romanojg

Hi, sorry that would be me. I've had a very busy week and spend more time on here Sun thru Wed when I'm at work than I do when I'm at home. I have both the Go and the cut n scan. I love the Go, I use it mostly for the rag quilting and my daughter who mainly makes either raq quilts or block quilts uses it to cut her 8in blocks. I've also used the go for some applique designs for the non-ragged side of the rag quilts. You have to be careful to how you place your fabric because of grain and it stretches the fabric as it cuts so you can get blocks that aren't the correct size, ask me how I know. So the Go is good but it is different than the cut n scan.

The cut n scan, I love and I'm still learning. There are 2 CS. One has more features but if you opt for the cheaper you can purchase the additional parts so that it has the same features. The more expensive one is worth the price because you get lots more built in designs and it would cost more to buy those additonal parts that comes with the 2nd one. There are lots of built in designs including quilt blocks. You can resize all of the blocks to get the finished size you want, you can have the machine draw your 1/4 in seam allowance on the block, which is great for all of you who complain you can't get it right on your machine. It even has the HST so you can have the lines drawn on them and just sew the lines and not sew two lines and cut down the middle and resize to what you want, saving time. You can scan in your fabric and either fussy cut your designs where ever you want on the fabric. Its so easy since your fabric will show up on the screen and then you move your block where you want it. You can also have the machine to utilize your fabric and it will chose the best way to layout your designs to minimize waste. You still should be careful with the grain as you would with any cutting, machine or by hand. For cutting on fabric, if you are going to piece it you would starch it to make it more sturdy, if its for something else you can either starch the fabric or use a fusable (any kind of light one would do) on the back of the fabric. By the way, the 1/4 in seam allowance is adjustable, so you can make your seam allowance bigger or smaller, its not just the 1/4. I've used the built in designs to cut halloween decorations with the kids out of construction paper and out of the colored see thru plastic sheets, I used the cheap ones that you buy to separate things in a notebook. The kids had a blast. I also used felt to make footballs to put on the pockets of my quillows for the football fans in my family, there are alot of them except for me. This week I'm doing names on t-shirts for Easter on my emb machine and there are letters and designs for applique so I'll scan in the the shapes and have my machine cut them out so that there will be limited trimming once they are sewed on. Lets see, you can also scan in your kids art work and make designs from them or you can use the scanner to scan in the artwork or photos or documents, etc to your pc for storage. You can have your kids or your can scan in your own signature and the machine will cut them out, what a way to save your kids handwriting as it evolves over yrs in scrapbooks. You can make holiday cards. There are so many things it will do but I think the scanning feature is the best. Right now I'm also working on scanning in those 18in doll patterns so that the machine will mark the seam allowance and cut them out for me. You can save your designs on the machine or a USB. You can take mulitple designs and weld them together to create one design. Brother has lots of tutorials on this along with lots on You Tube. Yes, there is a learning curve but most things in our lives have them. It took me most of the day to figure out why some of my 5in blocks I was cutting with the GO was accurate and some were off. The more it out the more videos and learning tutorials there will be. You can even use the markers and draw your own designs with this machine. You can iron on a sticky fusible like steam a seam and fuse your designs after the machine has cut them to your fabric. Yes, it only cuts one layer at time, but you can put lots of designs on each layer and it cuts faster than the GO when you consider the time you spend cutting the fabric to fit the Go and then placing the fabric on the Go so that the die lines are covered and rolling it thru the machine. The mats can be cleaned with non-alcohol wipes, some use a temp spray adhesive to refresh the tackiness and I've even heard one person who used template plastic placed on the mats to make it last longer, not sure about that but like I said, the longer its out there the more tips will pop up and I never have to buy additional dies or shapes and if I don't have a certain shape I can create it and scan it in, I don't have to order it online or go to the store to buy it and of course that also depends on if the make a die for the shape I want. Since its so new there aren't as many who can successfully demonstrate it in the store, even though they sell it as there should be. I have lots of Sew n Vac's around here but only one that has really tried to learn all the tricks to this machine. I'm still learning as I said and there have been times I got really frustrated, the last time was me having brain loss because I was pushing the thing that holds the cutter blade in the wrong direction the wrong way and couldn't figure out for a couple of hours why it wasn't cutting. If you have any more questions ask and if I dont' know or can't figure it out I'll call one of the stores and try to find out. The biggest down size of this is that I'll eventually have to buy a new mat or replace either the permanent or the temp ink pens or new blades but most of the machines out there have addtional cost, like having the right die that you need. Please be patient for me to repsond but I'll try to get back to you within the week you ask. Best days are Sun thru Wed.