurate cuts can be achieved by placing a piece of scrap paper between the mat and the fabric. This is a great use for junk mail and old quilting catalogs! These dies are not dulled by paper. Fabric is cut by applied pressure rather than sharpness.

I layout the block using the printout from EQ7 as a guide.


There are a lot of ways to sew triangles using squares (ie 7/8th's rule), but my favorite and most accurate is to use templates to cut actual triangles. Then when I sew I can visibly see my perfect 1/4" mark on the plate of the machine. The Go! Cutter dies are amazingly perfect cuts, the exact same thing I would cut with my Nifty Notions or Omnigrid HST Rulers. And the points are already clipped. HSTs are not my favorite thing to cut, but with the GO!, wow, this is so fast!





SEWING HINT: To sew the HSTs, use a straght stitch throat plate so the points don't get "eaten" by the machine. At the end, to avoid that twist ALL machines like to do, put your index finger next to the foot and let the foot help you to guide the fabric straight. I also like to use my seam ripper as a stilletto to help as well.

Stitch order.... sew the triangles together to make three 2-1/2" squares. Notice I keep my EQ7 printout at hand so I don't mess up the layout. I can do that, easily!

Sew the three squares and the center triangle together to make a center unit. Now add the two wings. This picture shows the center piece sewn together. The two wings are added last.


To sew on the wings, just line up the straight edges and sew.  

My finished Birds in the Air block. Notice how crisp the point are. And it is actually square, the large triangle won't stay flat for the photo!


When I lay the block flat against the ruler, it measures a perfect 6-1/2" square. A fun block for a great scrappy quilt.... scrap stash watch out... you are going DOWN!!!


An Adobe PDF copy of the Birds in the Air EQ7 block I used for layout is available for download. Click HERE.