AccuQuiltGO! Fabric Cutter Starter Set

I decided to try my hand at quilting late last year and immediately fell in love with it! I love choosing the fabrics, matching them together, trying out new designs and arrangements, and I even love working with my sewing machine.What I did not love was CUTTING the fabrics! I would spend hours leaning over the table, lining up the ruler, trying to make straight cuts with a rotary cutter, trying to fix that wonky cut I just made, replacing the rotary blade because it was skipping tiny sections of the fabric that I'd have to go back over with scissors... I would delay starting a new quilt just because the thought of all the cutting kind of bummed me out. Not to mention the hand, arm and BACK pain that went along with it.While looking on Amazon for some new quilting notions, I ran across the AccuQuilt Fabric Cutter. After reading about it, I was super excited! I won't lie, the price slowed me down a little, but after considering:The time I spent cutting fabrics for each quiltThe amount of wasted fabric I had from the slip of the ruler or cutterThe resulting pain from leaning over the table while cutting the fabricThe increase in productivity I could have by cutting down my cutting time..I decided, let's give it a shot! And good Lord, I am so glad I did. I have cut so much fabric with the AccuQuilt GO! I now spend a few hours on the weekend cutting fabric with this, and I have enough material to keep me quilting all week long. The wasted fabric produced by this cutter is minimal. The accuracy of the cuts has made my quilts come out looking so much better.So with this kit, I received:The AccuQuilt GO Fabric CutterThe "value die"- this cuts a 4.5" square, a 2.5" square, and a 2" half square (triangle)A 6"x12" cutting matA die pick (used for cleaning bits of string and fabric out of the dies)A pattern bookThe cutter is basically ready to go right out of the box. You just place it on a table, pull both sides down to open it up and BAM, you're ready to go. So you get your cutting die, lay some fabric on it, place the cutting mat over that, and run the die through the cutter. The handle used to roll the die through the cutter is very easy to turn. Once the die comes out on the other side, lift up the cutting mat and you'll have perfectly cut pieces of fabric.As far as how many layers of fabric you can cut at once, I've cut:Up to 6 layers of flannel8 layers of cotton fabric2 layers of fleeceThese may not be the amounts recommended by the manufacturer, but I've had no problems with it so far. I will say this though, the more layers you try to cut at once, the harder it is to turn the handle on the fabric cutter. If you get overly ambitious and try to cut too many layers, you can cause the bar on the cutter to bend, then your cutter is pretty much kaput. Be nice to your machine!There are also tons of different dies you can buy to use with this machine as well. I've purchased the 6" square, the 2.5" strip cutter (perfect for binding strips!), a 8" rag square (love love love this one!), and a few others. I intend to collect them all, hehe.Also worth mentioning, the cutting mats do tend to wear out fairly quickly. To get the most mileage out of them, make sure you rotate the mat a different way each time you make a cut. I just turn mine clockwise each time. After a few cuts, I turn the mat over, and use the opposite side for a while.I use my 8" rag square die a lot. That die wears out only the outer edges of the 10"x10" cutting mat. Once it's too worn to be used with the rag square, I use the center of it for cutting smaller squares, like the 6" squares.A quick tip for cleaning the dies:The die pick included with the cutter does a decent job, but man, it's slow. I found a video on YouTube with a lady that recommends using a pair of needlenose pliers to clean the dies. It's works fantastically! Here is a link if you'd like to see how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN1gBtea_DcAs a matter of fact, there are tons of videos on YouTube showing how this cutter works along with some great project ideas.In regards to SAFETY... the dies are made up of a piece of wood with blades that form the shape you want to cut out attached to it, and foam covering the blades. The blades are very, very sharp! The newer dies have a two tone color system on the foam that shows the outline of the blades. The older dies do not. It's highly recommended that you get a sharpie and outline the ones that don't have it outlined already. Always be super careful when using and cleaning the dies.Overall, I absolutely love the AccuQuilt GO Fabric Cutter. It has made quilting so much more enjoyable for me.

The media could not be loaded. AccuQuilt Go Fabric Cutter / B0021F62D6I love quilting, but I'm having a harder and harder time making quilts due to some persistent back pain from my scoliosis. The fabric cutting portion of any quilt project is where I really struggle - all that bending over, measuring, and pressing and moving the rotary cutter just causes me all kinds of problems. The light came on when I noticed my friend (who works with paper crafts) using a die cutter to create paper shapes and I had to wonder if something like that existed to cut shapes for quilts.A lot of research later, I decided on an AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter. The pros of the AccuQuilt is that it seems to be the most affordable fabric cutter out there, and the machine is small and portable for home hobbyists. The cons are that a new die has to be bought for each shape and dimension that you might want to use - it's not like a paper cutter where you can adjust down from 3.5" to 2.5" on a whim. However, since I almost exclusively use 3.5" squares in my quilting, this wasn't a drawback for me - I bought the 3.5" die to go along with the fabric cutter and anything else I need I will continue to hand-cut for as long as I can.This machine is so easy to use. The quilt I'm working right now needs 60 squares of pink. The die I bought cuts two 3.5" squares per layer of fabric, and I can fit 8 layers of fabric in a single run through the machine. That's four runs through the machine for 64 squares - and I accomplished all that, straight out of the box, without reading the user manual, in less than 30 minutes. That level of work would have taken me at least 3-4 hours by rotary cutter, and my back would be aching afterwards.The two biggest complaints that I've seen for the AccuQuilt is that (a) the rotary mats have to be replaced periodically, and (b) there's some serious fabric waste to consider. For the first issue, the mats, I don't foresee a problem. The mats are much thicker than the rotary mats I've bought in the past, so they should last comparably long, and the mats are pretty cheap on the AccuQuilt site, especially compared to mat prices at my local fabric store. I have to cop to the second point, though - the die could be laid out a lot more efficiently to prevent wastage and I'm surprised it's not. AccuQuilt does make and sell strip cut die, which will cut two clean 3.5" strips side-by-side (as opposed to two squares) and that looks a lot more efficient in terms of fabric use, but then of course you still have to whip out the rotary blade to cut the squares out of the strips. I'm going to try it and see how it goes, anyway.I recommend the AccuQuilt fabric cutter system if (a) you use the same basic shapes frequently, and (b) you like to collect fabric scraps for scrap quilts. I'm so glad I bought one and only wish I'd found it years ago.~ Ana Mardoll

Shipping was quick. Comes with 1 die that is often used. Just need to figure out what other dies to buy. Seems to work well. My wife, the quilter, loves it. If Mama is happy I am happy.