Have you ever wondered how designers get inspiration for their quilts? After attending the International Quilt Market, Inspiration for a new AccuQuilt GO? pattern series struck. I was inspired to create a new quilt using the AccuQuilt Go! die cutting machine and AccuQuilt dies.

Inspiration for a New AccuQuilt Go! Pattern Series

The idea for this new pattern series which will be 100% GO! die cutter compatible was formed on the plane on the way back from Quilt Market last fall.  The show is so inspiring that I often write lots of ideas on the plane ride home.

Step two was to pick a color scheme for the first pattern.  I received a Christmas catalog in the mail and the cover picture had such wonderful colors in it that I kept staring at it.  I started looking for a line of blenders containing all those colors and I found and ordered a bolt of each.

Next I went through all of the dies available for the AccuQuilt GO! and made a list of all those which would work for my idea.  I have several local friends with GO! cutters and we share dies.  I had them each send me a list of their dies and made a spreadsheet so I could easily look up who had what and borrow what I needed.  I checked to see if among us we had all the needed dies and ordered what we were missing.

Then I borrowed the dies I needed just long enough to make cardstock cutouts from them so I wouldn’t need to keep them for all the months I knew it would take to formulate this design series.  I put each set of cutouts in a ziplock bag labeled with the die number.

Now I was ready to get creative.  I started cutting rows of background shapes from all the colors of fabric and arranging them.  Here you can see my color scheme and the beginning of the background of the first quilt which will be wall hanging size.

Stay tuned as I develop this pattern series – you are going to be very surprised at where I am going with this!