Originally Posted by
Mkotch
Depends on how old you are! I was 23 when I learned to quilt, and I'm 72 now. For me, the rotary cutter and mat were godsends! Tracing around cardboard templates cut from cereal boxes and cutting with scissors made the whole process tedious. It took 14 years for me to finish my first quilt!
I agree. Without the rotary cutter and mat, I would not be a quilter. At my first quilting class, we drew lines on the wrong side of fabric (with ball point pens), then cut the pieces with scissors. No more templates for squares, rectangles or half and quarter triangles.
Not a gadget, but my quilting is also very dependent on the mindset and books from Eleanor Burns (can I really make a “Quilt in a Day”?) and Mary Ellen Hopkins (Are you sure “Its Okay if you sit on my quilt?”).