I said in my last post that I was a Gadgeteer, and today my biggest gadget purchase arrived.

I've wanted one of these for ages, but I couldn't really convince myself that it was necessary, or an economical way to cut shapes. Then I saw that there are new die shapes that combine the pieces with very little wastage, and that decided it for me. The die that comes with the cutter is OK, but I don't know that I'll use it much, once my other dies arrive from the US. It's very wasteful if you cut all the shapes from one big piece, and too fiddly to position individual scraps of fabric over each shape.  However, it's all I've got, so I'm playing with it.

I cut enough pieces for 12 HSTs with each pass, and built up a satisfying stack of pieces in no time at all.

  Now I'll sew them all, and see how accurate they are.  I'm quite erratic with my rotary cutting at times, so all I'm looking for is an acceptable degree of accuray; I'm used to fudging.  Mereth took a stack home to sew on her machine; if she likes them we'll have a big scrap cutting session one weekend.

A year ago I was tempted, but didn't buy the Accuquilt Go; 12 months later I'm thinking that it can save my wrists from the pain of a lot of rotary cutting, make life easier on my hands and eyes, and get me off my feet during long cutting sessions.  Some days it just hurts all over to stand at the cutting table; I must be getting old.

A die cutter can't replace a rotary cutter in my sewing room, but I hope that it will be useful for all the repetitive fiddly bits that are so tiring on the hands and eyes.  And I certainly hope it helps reduce the stack of scraps laying around!

I've been doing a bit of sewing, trying to find the perfect measurement for the elongated hexagon quilt.

This is close, but I'll try again with an extra 1/2" in the height;  It probably won't make a lot of diference, but the proportions will be closer to the original in the book.  It's lots of fun to sew, I'm looking forward to getting this underway soon.

I've decided to pack away all the distracting bits and pieces that I use as leader-enders, and just sew some 16-patches.  I've always wanted to make this quilt, in a 1985 Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts.

It's so simple to whip up the 6" blocks, I think they will work well as a secondary project.

The weather is cold and rainy again, which makes working in the garden undesirable.  I limit my gardening to picking the latest flowers, including lots of daffodils and jonquils.  Pulling up weeds can wait for a nice sunny day.