I 'm not sure I could have learned to LA without one. It definitely made the learning curve easier for me and I find it pretty necessary for doing slow detailed work. However, there are tons of LA quilters out there that don't have one or don't like using one. Karen McTavish prefers to not use one and our very own pumpkinpatch quilter is doing amazingly beautiful work without one. I found myself tensing up too much without one. I like having one less thing to think about when quilting. And I definitely agree with dimorarusso about needing one for ruler work. At least for me anyway.