My Christmas Present!

 

What a great holiday! I've been so busy with my sons visiting, I haven't even sat down at the computer. We had a great time, from sitting around talking or relaxing with a movie, to going on a Segway tour of San Antonio! (I was terrified that I wouldn't like that, but it was so much fun I'm ready to go again! We sailed over sidewalks and through parks and plazas with the sun warming us up. It was a blast!!) My sons are hilariously witty and entertaining, so everything we did turned out to be funny! We made some new memories that we can talk about during holidays to come.

The little "flimsy" above (actually it is pretty large) was made with what Santa brought me this Christmas. I haven't finished it yet. I'm thinking of putting a design element in the corners.

This is my new Accuquilt Go!. I've already gotten a pretty good start on wearing out one cutting mat! I've never been big on piecing as my favorite method is applique. I think this machine will make it easier to do more piecing in addition to that. The quilt top was made while my husband watched a couple of football games this weekend. 

As a former teacher, I have been familiar with die cutters for quite some time. In the past, they were designed for paper and the librarian at our school warned us all that each die cost around $100! We were not even allowed to do our own cutting because she was afraid we might ruin one of those expensive dies. (She was also afraid we might stick our hand over the die while cutting and end up with a hole in our hand! Teachers are often treated as children. I don't know why!) Thankfully, the Go! is designed for fabric and the dies, although still relatively expensive, are not as expensive as the ones we had at school. If you cut your fabric into strips just a little larger than the die, you can limit waste. I used mostly scraps from my scrap bin to make the quilt top above. This made accuracy so easy! Everything went together quickly and easily, which is important to me.

If you haven't tried a Go! yet, you might want to put it on your list for the next big gift giving holiday.