I belong to two quilt groups. One of them meets at a quilt shop once a month and pieces for 3.5 hours. This year we chose the book Extraordinary Log Cabins and everyone is making a quilt from one of the patterns in the book.
Log cabin blocks are created with a square, then the rest of the block is created by sewing rectangles to that square. It sounds bland, but if you have a pattern it can produce stunning results. Since all the rectangles for this book are 1.5" in width, to say there is a lot of cutting is an understatement. A group of us met for a cutting party. Two of the ladies have machines called acuquilt go that will cut multiple layers of fabric at one time. (Think die cuts). I was amazed at how quickly the machines cut the strips (and accurately, too!). In less than 2 hours, all my fabric was cut into 1.5 inch strips and I had already started subcutting into the rectangles. They also introduced me to a Creative Grids ruler that allows you to cut multiple strips without ever having to move the ruler, which helps eliminate the fabric shifting and getting an improper cut. Using that ruler, I was able to cut 1,000 squares in about twenty minutes. Granted, that's only because the strips were already cut and ready to go, but I'm still amazed at how much time one ruler saved.
Log cabin blocks are created with a square, then the rest of the block is created by sewing rectangles to that square. It sounds bland, but if you have a pattern it can produce stunning results. Since all the rectangles for this book are 1.5" in width, to say there is a lot of cutting is an understatement. A group of us met for a cutting party. Two of the ladies have machines called acuquilt go that will cut multiple layers of fabric at one time. (Think die cuts). I was amazed at how quickly the machines cut the strips (and accurately, too!). In less than 2 hours, all my fabric was cut into 1.5 inch strips and I had already started subcutting into the rectangles. They also introduced me to a Creative Grids ruler that allows you to cut multiple strips without ever having to move the ruler, which helps eliminate the fabric shifting and getting an improper cut. Using that ruler, I was able to cut 1,000 squares in about twenty minutes. Granted, that's only because the strips were already cut and ready to go, but I'm still amazed at how much time one ruler saved.
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