I am another one who really enjoys the process of cutting. I have 3 June Taylor shape cutters and they speed the process. Today, I finished a quilt that called for templates. I cut the templates from an old cutting mat and they were great. I was able to get the fabric shapes cut perfectly. When I made templates from template plastic, I was always cutting into them and having to re make the templates. I do heavily starch my fabric before cutting. Now, if only I could learn to enjoy making a quilt sandwich.