Using my Accuquilt GO

When I’m ready to start a new project, I’ll start thinking about quilts on my wish list and the GO dies I have. Being able to cut one of my scrap quilts with the GO helps me get to the piecing part a lot quicker.

If you’re used to drafting your own quilts or adapting patterns to meet your needs, this won’t be new to you but I always start by looking at the grid for the block I want to make. In this example, I want to make a quilt using a Shoo Fly block. It’s a 3×3 grid so I know I can easily make it in 3, 6, 9, 12, or even 18 inch sizes using dies I already have.

I’m going to toss out the 3 and 18 inch options as too big or two small and focus on the 6, 9, and 12 inch blocks.

The block is made up of squares and half square triangles.

Remembering that my block is a 3×3 grid, using the dies for the 2 inch finished square and half square triangle gives me a 6 inch block, the 3 inch finished dies give me a 9 inch block, and the 4 inch dies give me a 12 inch block.

I like making 9 inch blocks for many of my donation quilts because I can set blocks 6×8 and end up with a quit that is 54×72 without borders, a good size. But, 48 nine inch shoo fly blocks would look pretty boring just sitting side by side so in this case, I’d go with a twisted setting and make my Shoo Fly blocks 6 inches.

Wouldn’t this make a fun QOV?

Other options I could consider are twisting the red and blue blocks in opposite directions, using an alternate block with the Shoo Fly, or sashing the blocks.

And you know me, I wouldn’t just use one red, one blue, one white fabric in my quilt, I’d use many but I don’t usually take the time to make my drawings scrappy.

Since I’m traveling…I used the Touch Draw app on my iPad to make these examples.

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