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The longer of it: I wanted to GO! for two reasons. First, I have carpal tunnel syndrome and using a rotary cutter is extremely painful for me. A few minutes of rotary cutting can result in several days of sore wrists and numb hands. Second, my cuts are never as accurate as I would like. I hoped the GO! would help in both areas.

I have not been disappointed. The crank handle on the cutter is large enough to comfortably hold on to, and easy to turn. It gets harder as you add more layers. I’ve put up to 8 layers through the cutter. 4 layers is probably best, 6 can be a chore to crank. At 8 layers I could barely force it through. With 8 layers, there were also some small places where the die did not cut completely through the top layer of fabric. I would probably not do that many layers again. But, even after manhandling the cutter this way, my wrists never cause me any discomfort after using the GO!

The accuracy has been very good. I recently finished the quilt top for a baby quilt for a soon-to-be-nephew, and the difference between this top and one that I hand-cut is noticeable. I did not have to square up the individual patches or the finished top. Best of all, the cutting was done in less than thirty minutes and I was on to piecing. The included value die has an assortment of sizes; I have been running all of my scrap fabric through on that die. Scrap fabric I would have considered too small to save before; now with one pass through here becomes usable pieces. In that respect, it has helped me be much more efficient, and MUCH less fabric gets tossed.

The cutter folds up for storage, so it doesn’t take up valuable space in my sewing area. It comes in a heavy drawstring bag, so I can fold it and slide it in the bag and know that it won’t get damaged. Last time I used the cutter, my usual table was occupied with another project, so I opened the cutter up on my ironing board, ran my fabric through, and put it away. Under five minutes and I had the binding strips cut and the GO! put away again.

For me, it’s a win.

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I love quilting, but I’m having a harder and harder time making quilts due to some persistent back pain from my scoliosis. The fabric cutting portion of any quilt project is where I really struggle – all that bending over, measuring, and pressing and moving the rotary cutter just causes me all kinds of problems. The light came on when I noticed my friend (who works with paper crafts) using a die cutter to create paper shapes and I had to wonder if something like that existed to cut shapes for quilts.

A lot of research later, I decided on an AccuQuilt Go! fabric cutter. The pros of the AccuQuilt is that it seems to be the most affordable fabric cutter out there, and the machine is small and portable for home hobbyists. The cons are that a new die has to be bought for each shape and dimension that you might want to use – it’s not like a paper cutter where you can adjust down from 3.5″ to 2.5″ on a whim. However, since I almost exclusively use 3.5″ squares in my quilting, this wasn’t a drawback for me – I bought the 3.5″ die to go along with the fabric cutter and anything else I need I will continue to hand-cut for as long as I can.

This machine is so easy to use. The quilt I’m working right now needs 60 squares of pink. The die I bought cuts two 3.5″ squares per layer of fabric, and I can fit 8 layers of fabric in a single run through the machine. That’s four runs through the machine for 64 squares – and I accomplished all that, straight out of the box, without reading the user manual, in less than 30 minutes. That level of work would have taken me at least 3-4 hours by rotary cutter, and my back would be aching afterwards.

The two biggest complaints that I’ve seen for the AccuQuilt is that (a) the rotary mats have to be replaced periodically, and (b) there’s some serious fabric waste to consider. For the first issue, the mats, I don’t foresee a problem. The mats are much thicker than the rotary mats I’ve bought in the past, so they should last comparably long, and the mats are pretty cheap on the AccuQuilt site, especially compared to mat prices at my local fabric store. I have to cop to the second point, though – the die could be laid out a lot more efficiently to prevent wastage and I’m surprised it’s not. AccuQuilt does make and sell strip cut die, which will cut two clean 3.5″ strips side-by-side (as opposed to two squares) and that looks a lot more efficient in terms of fabric use, but then of course you still have to whip out the rotary blade to cut the squares out of the strips. I’m going to try it and see how it goes, anyway.

I recommend the AccuQuilt fabric cutter system if (a) you use the same basic shapes frequently, and (b) you like to collect fabric scraps for scrap quilts. I’m so glad I bought one and only wish I’d found it years ago.

~ Ana Mardoll

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I was actually shocked how sparse the text was. The photos you see here at Amazon are in my opinion the “nicest” projects you are going to see in this book. I found the designs awful and ugly. The projects are not ambitious, but on a level with kindergarten projects.

Don’t expect useful tips on carving materials, carving tools and how to do it. Screen printing is mentioned briefly, I think the potato print got the most attention in this book, together with buying a stamp (not carving one!) and using it!

I read the whole book in approximately one hour and a half. I couldn’t find anything noteworthy.

Ambitious crafter might skip this one and save the money.

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I also own Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects witch I enjoyed very much but this new book is definitely her best book published in the USA, Lotta’s writing is sincere and simple, If you are thinking in buying – Lotta Prints – I recommend you get it, you’re in for a Wonderful Treat!