Scrap Therapy: Marathon Cutting with the Go! Big

 

No weekly Friday finish today.  I have been busy all week doing some marathon cutting with my new "toy" the Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and major scrap organizing.  After its initial stumble, the cutter has been working great.  And I love it!

I posted about the basketful of scraps that I wanted to tackle; and my first step was to dump the contents on the bed and sort/separate each scrap by size. There was a little bit of everything.

Cut strips in one basket and strings in another. No cutting needed for these.

Any scraps that I thought I could use in the Appalachian Autumn quilt by Bonnie Hunter went into this basket.  I set this aside for now.

This bin holds bits-and-pieces (aka crumbs), some smaller than 1.5".  I was not interested in crumb quilts in the past so I never kept those tiny pieces.  But I see that's quite a bit of fabric that I can't seem to toss out so for now, this is also set aside.

A few years ago I went through another scrap therapy marathon and cut a bunch of 1.5" squares.  They reside in this basket that sits next to my sewing machine for a leader-ender project.  Looks like I'll be adding to this basket.

After all the sorting was done, this bin is what was left.  

The Go! cutter sits on my corner desk right next to my desktop PC.  There is a cabinet beneath which can store dies and the cutter if I ever need to put it away.

I cut 2.5", 4.5" and 5" squares.  I cut and cut and cut until all the scraps in the bin were done.

And since I was on a roll, I continued with the scraps I had in a bin by my cutting table.

And then I moved on to cut fabric in my stash.  This stack of 5" novelty strips has been around for years.  I cut them into 5" squares and plan to make I Spy quilts for charity.  I also had a stack of 8" squares (why I don't know) and cut those into 5" and 2.5" squares for more charity quilts.

Now that I have all my scraps cut and organized, I have to figure out what I'm going to do with it all.  I've been surfing the web for scrap quilt patterns and discovered the Quilted Twins Quilt Shop.  They have a Free Pattern Gallery which has a ton of patterns for scrap quilts.  One of the twins, Becky, lives in Poland and designs the quilts.  She has a blog that has more information about her quilts and a few more patterns not in the gallery.  

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I also went through the two small baskets with strips and strings and pulled out the 1.5" strips to add to this bin. It's getting too full to close so it may be time to make a quilt, don't ya think?

I'd like to make this Friendship Star Log Cabin quilt which I made YEARS ago in 2006.  I never completed the quilt and sold the top, which I sincerely regret.  It's shown on a queen-size bed so it's pretty big, probably why I never completed it.

But I do have the pattern and it's on my bucket list.  It'll be my 2021 project.  One year to complete, a little at a time.

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And that's what I've been up to this past week.  I must say it again, I love my Go! Big Cutter.  I know it's not for everyone, mainly the cost, and there is a learning curve.  But for me, it is well worth the expense not to have any pain in my hand and shoulder and maybe even prevent surgery for tendonitis (yes, my quilting friend just had that surgery).

I'm looking forward to starting my next project, Bonnie Hunter's Appalachian Autumn.  I dread making HSTs but am excited to try out the Go! Cutter to make these.  

So until next time ... 

Be happy and keep on quilting!

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