I put my rotary cutter back together wrong once, couldn't get it to cut worth a darn. I took it back apart and tried putting it together again several times until finally figured how it went. I had put the blade on the wrong side of the handle. They should have a giant sign that says "blade goes here" maybe with a diagram too..
Do you have any scraps laying around? maybe you can play with some scrappy ideas like making crumb blocks. I absolutely love making crumb blocks from my scraps-well until they drive me crazy.
http://quiltville.com/crumbs.shtml
I don't have any problems getting started with my scraps. I can randomly sew those puppies all day long.
Do you live in an area that has a strong charity quilting group? or a guild? Sometimes just being around other quilters is enough to get the creative juices flowing.
Or how about requesting a kit from this group
http://www.quiltsforkids.org/patterns/request/ It's already cut out, you just have to sew the top, you have to supply the batting, quilt it and then mail it back to them.
Good luck