Thread: guess what I bought - never expected to

Went into a lqs while visiting in Manalapan, NJ, just to pass the time. I bought two halloween fabrics to add to my collection for a halloween quilt. As I was paying, the sales person off-handedly said to me, "Do you want to buy an accuquilt studio? It's used, but works fine. $200!. It includes all these dies."

I thought about it for about 5 seconds. called DH to let him know I was buying it. He wanted to know if it had a warrantee. No. I told him to think of it as Merry Christmas and happy birthday.

It's the Studio model, very heavy. My sister and I played with it today. I had a brainstorm - I mostly strip piece and there were no strip cutters in the set of die. So I took a 9" mis-cut strip and a 6.5" square die, folded the fabric so it only cut on two sides of the square, and cut. It works, I have strips!"
That saves me buying a few strip dies, and they are expensive!

You really lucked out finding that at such a good price.

Yes, it is nice, and the staff is wonderful.

You have to cut fabric 9" inches to get strips? You got a great deal, use the money you saved and buy the strip die, you won't regret it.

No, I had mis-cut a 10" strip at 9" so used it to experiment. The die was 6.5" square, so I got a 6.5 " strip, a 1/2" strip and a 2 inch wide strip out of it. I probably won't use the .5" strip, but the 2" strip will definitely find a home in a quilt one of these days.

I think that fabric waste can be minimized by planning ahead. My 9" 'mistake' strip was cut straight. If it had been off in any other way, there may have been more waste.

My sister is cutting some odd shaped scraps from my Mom's stash into 4.5 inch patches, so someone will get a cute little scrappy quilt in the future. So I think this pricey device will get a lot of use.

Fibro and arthritis sometimes make it very uncomfortable to cut fabric, so I am thrilled to have lucked into this deal, believe me!

Congratulations!
I have the regular GO! And want to figure out how to put a motor to it. I refuse to buy the electric one. I haven't approached my hubby about this "honey do".

Originally Posted by Tiggersmom

Congratulations!
I have the regular GO! And want to figure out how to put a motor to it. I refuse to buy the electric one. I haven't approached my hubby about this "honey do".

Yes, congrats on your treasure find......I have the GO and luv it. Actually used it yesterday with newly purchased flying geese die.....cranked out many birds in no time flat....and very little waste...worth it for accuracy when sewing perfect geese!

Hmm, about that motor....many yrs ago I use to preserve tomatoes for red sauce and had a handcrank gizmo that squashed the tomato meat, separating the seeds and skin from it...but hand ranking is very fatiguing so DH rigged up his hand drill to make it turn that thing. He is no longer here, wish I was clever enough to figure it out. But in the meantime.....not that hard to handcrank....better that slipping rulers and dull rotary cutters!

congrats and good luck with it.