AccuQuilt-A-Palooza! Tutorial and Giveaway, Baby.

Make this quilt...



...with this handy, dandy little dynamo!





 Why do I love thee, Accuquilt GO! Baby? Yeah, here's why I love thee...

I can dig through this hot mess of a collection of scraps {I'm a scrap hoarder, BTW. I keep even the tiniest sliver of beloved fabrics. Sorted into warm and cool tones.}...

Run them through the Accuquilt GO! Baby.....



 

...And I get these little beauties. Couldn't you just eat these like potato chips? Nom, nom, nom.

I'm a huge fan of scrappy quilts. While the Accuquilt Value Die {pictured above} may not be the first choice of experienced quilters, it's the right choice for this gal who loves turning scraps into useful  squares and triangles for projects. It's an efficient way to cut up to 6 layers of fabric at a time, which - hello? - massive time saver.

I got the Value Die, the drunkard's path die and the hexie die. I'll be using the hexie die a lot this week, as I'm planning 2 big projects with the hexies, using the machine to cut shapes for both English paper-piecing and regular Y-seam piecing.

My overall impression of the AccuQuilt GO! Baby:

Portable and compact - easily transportable.

Great selection of dies {Hop over to AccuQuilt.com to peek at the selection}

Very easy to use.

Great tool for cutting blocks with curved pieces, like drunkard's path.

Great tool for cutting complicated pieces, like the hexagon and applique shapes.

Great customer support and service from AccuQuilt.com.

Great community of fanatical Accuquilt users, with tons of free patterns and tutorials.

Thank you to the folks at Accuquilt for sending me and one of my followers one of these GO! Baby machines!!

And for the Modern Scrappy Baby Quilt...

Fabric requirements

90 cool-toned 2.5" squares

90 warm-toned 2.5" squares

{total of half yard of fabric}

90 neutral background 4.5" squares {I used RK Kona Ash}

{total of 1.25 yards of fabric}

~~I used the Value Die to cut out these shapes~~

1.5 yards of quilt backing (I used a sunny yellow}

135" or 4.25 yards of binding {I used RK Tufted Tweets}

This pattern is a reverse of the Road To Tennessee block.  For the R2T, the background fabric is used for the small corner triangles and the print is used as the base. It's one of my favorite blocks due to the ease of construction and versatility of block arrangement. Huge eye-candy payoff without a lot of fuss.



Separate the 2.5" squares into two stacks: warm and cool colors.



Mark the center diagonals with a pencil, chalk pencil or disappearing pen.



Place 2 squares {1 warm, 1 cool} on the background fabric, right sides together, with the corners matching. Make sure the diagonal is facing the correct way {i.e. not pointing into the corner but parallel to it} Pin in place. I pinned all of my squares at once to make it more efficient when I chain-pieced them.

Sew along the diagonal line. I chain pieced one side of these blocks and then did the other side all at once. I clipped the threads after I was done with all of the chain piecing.

Both sides attached.

Trim both sides 1/4" away from the seam. Fold open and press. I'm a press-my-seams-open kind of gal, but press them to the side if you prefer. Repeat with all 90 blocks.

This is my preliminary design up on my design wall. {10 across, 9 down}You can make another row {for a total of 100 blocks} and center the "bullseye" if you'd rather. I like that the design is off-center, but you can lay this quilt out however it pleases you.

Before you sew these blocks together, make sure the diagonal lines of color match up. When the line changes direction, the color will change. {In this layout, I made a mistake with the color sequence in the  top left and middle sections, but I fixed it in the final piecing. Refer to the finished quilt pic.}

This shows how I pieced the blocks together. I did them in sections, mostly because I find it a little easier to match seams when working with smaller chunks of blocks.

This is a close-up look at how crispy those seams are. I'm far from a seam-matching perfectionist, but you can see how nicely these little babies line up. Mmmm.

My friend Lynn Marie, who is a fairly new quilter, quilted this for me. She was so excited that I had enough confidence in her ability to do it. She did simple straight-line quilting through the center of each background piece to emphasize the diagonal movement of the blocks. She used a gray thread to blend with the background fabric.

This quilt measures 32 x 35. It can be made larger just by adding more rows of blocks. And you can vary the design by either centering the bullseye or doing it off-center like I did in this one. Quick and easy to put together and super-economical if you use your scraps to make it. This is a gender neutral quilt, but how sweet would this be in soft florals and ginghams for a baby girl or made with modern, Japanese prints for a boy?! Or what a great bed-size project made with solid fabrics for a manly-man quilt! {Insert happy sigh}

Who wants an AccuQuilt GO! Baby?

You'll receive the machine plus 3 dies of your choice - shipped right to you from the AccuQuilt peeps! All of this swag is worth up to $200!

6 {yeah, 6!}chances to win:

1. Leave a comment telling me which dies you would pick if you won.

2. Leave a second comment if you follow this blog.

3. Leave a third comment if you follow me on Twitter.

4. Leave a fourth comment if you tweet about this giveaway.

5. Leave a fifth comment if you sign up for AccuQuilt emails to receive 22 free patterns!

6. Leave a sixth comment if you "Like" AccuQuilt on Facebook.

Winner will be chosen Tuesday, Nov. 22 at noon!

Oh, and make sure you pop over to Moda Bakeshop today and check out Uncle Sam's Quilt made with American Banner Rose!

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