I took a quilting class way back in the 50's, we cut with scissors and were hand piecing a sampler quilt. The teacher quit after the third or fourth class so i never did finish it. The only thing I remember about it is trying to handstitch seams with 16 stitches per inch.
My next experience with quilts was in the 80's. I went to a few quilting weekends. The first quilt we did was Eleanor Burn's Trip around the World, and the second was her version of the Lone Star. Both were done with a rotary cutter.
I remember after I got home from that first weekend, I ran out and bought my first rotary cutter, I spent three days cutting 2" squares, I must have made three or 4 full sized tops with them and there's still more floating around. I still find some of them every so often.