product review

Product Review – Quilt Cut2

21 Comments / product review, QuiltCut2 / By

(Full Disclosure: Alto’s EZ Mat, Inc. provided me with the QuiltCut2 Fabric Cutting System – the thoughts and opinions presented are my own.)

(update: This is actually a picture of the Quilt Cut2, until this post was up and Alto’s saw it, I was under the impression I had the original product. This review is still based on the Quilt Cut2 and it’s amazing cutting benefits. Both quilts in this post were made using the Quilt Cut2 and were each completely cut in 1 day!)

About 12 years ago at a local quilting show, my mom and I ran across an interesting product – called the QuiltCut Fabric Cutting System. This is our original one about 12 years old. In one day, I cut and sewed an entire QUEEN sized quilt top:

 

Isn’t it a lovely quilt! I seriously thought that this product was the end all beat all for cutting. I mean a QUEEN sized quilt in one day. I don’t know how many 2.5″ squares there are in this quilt, but I guarantee you that there are A LOT!  Then earlier this year I went to the Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA and saw a newer version of the QuiltCut, the QuiltCut2, being marketed and I knew I needed to try it out if only to see what the differences were.

 

I emailed Alto’s EX Mat and asked if I could do a product review comparing the two, and then my hands started to deteriorate. I had the QuiltCut2 for over a month before I felt well enough to even open the box. I have to tell you what I saw and read blew my mind, then I decided it was time to start cutting and make a quilt!

Now with my arthritis you can probably guess that I struggle when it comes to cutting, sewing isn’t so much of a challenge because the machine does all the work, but cutting is really quite painful and labor intensive for me…until now.

The way the QuiltCut2 is designed allows the user to hold down the cutting guide with as little pressure as TWO fingers – this saved me so much time, energy and pain!  When I use my regular quilting squares I have to exert a fairly significant amount of pressure to ensure the ruler doesn’t shift while I am cutting. The QuiltCut2 is designed to prevent that shifting, so you get a straight cut every time with very little effort on your part.

Here is a listing of all the projects you can cut using the QuiltCut2 – WITHOUT templates or special rulers!

There are even instructions for advanced blocks and accounting for seam allowances! When we first bought the quilt cut we didn’t even think about cutting anything beyond strips, rectangles and squares. Now you can cut Half Square Triangles, Hexagons, Diamonds and that isn’t even including the “Advanced Designs”!

When you open the box you find 3 DVDs (update: The included DVDs in this picture are actually available for purchase $16.95 each), a booklet with photo instructions (for the visual learner!), as well as all the hardware. One of my favorite features is that you can set it up for right-handed or left-handed use.

Here are the fruits of my labor after only an hour or so of cutting. Using the clamp bar and the cutting ruler I was able to cut 38 different fabrics into 5.5″ and 3″ squares in virtually no time.  Until I started using the QuiltCut2 I truly didn’t know how I was going to get my commissioned quilt done in a timely manner because cutting was so very painful for me.  And here is my finished quilt top:

Things I Liked:

  • I had the QuiltCut2 shipped to my house – it came in a timely manner AND it was packaged really well for the shipping – it arrived damage free.
  • The ease of use is amazing – as soon as I had it out of the box I was using it immediately.
  • The instruction manual is well written and has fantastic illustrations and photographs.
  • There are 3 DVDs available for purchase to help you learn how to get the most out of your $229.95.
  • It is affordable – you could literally get away with never purchasing another quilting ruler using this product.
  • For someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis and/or Carpal Tunnel it will alleviate a lot of the pain and discomfort that comes with cutting large amounts of fabric at a time.  (This one is HUGE for me!)
  • It is versatile – there are so many different types of projects you can make using it, including scrappy projects, square in a square, HSTs, QSTs, Hexagons, Diamonds, and the list goes on – I cannot remember having instructions for any of these projects with my other QuiltCut.
  • When used correctly your cutting is precise and fast – there is an attachment, the Speed Gauge, to assist you in cutting identical pieces each time.
  • There are 4 Rubber Bumpers on the bottom of the QuiltCut2 to prevent slipping – my original QuiltCut did not have these – and this is a major improvement.
  • In addition to the videos and instruction manual that are included with your purchase, there are even more videos on the QuiltCut Website.

Rulers it Replaces:

  • 60 Degree Triangles
  • Half Square Triangle Ruler
  • 45 Degree Diamond Ruler
  • 60 Degree Diamond Ruler
  • All Square Quilting Rulers
  • Dresdens (See Tips and Techniques Video)

Areas For Improvement

  • As this is a review that is meant to compare the QuiltCut2 with the original QuiltCut – I would have to say that they have addressed any area of concern I had before and then some. With the new cutting instructions and videos they have gone above and beyond making this product a useful and valuable tool in your quilting/sewing arsenal. The included videos alone have immeasurable added value.
  • One of my rubber bumpers does continue to fall off – so I might suggest including a couple of extra in the box OR switching to a stronger adhesive product. Update: Alto’s EZ Mat emailed me this morning and said the following: “Unfortunately we occasionally have that problem during the summer because the packages get so hot in transit and the adhesive on the feet sometimes loosens up – we have tried many different feet and adhesives and these are the best we have found on the market at this time unfortunately.  Luckily the feet falling off is not very common but when it does happen we suggest to customers that they try re-adhering a foot that has fallen off with super glue.  If the customer is unwilling/unable to re-glue the foot or if the foot has been lost we are always happy to send out a replacement.  We would be happy to send you out some replacement feet if you need them, please just let me know.”

Do you have a Quilt Cut? Will you be upgrading to the Quilt Cut2?

4.5″ Easy Angle Ruler Review & Tutorial

12 Comments / EZ Quilting, Fat Quarter Shop, product review, tutorial / By

Do Half Square Triangles send you into near palpitations? Do they make you sweat and say, nope, I can find a different block?  Well, do I have a ruler for you!  The Easy Angle 4.5″ Ruler by EZ Quilting available at Fat Quarter Shop.

I started out with some amazing Batman Fabric by Camelot Fabrics and a vague idea to make a quilt for my nephew (I hope he isn’t reading my blog!).  The idea is still vague but it involves mixing solids with the prints for Half Square Triangles and interspersing these with fussy cuts of the panels and larger prints. I am hoping to tell a story with the quilt, you will get to watch it evolve here because I’m not using EQ7 to draw this quilt out! I’m quilting without a net!

Always on the look out for a new and hopefully easier method for Half Square Triangles, I asked Fat Quarter Shop if I could do a review of the 4.5″ Easy Angle Ruler.  Before I give you my thoughts on this ruler, I thought I would do a quick tutorial.

When using this ruler cut your fabric strips 0.5″ wider than the finished size you want your HSTs to be. I wanted 4″ finished Half Square Triangles so I cut my strips to 4.5″ wide.

Line up the ruler and cut along the diagonal.

Next sew along the diagonal with a 1/4″ seam.

I created 4 PERFECT half square triangles in less than 10 minutes – my fastest time yet!

(and yes, I do time how long it takes to make my HSTs with different methods – you have to remember, I sew during nap time and being able to sew fast is important to me!)

Things I Like:

  • The included instructions are easy to follow and written in 3 different languages – which is normal for all EZ Quilting products
  • This method is fast, as I said, 4 perfect HSTs in less than 10 minutes
  • This method is PRECISE. I didn’t have to trim my HSTs down to size at all.
  • Designed to make HSTs sized 1″ to 4.5″ – wonderful for projects with super small HSTs like Feathered Star
  • Truth in advertising – Easy to Use

Areas for Improvement:

  • I usually have something here, but this time I have nothing. I think the product is great. I will say there is no pattern, but there really doesn’t need to be. A half square triangle can be a finished block, so there is no need for a pattern.

Final Thoughts:

The 4.5″ Easy Angle Ruler is absolutely worth every penny. If only because it will save you the time of having to trim down your blocks. There are only one set of dog ears that will need to be clipped off, which to me is a bonus.

Have you used the Easy Angle Ruler? What do you think of it? Do you have a favorite HST method?

Don’t forget to go enter to win a fat quarter bundle of Battle Over Gotham from Fat Quarter Shop – giveaway open until July 3rd!

 

Ole Frog Eyes Update!

6 Comments / Lily Pad Quilting, Ole Frog Eyes, product review / By

Happy Sunday Everyone! I know I’m usually not here on Sunday’s but today I just had to come and share something cool and fun with you!  Do you remember back in March I did a review of Ole Frog Eyes web tool?  Well, I finally paid for my year long subscription and just in time too! Guess what was released on Friday?!? The drag and drop feature I recommended was implemented! I know I am not the only person who asked for the feature and I also know that it was something that they had been working on for quite some time and I am just so excited to use it! I have already finished my quilt top from the Sew Happy Geek QAL, but I decided to log in to Ole Frog Eyes and play around with the lay out yesterday…mainly because it was so EASY!

Here is my original – and yes all these pictures will be screen shots so you can see what I did.

Hover over the block you want to move and place your mouse on the green icon (looks like a wrench).

Click on the wrench, hold the button down, and then you can drag you block where ever you want!

and Voila! The block is moved!

I am so excited about this new feature. We head back to Washington on Friday where I have a bunch of purple bee blocks and my month of Sew Bee Blissful waiting to be photographed and loaded up. I can’t wait to start playing with potential quilt layouts – it is going to be a million times easier now!

Thanks for listening Snoodles and the Ole Frog Eyes Team!

PS. This is not a sponsored post – I am posting it because I love this product and wanted to share with all of you!

 

Marsha McCloskey’s Feather Star Ruler Review

11 Comments / Fat Quarter Shop, Marsha McCloskey, product review / By

Happy Friday Everyone! As you all know I have spent the last 2 weeks working on Feathered Star blocks – I now have 3 completed and with each one I get faster and the look better.  At the beginning of the month Fat Quarter Shop sent me Marsha McCloskey’s Feathered Star Ruler to play with and I have definitely enjoyed it!

So I will start out with, I have NEVER done a Feathered Star block before and all I knew for sure was that there were going to be some challenging seams in this block. When the ruler arrived there were 4 pages of instructions, which I really appreciated, but the one thing I really hoped would be in there but wasn’t is a pattern or block tutorial.  This was somewhat disappointing because as I said…I’ve NEVER done a Feathered Star block before.  Well, you know me…I’m resourceful!  I started scouring the web for tutorials, I found 2 that were excellent (I will share them both with you on Monday), and finally I went to Electric Quilt 7. I went into the block library and found that there were 16 blocks in the library!  I took one and changed it a bit to fit my personal style.

I learned how to make the half square triangles from the 2 blogs mentioned above – they use an awesome technique I had never heard of before, bias strip HSTs. Awesome for small piecing.  The rest I took into my own hands.

The cool thing about this ruler is that it is designed specifically for these blocks. Almost every single piece of fabric you have to cut for this block is an eighth or sixteenth measurement. This ruler has these measurements from 7/8″ to 4 3/16″.

Things I like:

  • There are four sections on this ruler that give you different cutting measurements
  • Each section has a line down the center – this is perfect for cutting triangles – and you have to cut A LOT Of triangles for this block!
  • The included cutting instructions mentioned the bias strip HST method that I spoke of above – because of this I have learned a whole new method that I will use forever!
  • While I could use a regular cutting ruler to cut these blocks, this ruler guarantees accuracy because it has sixteenth inch measurements on it. It is the only ruler I have seen with measurements that small.
  • I see this ruler being useful with lots of different blocks, especially ones that involve triangles.

Areas for Improvement:

  • This is the first ruler I have ever used that did not come with a tutorial or pattern. That was disappointing, but on the upside I have became self-sufficient and figured out a difficult block, pieced it and made it my own.

Final Thoughts:

Ignoring the fact that there is no pattern, this is a good product. It can be used for Feathered Stars and other projects as well.  I would recommend it with the caveat that there is no pattern so you will need to find a tutorial or purchase a pattern if you would like to make a Feathered Star.  On Monday I will have a tutorial for the one that I made above.

If you haven’t already, make sure you go enter the giveaway from Fat Quarter Shop for a Quilt Blocks Layer Cake – it is the same fabric that I used to create the stars above.

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