Originally Posted by
#1piecemaker
Since you are new to quilting and have a limited budget, I'll share my secret with you. Don't tell anyone but I still use a yard stick to measure and cut. (available at any hardware store)(some give them away for advertisement) and I make my templates out of poster board. Just be sure to add the 1/4 inch seam allowance if the pattern hasn't already done it for you. Poor people have poor ways is what my mama always told me. I would say that I'm being frugal. heheheh!
I tell my kids all the time "I was green before it was cool, we just called it poor". I too still use my ruler and a yardstick more than anything. I still use scissors and newspaper patterns, I don't have a rotary cutter or mat. I am thinking of going to Harbor Freight and getting a carpet cutter for $5, if the replacement blades fit a rotary cutter, what's the difference. I do have a June Taylor square I use for rag quilts but otherwise I just use what I have. I plan on picking things up a little at a time, as I find them.