ditto. I still do scissor cutting.

I made many quilts before the rotary cutter came my way, using the cardboard template and scissors. I then hand quilted everything until the past few years when arthritis caused me to put up the hoop and all handquilting.

I do machine quilted now and I use all modern tools possible.

My first quilt was a brick pattern that I measured, marked and cut with scissors. No template. Another PRC quilt was a GFG that I cut a fabric template for (the cardboard slipped too much.) I marked out the pieces and cut them out with scissors. I also hand stitched it. I plan to hand quilt it, but had to make a few practice pieces first, and then life interrupted for a few years, and so only recently have I gotten back into the quilting bug and plan to finish it. I also discovered rotary cutters in the meantime, but there is something peaceful about scissor cutting, just like hand quilting.

Quilts were around long before rotary cutters, I learned to quilt when most everything was by hand cutting and sewing. Most of the blocks were sewen together on the treddle sewing machine. but quilted by hand. Mom and the neighbor farm ladies had their quilting bees, changed homes each meeting. these ladies could finish hand quilting a quilt in one day. OH! how I remember them sitting aroound the quilting frame hands and mouths going 90miles a minute. The kids playing all around them.I use the rotary cutter faster and not as painful on my hands.

Well remember those days!!! Found a box of cardboard templates during the move 2 years back and happily threw them away.

I did a few minis and doll quilts, several churn dashes, an all squares (6") quilt. Then came the rotary cutter! :)

I made my first quilt when my twin sons were one, I actually enjoy cutting with sissors, I used a coloring book for the patterns & cut out firetrucks, dump trucks etc.That was 40+ years ago, yes I use the RC now (especially for the log cabin strips) but also have to admit to having 30+ pairs of sissors.

I made my first quilt when my twin sons were one, I actually enjoy cutting with scissors, I used a coloring book for the patterns & cut out firetrucks, dump trucks etc.That was 40+ years ago, yes I use the RC now (especially for the log cabin strips) but also have to admit to having 30+ pairs of scissors.

Oh boy, I was a pre rotary cutter. My first quilt was diamonds made from old clothes. I've still got a big bump on my finger from all the cutting (probably with dull sissors). The next few were simply squares, again with old clothes. My filling was old blankets or bedspreads. I remember that I could not find anyone who quilted and there were no magazines about quilting and I could not quilt them because I did not know how the knot was hidden and if you were suppose to use single strand or double strand of thread. Wish I had had a mentor. My, how times have changed.

can't believe I spelled scissors wrong, senior moment I guess.

In the late 70's I tried an Ohio Star pillow (not an entire quilt) and thought it would take me forever; set in triangles; trying to somehow match "corners"; never heard of 9-patches, DUH! It wasn't until the 90's that I "grew up". I will always appreciate all the work of those quilters before us with only scissors. God bless them and their souls.

I remember when my grandma got her first cutter.. took her some practice to get it right..she many times when back to her old ways.

I took a quilting class way back in the 50's, we cut with scissors and were hand piecing a sampler quilt. The teacher quit after the third or fourth class so i never did finish it. The only thing I remember about it is trying to handstitch seams with 16 stitches per inch.

My next experience with quilts was in the 80's. I went to a few quilting weekends. The first quilt we did was Eleanor Burn's Trip around the World, and the second was her version of the Lone Star. Both were done with a rotary cutter.

I remember after I got home from that first weekend, I ran out and bought my first rotary cutter, I spent three days cutting 2" squares, I must have made three or 4 full sized tops with them and there's still more floating around. I still find some of them every so often.

I remember those days. Been quilting since 1975. One of the first quilts I made was a star sampler quilt. One of the 12 inch blocks had 64 pieces. My daughters wedding quilt has over 3000 pieces. I think I did more intricate work then, and they were all sewn by hand. I didn't start using a rotary cutter and sewing them on a machine, till about 9 years ago, when I realized I would never live to make all the quilts I want to make, especiaaly doing it by hand, so I better get busy!!

I did a double wedding ring. My first quilt. Took forever.

Count me in I started quilting in the mid 60s.

It was either 1979 or 1980 when I got my first Olfa rotary cutter and small mat (and I still have and use them both). Before that, I always said that if my house caught on fire, be sure and rescue my young son's paintings that he had done. Once the rotary cutter and mat came out I added them to my list as 'must saves'!!!! LOL 30 years....hard to believe.

I started in early 80's with scissors and still do mostly scissors. I am a klutz and have had stitches in both hands, the last when I cut off the tip of my finger with a knife. I have a rotary ruler I carefully use but haven't tried a cutter. I am trying to keep my fingers attached.

Count me in...yeah I was there with the sissors, pencils and cardboard templates. I used them about 10 years after
the rotary cutters come out. I would have to get my book down for a list...but it was a lot. I remember a 4" hand
pieced little basket and there were 6 or 7 triangles making
up the handle..still one of my favorites. There was a Kansas Troubles, fan quilt, dresden plate, and many more. I
don't do it anymore, except for pieces for applique but I
do use plastic now to make my templates instead of cardboard. I never minded it at all and have been tempted
at times to do it again. But the rotary is much more exact
as well as faster.

i still use templates and scissors when the project can be easier cut out than with a rotory cutter- i never ever cut out a whole quilt at once though- so it's not so bad.
i cut one block- or a few blocks at a time---for me even with a rotory cutter-if a pattern says start with cutting 800 2" squares---i'm putting that pattern back and not going near it---but if i can look at that same pattern and cut out 20 2" squares and get started i can do that---
i enjoy alot of hand projects-and cut out with scissors- traced templates often....sometimes it is faster, and definitly safer than using a rotory cutter.
i did start sewing/quilting over 40 years ago- so learned to do everything without a rotory cutter- but am very attached to mine now--for the past 7-8 years; but i would never give up my shears.

Not me! Before the rotary cutter, I was making lots of clothing. Cutting garment patterns with scissors is easy, as you probably know. My interest in quilting just kind of snuck up on me; I'm still a little surprised at how much I enjoy it. When I quit working and didn't need any more clothes was about the same time I got hooked on t.v. quilt shows (lots of good ones) and, consequently, got hooked on quilting. My mother made plain, utilitarian quilts all her adult life, but until I saw those t.v. shows, I never realized what a creative process making a quilt can be.

I did. I made my first quilt by ordering 3" pre-cut squares out of a magazine.

I made a log cabin, a sailboat quilt, and a few quilts of just squares. LOVE rotary cutters! AND MATS!!

I made a Georgia Bonesteel "lap quilting" quilt in the '80's with templates and hand quilting. And had I not soon learned about a rotary cutter and machine quilting, that would have been the LAST quilt I would have done, and I'd have gone back to making clothing! Luckily I got some faster methods and have enjoyed the process of making lots and lots of quilts.

I made a quilt without templates--I did a log cabin. Cut all my strips WOF and started off on it.

quilting has really changed I made many quilts mostly samplers with card board templates several with hand embroidery and also applique they were fun evening projects also went to every quilt show to see how people changed the pattern and finshed now shows are not very interesting for me as they are mostly computer designed and quilted yes quilting has really changed

First quilt was in 1968. A dresden plate cut with scissors, machine stitched the plates together than hand appliqued onto the blocks.
In 1982ish I took a Christmas job in a SoFro fabric store in a mall and the first Olfa rotaty cutters were brought out. There was an emerald green mat - rigid with one smooth side and one pebbly side and no markings. I still have the mat - long ago I cut it in half and use it for glue gun work, small paint projects. I still have that yellow Olfa rotary cutter, too.

Oh.......and I also remember enlarging patterns by drawing a grid on paper grocery bags with ruler and pencil.

Your story sounds like mine. My oldest son (now 42) was an infant when I took my first quilting class. It was all scissors, hand cut templates, hand piecing and handing quilting. I finished a small green and white wall hanging. Don't even know what happened to it.

In the intervening years I worked full time plus but kept collecting fabric, signing up for and dropping out of quilt classes because I was too tired at night to finish them. For the past 3 years I'm taken every available class that I could afford on different techniques. I'm finally getting some UFOs and new quilts finished and have other UFOs in progress.

I'm happily obsessed with my passion for quilting and find it to be relaxing and an easy way do be mindful and focused.

I never even finished my first quilt. Gave it up and about 8 months later discovered rotary cutting and totally got into quilting then.

I did a lot of sewing and quilting before and I still do a lot of cutting with out using my rotary-I love it for all those long cuts that never use to come out all the same width at both ends.

I did umpteen quilts using scissors and cardboard templates. I also used and still use old x-ray film for making templates.I do love my rotary cutters though :)

I started quilting in the 70's...learned with scissors and templates...would use cereal boxes, and milk bottles for plastic templates. It did take longer, but I didn't mind it at the time. When rotary cutters first came out, I had one on my Christmas list...and got one...and it sat in my drawer for months as I was so afraid to use it. The rulers I had at first were just strips of plexi class in different widths. Both rulers and cutters have come a long way!!!

I did a sampler quilt for my first quilt, and have done several other sampler type quilts over the years...still some of my favorite quilts...love doing the different blocks.

I can't imagaine that I would have ever quilted without the RC or strip quilting.

Can I borrow him sometime? I have tried to get my husband involved but he just isn't buying it.

I made quilts before rotary cutters and it was a project to cut things out and your fingers would get sore but I had some really good scissors and they would cut through three or four thickness of fabric. I made three trip around the worlds, a log cabin, a sampler( all queen size) and an appliqued baby quilt but I had five little ones and it took me a long time to complete anything. Plus I am primarily a hand quilter.

I did, still have all those plastic templates, don't know why, all shapes and forms, LOL

My first quilt was just squares sewn together in no particular pattern. And yes, each square was cut with scissors. I was glad I had a really good pair of scissors, Ginghers.

I've never used templates....started quilting in 2002 with rotary cutter in hand. If a pattern requires templates, I run the other way. I just don't have the patience. Sure I'm missing out but in all honesty, I quilt to relax.

Itwas in 1987 when I asked a friend if she would like to quilt - neither one of us had ever done so, but she "yes", so we went to the library first to check out quilting, then to a fabric store to see what we could get. She and I decided that day was THE DAY so we found patterns and materials, went back to my house, threw materials in the washer, ironed the materials, then sat to figure out what in the world we were doing! Ok, made a quilt from many blocks, no sense, but just wanted to do it! From beautiful blocks, i.e. using pencils andcardboard, cut out 12 blocks, sewed them, and finished them -now I realized we must have been kind of stupid - not one was a simple block! But I am so proud of what we did! I'll send apic of it later! taken up enough space on this reply! P.S. I'm hooked!

I started with templates and scissors. Boy what a time and energy saver the rotary cutter and ruler have been. It is just so much more accurate too. I did a log cabin, star quilt, bow quilt, Drunkard's path quillow. My very first quilt I used a cardboard square and a ink pen to trace the crimpaline knit squares. It is still going strong!

Quilted long before rotary cutter. I made my templets from heavy sandpaper. they didn't slip when being drawn around. I made a Dresden Plate, 3 Tall Ships, 2 Tumbling Block,
several Rail Fence. and don't remember how many 9 Patch. Also bunches of appliqued baby quilts. Enjoyed them all, but confess to using my Rotary Cutter all the time now.