Kissing Booth Bag

So, for the past week I have been working on a couple new tote designs and this is one the designs I came up with. I just received my 2" squares die and was itching to use it. This is what I came up with and  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

The 6 1/2" Trick

About a week ago I had brilliant idea come to me while having my morning cup of coffee. I swear we would still be in the dark ages without that stuff! Anyhow, I love layer cakes and I have been dreaming of an Accuquilt die that would cut them easily into this one simple configuration without having to do anything other than plop the stack of fabric down and crank. I know, I know, there are lots of Accuquilt dies that will get the job done but I wanted one that cut the whole thing at once. Well the new die release came and went and there was nothing new for the Studio. Then, that faithful morning I realized, I already owned the die that can cut this block!! Yipee! The block I am talking about is this.

It's just a very simple 4 piece block but the cool part is that I cut this whole block with 1 die and it cut all 4 piece at the same time. I know, cool aye? Well here is how I did it. This will only work with the Studio cutter because you need to use the 6.5" square die that cuts 4 at a time. You just take you stack of 10-10"x 10" squares and lay it on the die carefully lining up 2 of the 4 side with the die blades like this. Take your time and line it up carefully or you will end up chopping off fabric and it won't be accurate.

From here you just send it through the rollers and BAM, this is what you get.

When you sew it together you can flip the pieces so you get a block that you dont have to match up any seams which is great for a beginer quilter. It's not rocket science but it sure makes cutting out one of my favorite quick and scrappy quilt blocks a lot quicker.

I love Accuquilt!

What did I do before I had my Studio cutter?

Red White & Blue

Spent the morning trying to deceide how I want to quilt my latest scrappy creation. It's a little  45" x 45" wall quilt made of all my leftover triangle and squares from another project.  I was planning on turning it into a big dog bed for the Min Pins to fight over but I think I like it to much to let it go to the dogs. The clock is ticking so it's tempting to just throw some meander on it and call it done but I really want to try something new. I'm thinking loops and stars.

Studio String Quilt Blocks

It's no secret that I LOVE my AccuQuilt Studio cutter.  I enjoy using it every chance I get and I get so excited when I stumble on a way to use I die that I already own in a creative new way.  My latest obsession is the 6.5" square that cuts multiples.  I have come up with 5 or 6 ways to use this die other just cutting plain ol' squares...not that using it to cut squares is anything less than amazing:)

A couple of weeks ago I started a string quilt and of course used my Studio cutter to cut all the strips. As I started sewing the strips to the foundation I started to wonder if there was a faster way.  Now I'm a pretty fast chain piecer but I'm always looking for a way to supercharge the process:)  I thought for a while and realized the answer was sitting right in front of me.  My 6.5" multiples die.

The conclusion I came to was that it would be much faster for me to piece larger blocks and cut them down  than piece them individually. This such a simple idea but saved me lots of time.  This is how I did it.

First I pieced all my strips to 14" x 14" muslin squares. 

Next, I stacked 4 blocks on my die making sure that the blocks extended past the die blades on all sides. Don't forget to count the foundation fabric and seam allowances as a layers to avoid damaging your die. 

And this is what you get......16 perfectly cut string quilt blocks ready to piece.

In a blink of an eye I had all the blocks I needed to complete my quilt and the best part is that each block is perfectly die cut to precisely to 6.5" x 6.5".  I love how random string quilts are but I also love accuracy.

Win, Win!