Originally Posted by TheSevenYearStitch
My mother used plastic templates to cut out all of her squares. She felt it was "the right way". Yeah, that lasted about 5 minutes with me! Without my Olfa mat, I don't think I would be quilting! Why torture yourself? If you go that route, you may as well hand stitch the whole thing and make a grand total of 2 quilts in your lifetime.
I wouldn't lock myself into only doing it one way, but I make lots of scrap quilts so I cut pieces out to use all my small material. If I am cutting from a yardage, I use my rotery cutter. I've made many a quilt using templates and scissors, AND hand piecing and hand quilting. usually can make more than two quilts in a lifetime. I know there are many who only rotary cut, machine piece and machine quilt and that's ok with me, but there are some of us who thoroughly love the process of doing things the old ways. Just our preference.