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A few months ago, a fellow Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild member came to me and asked me if I was up for a bit of a challenge. If you know me, the answer is yes. The Center of Science and Industry (COSI) was hosting the big Science Festival throughout Columbus, Ohio during the first week of May. COSI was looking for members of the community to bring the "A" in "STEAM" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) to the event and asked if the guild would want to participate in the Big Science Celebration on the final day. Of course, we did!
The Big Science Celebration in downtown Columbus traditionally hosts between 20,000-25,000 participants over six hours. We needed to come up with a quick, easy to explain and, most importantly, interesting project to present to participants.
The core of quilting is math and geometry. So, our chosen project showcased various shapes with interfacing applied that participants would place onto fabric squares. We would press these quilt blocks and they could take them home or donate them back to us for a community quilt. Yet how, oh HOW, would we prep all these shapes?
Luckily, I knew the answer: with the AccuQuilt system. I reached out to AccuQuilt and they sent us two GO! Me Fabric Cutters, a GO! Qube Mix & Match 4” Block, a GO! Circle-1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2 1/4", 2 1/2" Die and a GO! Strip Cutter-5 1/2” (5” Finished) Die.
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GO! Me® Fabric Cutter Starter SetSpecial Price $89.99 Regular Price$169.99You Save $80.00 -
GO! Qube Mix & Match 4" BlockSpecial Price $249.99 Regular Price$368.90You Save $118.91 -
GO! Circle-1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2 1/4", 2 1/2" DieSpecial Price $59.99 Regular Price$69.99You Save $10.00 -
GO! Strip Cutter-5 1/2" (5" Finished)Special Price $109.99 Regular Price$129.99You Save $20.00
We spent that Saturday ironing fabric, adding interfacing and cutting fabric. 20 yards of gray fabric was needed to create approximately eight hundred 5 1/2” squares and 20 more yards of orange and blue fabric was needed to make thousands of smaller squares, rectangles and triangles.
AccuQuilt’s support helped us go further into science by showcasing the engineering behind the tools that quilters use. We brought extra fabric with us and participants could choose a GO! Die and see the cutting in action! We explained how the dies had blades inside them and when they turned the handle on the GO! Me, the rollers inside the cutter would turn and compress the die and mat so that the blades cut perfect shapes. I think the adults were just as impressed as the kids!
I must show something pretty amazing here. I purchased extra cutting mats for the event - just in case - and I never used them! We started with the mats from the preparation day and used them for over six hours of non-stop use at the Big Science Celebration! Look at them now! They’re impressively still cutting away.
Our booth was an amazing success. We had a constant crowd around us learning about the science, technology, engineering, art and math of quilting!
I am so grateful to AccuQuilt for all their support. I am just starting out as a GO! Getter, and the experience has already been thrilling.
If you have a quilting event and use the AccuQuilt system at it, please share photos on social media using the hashtag #AccuQuiltBuilt. Don’t forget to tag @lovinglylissa and @AccuQuilt so that we can see how your event went!
