GO 1930's With The Dresden Die and the AccuQuilt Go

First AccuQuilt GO Tutorial:

Here is the first tutorial that I promised.
I am really enjoying the AccuQuilt Go, even more so when I saw how quickly I made my Dresdens with the GO.

Also, I can see how I could really combine the dies to come up with some really creative projects.

Here is the Dresden die...First of all you need to take a Sharpie permanent marker pen and outline the shapes. It's easy, just follow the blades, and voila you will have it done in lickety split. That helps so much in the placement of the fabrics on the die.

I did tell you about the free pattern that comes with each die. Here is the pattern that came with the Dresden Die....so neat! You can use the Dresden die for a quilt, for a lovely table runner, for pillows, and as for myself, I will be using it to make two pillowcases.

I used lovely 1930's fabrics for the two Dresdens that I made. The pillow cases will match the circle quilt that I will also make.

First of all, to cut out the Dresdens, I positioned the fabrics on the long 10"x24" die. If you notice, the fabrics are overlapping each other, but that doesn't matter. Put the fabric on the die using the lengthwise grain. That will assure a perfect cut. After placing the fabric on the dies, I put the 10"X24" cutting board on top, and then I positioned the die, fabric and mat firmly against the roller, and at a slight angle, and turned the handle...It easily brought everything through the roller..as you can see here:
Then voila...lots of lovely Dresdens all cut perfectly and all exact.

Now, how did I make the Dresdens? It's easy once you know how to do it. First, you need to fold the Dresden in half wrong sides together and press it down, Then, you sew across the wider part of the Dresden...The first photo shows the folded Dresden and right where the pin is placed is where you would sew a quarter inch seam. Then , you turn it inside out and press it down well, and you have a nice point as you can see in the second pic. In the third pic, you can see how nice the Dresden plate looks when I turned it around.

Then you sew the blades wrong sides together and make sure that the points meet and sew a perfect quarter inch seam, and keep on doing that till you have all the Dresden blades forming a perfect circle. I used 21 blades to form a really beautiful circle.


Isn't it pretty with all the 1930's fabrics?

Then , you only have one thing to do, and that is to make the circle for the centre. I took a piece of cardstock and put it on the circle die, and cut it with the GO to make a perfect template, and then cut out two circles with the die.

I put the circle template on the beautiful Moda fat quarter and cut it out just a quarter of an inch past the circle edge. I then took Reynolds Freezer paper and ironed it onto the back of the circle. I then did needleturn applique, using fabric glue, removed the freezer paper, and put it on the Dresden circle with a bit of fabric glue around the edge. I love to hand sew,so I hand sewed it using Bottomline thread, matching the pretty yellow of the circle. As you can see, they turned out so pretty...two very gorgeous Dresden circles.

I will be handsewing the Dresdens onto the pillowcases. Kimberly from the Fat Quarter Shop has shipped the beautiful Michael Miller yellow fabric that I need for the circle quilt and the two pillowcases....7 yards total. It will be arriving this week, so I will make the pillowcases , hand sew the Dresdens on them, and show you the final results.

Monday or Tuesday, I am expecting the circle dies and the Quilting with the GO book I ordered from Kelly at IHAN. I have 63 circles to cut out, and that will be part of the second tutorial I do for you, in addition to showing you how I do the circle quilt. Look forward to that one.

Hope you enjoyed my first tutorial! Making the Dresdens was so much easier with the AccuQuilt Go. I can't imagine cutting out each of those blades using a Dresden template...the thought of that gives me chills. This was easy peasy!!!!!

Check out all the free patterns on the AccuQuilt site for the GO here.