Cutting with both hands
 

I never realized until I was watching Liz Porter that I am very lucky to be able to use my rotary cutter with both hands. I am technically left handed in that I write with my left hand - but I bowl and throw with my right.

It got me wondering if that is just something that is naturally for me - or if I somehow never "learned" one way or the other and it was just luck.

When I cut with scissors it is only my left - but boy is it easier to use either or when using a rotary cutter. I can always put my ruler on the bigger part of the fabric and cut against the ruler...

Can you use both hands? Do you wish you could? Or do you not really notice?

Is that more of a left handed thing? I can make a cut to straighten, if I have to, with my left hand but it's much easier with my right. My mother was left handed but threw a ball with right and, get this, would write on the chalk board with her right hand. How crazy is that? You would think that writing is writing, right?

I am strictly right handed and think I might lose a finger if I tried to cut left handed. Or it wouldn't cut all the way through neatly. You're lucky to be ambidextrous!

Hi,

I am with you! I write left handed, if I HAD to I could get a signature out with my right, but not a great one! I eat with my right hand, bat a ball right handed, I can switch hit in tennis or badminton, bowl right handed, etc. I play bocce ball on a league in the summer and throw right handed, but have been told I step forward like a left hand thrower....hmmm, never noticed that myself.....

Rotary cutting I can do either, usually use my left hand. Scissors I do both again, will have to watch myself now.

Now I am noticing when I am doing things which hand I use! LOL Great to be so versatile isn't it!!

Bev

I am right handed, write that way, cut that way. But I deal cards with my left. And my handwriting is so bad that there is not too much of a difference between my right-handed signature and my left one! LOL! Also, when I started taking cello lessons a few years ago as an adult, I wanted to bow with my left hand and use my right on the neck. My teach said she could not teach me that way, that the bow is usually held with the right hand. So I went with it that way. It was fine, but as first my body kept wanting to me to bow with the left hand. Strange.

I have a friend who writes left handed but can do just about anything left or right handed. She can put a pen or pencil in each hand and write a sentence and the sentence written with her left hand will be an exact mirror image (backwards) to what she has written with her right hand!!!

I use my rotary cutter with whichever hand can reach it most easily. It makes no difference to me.

I am extremely right hand dominant. But, I have also been able to do this left hand 'stuff' for decades; in fact, the first time I tried to write left-handed as a kid, it was mirror-image and I was dumbfounded. :shock:

Still don't understand what that's all about and feel sure it says something not quite "nice" about my brain!:D

Jan in VA

I might lose a finger if I tried cutting with my left hand! I am not even remotely ambidexterous, LOL.

I am a leftie, too. I use scissors with my right hand, but can't seem to use my rotary cutter with my right. I golf, bat and play tennis right handed, but must bowl left handed. I suppose it depends on when in my life I learned a particular skill. Things are easier when one is young!

I am very right handed, tried a few things, not gonna happen!

I am RIGHT handed.... in everything.... however after my Mother suffered a stroke I forced myself to use my left hand more. I always straighten the fabric with my left hand on the rotary cutter/ruler if that is the more convenient way to do it. (I have one older type OLFA style cutter) Even when you blow dry your hair..... make your brain do the switch.... not easy at first... but it is doable....

When I read your thread title, my first thought was that you were cutting with both hands at the same time!! :)

I am right handed, but a few years ago I had surgery on my right thumb and had a cast then brace for 8+ weeks. I learned to do many, many things with my left, rotary cut among them. I never went back to my right to use my mouse...it just seems natural to use the left. I think many people would learn to use the "Other" hand if they had to. I could not go 8 weeks without sewing.

I am right handed, but I can cut with the rotary cutter using my left hand. I always do it to make the first cut to square up the end of the fabric. I've done it since I started quilting and didn't know that some people have a problem with that.

I can use both hands to do most things and some things I can only do right handed and like DD's Mother I can write perfectly on a blackboard with my opposite hand. I can use either hand for rotary cutting.

My Grandmother was a special ed. teacher in the Projects of Chicago for 35+ years and learned to be ambidextrous. She writes on paper and eats with her left hand but wrote on the chalkboard, cuts and drinks with her right. I can cut use my rotary with either hand if I have to but prefer my right hand. I snip threads with my left as that's the side I keep my snippy scissors!

If I don't do everything with my right hand, I will surely amputate something with my left. About the only thing I can do correctly with my left is scratch.

Right handed all the way here. However, I can tie a shoestring into a bow with one hand. Try that one with just one hand...left or right it don't matter.

I only trust myself to cut with my right hand.

I write and eat with my left hand. Crochet and bowl right handed. But I use my rotary cutter with both hands.

My father at 80 + was talking to his brother about decorating. One said its so easy to do a window use right hand then swop to left. Both were amazed they both did it. They asked myself and my brother what we did answer doesn't everyone.
I frequently put my rotary cutter together for a left hand and when I go to classes my friend changes it. Either way suites me. I have broken right wrist and still went to work and used left hand. The way we are first taught to do something says which hand we use, it is the same with feet my brother is definately left footed. Me either foot.
A neighbour said he was able to use both because as a child he hand his left hand tied behind his back so he bad to use the right.what annoys me is the mouse on a computer I am always told to use my right hand, my left hand has far more control so why must I use the right?

I cut with both. I am right hand dominate but I can do many things left handed. I think I was suppose to be a lefty but the nuns would have none of that nor would my grams, I can hear her now "It's a right hand world so you must use your right hand" then I would get a smack on the hand to switch.
My rotary cutter has a safety that can be switched from side to side so it glides up against ruler.

You are not alone! I use both right and left hands when rotary cutting. In fact, I have two Martelli rotary cutters--one for left handed folks and one for right. I use them both equally!

mostly right-hand dominant.
I deal cards left-handed - didn't notice until someone pointed it out to me.
I learned to do a calculator key-board left-handed.

I do that too. And use a mouse left handed. Comes from being an accountant and needing to be able to write and 'calculate' at the same time or use keyboard and mouse together on a spreadsheet. My left hand abilities are much better with finger muscles, not with hand and arm movements, so rotary cutting is iffy at best.

i am so right handed that i just use my left for balance. lol!! my husband was totally left handed. as a result, our son is somewhat ambidextrous, depending on which of us taught him.

My Dad is right handed, but back when he started to school ( he was born in 1944) the teacher tied his left hand behind his back, because he was left handed. He writes with his right hand but does most things with left. Hammering, shooting,...
My DGD is left hand dominant (7 yrs old now) but is ambidextrous, she uses both hands for alot of stuff. It amazes me sometimes to see her coloring with both hands at the same time.
I however am right handed, but often do things with my left hand with out realizing it. When I take quilt classes I am often asked if I am a lefty, no, but I use the rotary cutter with both hands and do alot of stuff with old lefty.
I'm sure this is way more than any of you ever wanted to know about my family, but here it is. I'm a righty with a compulsion to use my left hand without realizing it.

i'd always thought i was clumsy with my left hand. however, recently, i tried hand quilting in a group. since you can't really turn the quilt to go the other way, i tried the needle in my left hand... worked pretty good :)

I use my left hand quite a bit... and use it to rotary cut , not as much as my right hand. I am right handed but typically eat with my left hand... and a few other things. This "skill" improved itself when I found my carpal tunnel in my right hand was getting quite severe... so I started to use my left hand even more.