This is from our Chief Engineer... after reading about others that have used hard plastic mats on their "Studio-type" cutter, with the non "Studio" dies, then can't get a decent cut on the smaller cutters. Save your dies!
Blue Wren dies are of the highest quality and fully made in Australia, so the following by no means should be interpreted that the Blue Wren dies are of lesser quality.
There is a popular misconception circulating in social media regarding the use of mats that says, “that the mat to be used is determined by the machine and not the die”, when the opposite is true.
We will try here to explain the reasons why you should NEVER use the hard rigid plastic mat made out of Polycarbonate, Acrylic or alike when using a Blue Wren die or similar that has a plastic tray as a backing (beige in colour in the case of Blue Wren dies).
Studio or similar dies have 1” tall blades, whereas the Blue Wren dies have ½” tall blades. The 1” blades are also thicker, and therefore tolerate more pressure, and the stainless steel tray is the backing of the blades. In the case of the dies with ½” blades, the beige colour plastic is the backing of the blades.
The soft mats that come included with all Blue Wren dies are made of a specially engineered arrangement and material, where it is expected that the sharp border of the blades will penetrate into the mat by around one third of the mat’s thickness. If the mat used is of the hard rigid type used with Studio, some Sizzix or similar machines, the sharp border of the blades cannot sink sufficiently into that harder mat and therefore could, and will, push and sink the back of the blades into the beige plastic backing tray, rendering the die forever damaged. This damage could occur with just only one pass through the machine. The die may still work after that, but only with the hard mat from there on, but will eventually fail altogether and shims will be required to be added to compensate for the loss of height which the blades have suffered due to being sunk into the beige plastic backing tray.
You can perceive the pressure the blades are subjected to by observing the marks left on the stainless steel tray when normally using the Studio dies, imagine what happens with thinner blades on a softer plastic backing (the beige tray). That is why Blue Wren dies use a softer formulated mat, so the blade will sink into the mat and not into the plastic backing tray. So it is very safe to use the Blue Wren dies in a Studio machine or similar, but while using the softer mats.
The Die determines what mat to use, NOT the machine.
Following is a drawing showing how to arrange the different parts needed to use a Blue Wren die or alike with a Studio type cutting machine. You must still always use the stainless steel tray, with the 10mm adapter on it. On the Adapter you place the Blue Wren die with up to 6 layers of 100% cotton fabric or paper, (yes, you can cut paper with Blue Wren dies) and the soft mat on top of all, then pass it all through the rollers of the machine.
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We have had many Star dies for some time, they are always popular. As I don't really enjoy foundation piecing these, we designed them so they are simple enough to machine sew.
I don't want you to be waiting with baited breathe to see dies as we add themon a certain date, we just add them, no long drawn out process, just action!
So, I am telling you, we have added even more to our range. A few weeks ago we released Mariner's Star (14" finished block), Nautical Compass, 18", 24" and 28" finished (has a star in the middle) and Spinning Star 12" finished, (also known as Wings of Eagles).
Our older stars... Travellers Star, Feathered Star, Morning star, Blooming Star, Interwoven star, Five point star, Eight Point Star, Prince Louis Star (St Louis Star) continue to be very popular. Not to mention (oops I just did) Hunters Star and the flag stars!
I have had so much fun making these that we will be adding the patterns to the website as well, in the next few weeks , patterns and layouts will be included with the die to make it more relaxing and rewarding to assemble the parts prior to sewing.
So grab a cuppa and have a browse... check out my new areas, New Dies and our exclusive "Magic Series" as well as the Blue Wren cutting dies area. Hopefully this will make it easier for you to navigate the website and find new dies as they are added.
We have almost reached the 500 mark of designs, and more are due to added (mostly requested) as we finalise their final touches.
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I had a great Grandson! The most gorgeous little man there is is, and I am not biased - much! We have matching chins.
We have been extra busy the last few weeks. we went over to Adelaide for the fantastic Australian Machine Quilters Festival and the weather was perfect. Had some excellent classes on using my longarm and spent lots of time catching up with Facebook friends and other longarmers.
We couldn't catch up with ricky tims on the Wednesday there in Adelaide, so we made the dash to Geelong and I went to his class just last Wednesday. Excellent class and the main things I think I will take away from this is to finish the UFO's I have... and some "rules" are made for breaking. My biggest thrill was seeing Ricky's quilt Bohemian Rhapsody as it is! Beautiful.
]]>Just a week ago we added Afterpay as an alternate way to pay for your purchases. Of course you still can pay via Paypal or phoning me with your purchase order and Card details. Details of Afterpay can be found beside each product. There is a link attached.
It is now between Christmas and New Year, that calm bit of time in our household with different children and grandchildren travelling up from the city for a quiet time at our house. We are in the middle of juggling grandkids; with a relatively (pun intended) clean house, full fridge ready for the next lot of family, and a bit of free time to develop new designs, sew, and fine-tune the website. So here I am! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too.
This year has been an extremely challenging year where we battled the falling $AU (and therefore increased prices on the imported dies we used to sell), and we made the decision mid-year that we would continue to offer and expand our Made in Australia, Blue Wren Fabric Cutting Dies for our customers. Not only have they proved popular here in Australia, but also overseas. So our little business idea has grown and continues to grow as people give us suggestions for dies they want for a particular project.
We have made the Kangaroos and will be making more Australiana soon.
We have made over 100 new shapes this year, at least 50% have been made by request. It all started with the large circles...they were not available to Australians or New Zealanders, so we decided to dust off the equipment, upgrade the machinery and make them. Would you believe, our very first completed die was 1" finished squares! This was a die shape that customers had been telling me they wanted for at least 4 years before. The perfect use of all those scrappy bits.
Our Magic Strip cutters are proving to be as popular as we thought they would, especially with people who own a Sizzix cutter. these dies fit all cutters, but there hasn't been the variety for owners of smaller cutters until now.
This coming year I would love to see even more input from you, our customers. I would also appreciate it if you could post photos of your completed projects made with the Blue Wren dies, on the Facebook page, Blue Wren Fabric Cutting Dies and Templates - Australia. I usually post news there of any new dies.
My New Year's resolution is to update my blog here more frequently! Now... see if I keep it!
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We have a mail order service; details for this and our already low quilting rates can be downloaded at the bottom of each page under "quilting rates".
We are excited to get it up and running, and the postage calculator also works so well, meaning our average customer will only be paying between $3 to $12 postage, and free postage over $300. Our Cutters are already, and have always been, free postage. In the past we have had to return money to customers for excess postage, and one website charged a flat rate, meaning we couldn't add the threads. They will be added over the next week or so.
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