Half Square Triangles and Accuquilt Go
 

I'm ready to cut my first HST on the 6.50" die. Have any of you done this, and then to you have to paper piece this triangles before sewing. Or do you press on stabilizer before you run through the die. I practiced this with muslin and when starting to sew the point would go down in my sewing machine. Don't know if it. was because of the type of fabric or if this will happen with all of the triangles which have been starched heavily.

Using a 'leader' will help prevent the tip of the triangles getting eaten by your machine. A leader is just a small scrap that you start the sewing with, when you're chain piecing.

Bonnie Hunter's take on this ... http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2005/0...-and-hows.html

My best advise (this is what i do and been told by my dealer) is to use a single hole needle plate. I used to us the wide hole plate because of doing decorative stitches, but when i want to piece corner shaped pieces i use the single hole and the machine doesn't eat my fabric anymore.
Hope that helps

Thank you Linda, I used the leaders when I practiced on the muslin, and it didn't help.

Charming - I'll try that - I have a Baby Lock and it came with the single hole plate. What a good idea.

The problem you are having isn't because of the die, it's your sewing machine. Any triangle you sew is going to do this. A single hole plate will help, also make sure your needle size isn't too large, or you are using a dull needle. If you are still having problems, your idea to paper piece is good, but overkill. Don't need to have paper under the entire seam. Just try using a small square of tissue paper under the leading edge of the triangle, & let it stick out a quarter inch or so in front of it so you can sew a couple stitches on the paper then the paper & fabric.

I gave up on my Go Baby and went back to Edyta Sitars half square triangle papers. Always perfect and no wasted material. Two pieces of material, 6.5 x 21" equals 28 perfect 2" half sq. Triangles in about 10 min. Never a bad one! Material is getting too expensive to waste!

I agree with PaperPrincess. My Bernina 1230 doesn't eat triangle points, even with the wide hole plate in it. Her suggestion to use just small squares of tissue paper underneath (if the single hole plate isn't enough to prevent the problem) is genius!

Interesting! Was going to buy a HST die, but might just stick to sewing two squares right sides together 1/4 inch from centre diagonal line, then cutting on the centre line....

I like using the Go dies for HST's -- very accurate in part because all the "dog ears" are cut off. Makes lining them up easy. For me, these are more accurate than when I used to sew squares together; however, as I mentioned, my machine does not "eat" triangle points.

I use dies for as many cuts as possible if I have the die..if not it goes on my list of "buy"...it's not the die, it's the machine eating the triangles...let us know your solution...sometimes it takes several little tricks to get it to work on the machine

Same with me about the dies.
Sometimes my ends will be eaten by machine no matter what I do so I start sewing with the ends behind the needle, sew the seam and then finish sewing the end I started. My thinking is find the frustrating part and do away with it, don't fight it.

You can use a leader to start so that your fabric doesn't get sucked in or you can use a piece of stabilizer either tear away or water, put it under the fabric with a little sticking out to hold onto and it'll prevent those points from going into the hole. If you have a single hole needle plate this would also be the time to use it.

The biggest thing about cutting with the Accuquilt, you have to pay attention to the grain or the size won't be right. Ask me how I know this.

I cut scraps on my Go anyway they will fit and very seldom on grain. I haven't noticed any difference in how the triangles or other odd cuts fit together or different sizes after sewing. I wonder why the difference?

I have HST dies and don't have a problem. That being said, I have a single hole plate and I do use leaders and enders

Thank you all for your suggestions - can't wait to try them. As far as the HST die goes - I practiced cutting on the muslin and it cut beautifully. I'll let you all know which technique solves my machine problems. It really ticks me off that this machine (had it 6 months) does this. It is the Baby Lock Crescendo.

It may depend on the size of the die. With smaller pieces, the distortion will be insignificant. With the 5" square die, quite a few people have noticed that if you are not careful with the grain, there will be 1/8" difference in sides. This is probably because the roller stretches the fabric slightly as it goes through the machine. If the pressure of the roller is in the direction of a bias grain, the stretch will be significantly more than if it is on the lengthwise grain of the fabric. Starching fabric heavily before running through the Go! helps, as does using paper between the fabric and the mat. But if the die-cut pieces are small, the distortion may be too insignificant to affect piecing.

Here to report that Paper Princess's suggestion of using tissue paper as a leader, with a little paper under where seam will start, worked perfectly. Thank you, Thank you.

I love it when someone reports back! :)