Oh, Yes I Did!

Over the years I have found many ways to cope with Multiple Sclerosis. I have learned that the saying, "where there's a will, there's a way," applies to those of us who love our sewing, piecing, quilting, yet find many challenges as our bodies (especially our hands) betray us.

Enter the Accuquilt Fabric Cutting Machine.

I admit that due to my lack of knowledge, the Accuquilt has always perplexed me. But due to the fact that I have a bum hand, I've kept an open mind. At quilt camp last fall a dear friend, who knows that I'm addicted to teeny tiny piecing, emailed to tell me she had an Aqququilt Go!Big cutter and had designed a one-of-a-kind, custom mini-tumbler die. I could cut 100 mini-tumblers in one pass through of the Go!Big. She told me the sizes to cut my fabrics for the die. Okay, it sounded really cool, I'm game...And more than a little excited!

This is what I did with my mini-tumblers at camp (the pen is for scale).

There are 88 mini-tumblers in a 10 1/2" square. Between 30s fabrics and teenies, I was in heaven. My mind was creatively churning! After seeing the Go!Big Accuquilt in action and doing a little more research, it wasn't long before a Go Big was on its way to my home!

Ta Da--here she is my very own Go!Big Accuquilt Cutter

And, yes, I'm loving it! Of course, I bought some dies and found that cutting with it is fun and a lot less painful for those of us with a bum hand! I also got one of Geri's mini-tumbler dies and am in the process of designing and creating a quilt full of mini-tumblers, which I prefer to call Thimble Tumblers. Sorry that I'm not quite ready to share any pics of my future masterpiece at this point, but I can tell you that it's based on the 10 1/2" square as shown above.

I am hopeful to soon have a workshop focusing on my Thimble Tumbler design.

Another fun thing that has happened: 

Two of my nieces have asked me to show them how to quilt! I'm so excited and we're having a ball. I love getting together with them every few weeks and sharing my quilty knowledge. Here's niece Laura with her 4-patches on the flannel board.

I just received a text from Laura with pictures of some disappearing 4-patches she experimented with. I'm liking it the results. Pretty colors with lots of interest.

I'm sew happy to be blogging again and I have sew much to share! I've updated the Events tab on my blog to keep everyone up to date on where I'll be appearing. Hope to see and hear from you soon.

Until next time...have a quilt-tastic day!