Just bought a Go Big!
 

After 3 hand surgeries in 2017, I bought an AccuQuilt Go Big today. I attended an excellent presentation on it today from a company representative. It was excellence but I am starting from complete ignorance. Any tips and tricks for using it? I am particularly interested in how to prepare the fabric for placement on dies. What dies are must? The special package came with the 2 1/2" strip die, the flying geese die and an 8" cube of dies. What else is a must have?
TIA
Terry

Congratulations! I think you will love it.

Regarding fabric, be aware that you don’t have to rough-cut much if you don’t want to. Excess fabric can hang off the edges of the die.

Regarding dies, my advice is to just buy dies for each quilt as you go. You don’t need every die you might use right away. Wait for sales.

My favorite dies are those with odd shapes that would be otherwise difficult to cut — tumbler, hexagons, circles, triangles, etc. I am not a fan of the strip cutters although a lot of people like them. I prefer to use a June Taylor mat to cut strips.

Jumping right in - Press the fabric as you would if you were using a rotary cutter. If you are going to 'fan fold' the fabric for cutting, press the folds as flat as you can. If you don't do that, there could be fabric shifting and you could wind up with "off " cuts. Some fabric can hang over the side of the dies, but there are limits. You'll figure that out as you go.

What dies to get depends on what kind of quilting you do. I do simple quilts, and am very happy with that. So I have several different widths of strip dies, several different square dies, a flying geese die, and some triangle dies in various sizes. That meets most of my needs. My sister, on the other hand, likes to do complex quilts like the Lone Star, so she has dies that allow her to do those small blocks.

Have fun with your Accuquilt. You won't be sorry you bought it!

Be sure to watch the videos on the Accuquilt website--they really show lots of tips and there are free patterns too. One thing I didn't know until I joined the Accuquilt and Beyond FaceBook site was that you can piece fabric together--like with strips, and then cut a shape, like a square or triangle, etc. Sounds like you have a good set of dies to get started--I usually wait for Accuquilt site sales or when i really need a die for a particular quilt to buy more.

I wait for sales, usually around thanksgiving and christmas for sure, others I can't remember. I love my die that cuts qty 54 of 2 1/2" charms at a time. that is a die that cuts 9 squares X 6 layers = 54. I make and swap a lot of charms for scrap quilts . I buy one or two dies at a time, as I need them or they go on sale. No rush. Like fabric, is is extra fun to buy just when you are going to need it. (one trick I have learned over the years is if I buy them through amazon.com, the shipping is free (with prime) and the delivery is about one week faster to my house. And they honor the sales because they are accuquilt's site, not a reseller like joAanns). Enjoy this Go for years and years. Mine shows no sign of wear after many many years.

Go Big!! GO Girl!! I don't have a clue about this but so exciting for you.

I love the hexagons. Those were always hard to cut.

My recommendation is that when you are ready to use the dies, sandwich a clean white paper on top of the fabric. but before the cutting mat and roll the die through the cutter.

Oh, I have about 100 dies. My favorite dies that I use the most are the BOB dies. Blocks on Board. Each one cuts one complete block. I starch the fabric very stiff, iron the heck out of it and so have no problem with the pieces getting wonky (I do this for rotary cutting too.) I eyeball the fabric size I need for the die but will measure if I am short of fabric. All you need is 1/4" pass the blade lines. My Go is as important to me as my sewing machine and cost much less. LOL

Congratulations on your new tool...I’ve used a Go at a few classes and they are neat.