Surely you have seen the GO! Baby Fabric cutters make an
appearance in the crafty blogosphere in a
quite a few places recently. I must admit that I got pretty curious about
it too, so when the people over at
Accuquilt contacted me about trying out
their nifty machine I just couldn’t resist! I’m a bit clumsy when it comes to neatly cutting
stuff for quilts and/or patchwork projects so the idea of creating lots of
neatly cut shapes almost effortlessly was tempting. I was also slightly worried, what if I didn’t
like it... or worse, what if I couldn’t figure out how to handle the GO! Baby
Fabric cutter? I needn’t have worried: I have been happily cutting squares,
circles and strips since it arrived!
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| Go! Baby Fabric Cutter hiding in my fabric cabinet |
When my Go! Baby Fabric Cutter was delivered I was surprised
at how small it was (there is also a bigger ‘Studio’ version available) and
surprisingly heavy for it’s size too! I guess it needs to be on the heavy side
to keep things stable while you are using it. GO! dies come in all shapes and
sizes. There is a wide choice of appliqué designs for example and many ‘classic’
quilt shapes like squares, triangles and tumblers. My first choice was the 2.5”
strip cutter, primarily because I dislike cutting strips for binding ( I always
make my strips for quilt bindings 2.5” wide).
So last week when I need to make a (scrappy) binding I cut my strips
with the GO! Cutter and I produced my best binding ever in no time at all. I thought it would also come in handy (with the
Scrap Vomit Quilt in mind…) to make lots of 2.5” squares fairly quickly!
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| Go! Baby in action. Fabric is put on die, then put cutting mat on top and turn the handle! |
The second die I chose was a ‘value pack’ with a
2.5” square, two (2.5” wide) triangles and a 4.5” square. Because there is some
loss of fabric cutting squares I think this particularly die is great to use up
scraps. The brilliant thing about the triangle is the added seam allowance
which makes it super easy to make perfect half squares triangles etc.
My third choice were the circle dies (2,3 and
5”) I would have loved some other ‘difficult
-to- cut-shape’ dies as well like a
tumbler or diamond but finally settled for the circles. You can cut several layers of fabric at the
same time (I used regular quilting cottons) apparently up to 6 layers but I
found that about 3 layers for me was about right.
Tonka and the Stars Pillow Tutorial
After playing around with the squares and circles (I kept ‘feeding’
my GO! Baby Fabric Cutter new scraps, it was kind of addictive) I came up with
this design: Tonka & the Stars. It combines patchwork, appliqué and embroidery. It’s a quite
simple and quick project and we all love instant gratification too
sometimes, right? My pillow cover is 12.25 by 12.25" (an odd size I admit but it worked for the pillow insert I had on hand) but the design is easily adaptable to make larger pillow covers by adding inches or even strips of fabric around the original design.
You will need
- Scraps of blue fabric
- Scraps of yellow/orange fabric
- a 12. 75 by 7 “ piece of linen (cotton/linen blend)
in a natural/oatmeal colour for the front. And a 10 by 12.75” and 8 by 12.75” piece for the back
- Print of the Tonka (hedgehog) pattern. You can download it here.
- Water erasable pen and ruler
- Embroidery Floss and needle
Cut
I started with cutting
16 2.5 “ squares in different shades
of blue and a yellow one as well. For the top strip I cut a 2 by 12.75" piece of dark
blue fabric. And for the back of the pillow I cut a 2.5 by 12.75“ strip of dark blue fabric. From the linen cut
5 2.5" squares and a 12.75 by 7" piece as well. These will form part of the sky
above your buildings. From the yellow/orange coloured scraps I cut three
different sized circles (5”, 3” and 2” diameter) to make a ‘moon’.
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| How squares and circles are arranged |
Sew
Unless stated differently I used a 1/4 an inch seam allowance.
Arrange the blue squares in stacks of various heights to
resemble buildings (or rather a silhouette outline of buildings).‘Top’ the
lower buildings up with the linen squares.(see picture) Sew squares together and sew
rows together. Set aside.
Arrange the three circles placing the smallest circle off center
on the medium sized circle. (see picture) Pin and stitch with a small zig zag
all around (more than once if you’d like) Place your medium size circle on the
largest circle again placing it off center and stitch w zig zag. Take the 12.75 by 7 “ piece of linen and place the largest
circle (with the other circles now sewed on) on the right hand side (see picture, allow ca 1.5" from the top) Again sew on using a zig zag stitch.
Embroider
Use your water erasable pen and ruler to draw two lines from
the top of one of the buildings to the moon. Make sure that the bottom of the ladder is
wider than the top. I made the bottom of
the ladder about 1" wide and the top
about 0.4” wide. Draw steps parallel to the ‘roof’ of your
building and decrease the space between the steps slightly the closer you get
to the moon. Stick your little Tonka the Hedgehog
pattern on a window or put it on a lightbox and use the water erasable pen to
transfer it your fabric near the top of the ladder you just drew. Or, alternatively, draw the hedgehog freehand. Read more about transferring embroidery patterns
here.
For most of the embroidered bits I used all 6 strands of embroidery floss. I used a chunky looking stem stitch for the sides of the
ladder in green (since there were green accents in the ‘moon’ and
in the ‘buildings’) and a back stitch in a slightly darker
shade of green for the steps. Tonka the hedgehog was outlined in a back stitch with in a medium brown shade. The black quills were embroidered in a quite random stitch, much like a seed stitch. Arms and
legs were stitched in black using a back stitch. For the eyes and the tiny nose I used 2 strands of floss and a tiny satin stitch! Add some stars in yellow here and there by making a...Star Stitch!
Cut and Sew a bit more
Are you still with me? Nearly done, we just have to put the parts together now. Trim the patchwork panel by cutting 0.8" off from the sides and bottom. Sew it to the linen 'moon' panel and press. I made a simple 'envelope' style back and used a folded strip on the outer back panel to coordinate with the front of the pillow. Finish the other back panel by folding over the long (12.75") side first by a 1/4 of an inch and again by 1/2 inch and sew the hem.
To make the back lay the back panel (with the strip) onto the front panel (right sides together) and put the hemmed back panel on top of that. Pin all around and sew all panels together. Turn inside out and you are done!
Now I hope you have enjoyed the product review and the Tonka tutorial. Please let me know if something doesn't add up (which could easily be the case with my math skills) and if you decide to make your own Tonka the Hedgehog pillow please post a photo in the
Follow the White Bunny Flickr group or on my
Facebook Page!
If you want to you can subscribe to the Accuquilt mailing list and get lots of free patterns, you can do so by simply clicking this button
Happy Stitchy everyone!
Edit: don't forget to have a peek at the
post above, you can enter my giveaway to win a Go! Fabric Cutter all for your self! Yay!
