Now where was I?

Now that I have my Mo-jo (and Microsoft Picture Manager) back I will attempt to share my adventures with my Scan-n-cut so far ...

The Scan-n-cut was bought to help with the monotonous tasks of cutting out multiples of applique shapes - hopefully to save my hands as well as my sanity.

All these cut and ready to fuse in 3 and a half minutes!

(Well, maybe not quite THAT quick!)

For this project I am doing raw-edge fusible applique using "Applifix".
I have scanned each of my pieces and then multiplied them by the number required for the 8 repeats needed.

Then it was a simple matter of tweaking the individual pieces into the most economical configuration for both printing/cutting and saving fabric waste.

I have learnt that if you are not 100% confident that your pattern will fit on your fabric (especially if you are working on an off cut) the best thing to do is change to the pen tool and draw the pattern before cutting it out.

Also - if the fabric twists while being cut.
Stop the machine, swap over the blade for a pen and continue by drawing the pattern - you can cut it out / fix it with scissors later.

Like so many other techniques, it takes a bit of time to perfect, but when I was able to cut out and bag up an entire quilt's worth of applique pieces ready to fuse in less than a day - I can see that it was worth spending that time.

And the bonus is, now the pattern is saved in the machine's memory I can repeat each element or part thereof over and over, should I wish to make another of these quilts, or matching cushions/table runner ...

What am I thinking?? - Let's just get this one finished first!