even the rotory cutter is being replaced by some die cutting......is that cheating?

What is ruler work?

It's using a special machine foot and instead of free motion quilting, you move the quilt and a special thick ruler along side the foot to make different designs.

http://www.westalee.com.au/domestic.php

I'm being intrigued, also. Can't wait to try it, and have never seen it demonstrated.

of course, all the changes have been revolutionary but I still stick to the basic rules on bias. Just not accurate enough for me to use lots of bias edges. MSQC method of making 8 HSTs at a time just doesn't work for me. I have to have more accuracy than that. But, yes, cutting strips makes it so much easier than using templates for a log cabin design! I did LOL at that earlier comment. Very interesting thread!

I just got a copy of a book from 1961 called "American Needlework" published by Woman's Day. The author is Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In the chapter on patchwork Lane talks about using the sewing machine to piece quilt tops. She says:

"This will horrify some, but I was a pioneer child; I know how pioneer women welcomed the marvelous machine, incredulously admired its swiftness and its perfect stitching, and thanked God for easing women's work. Where your tool is a needle or tamed electricity, your patchwork is your own; you can express yourself in pattern and colors and way of working."

How about including the wonderful Accuquilt Go Cutter and the electric Go Big cutter? They are real Godsends in allowing quilters with arthritic hands to continue their love of quilting!

I have some of my grandmothers old old quilt magazines; back then a king size was 120 x 120; it's 10 inches or more smaller now and hardly never put a size in for a full size bed.

But the upside to this would be that you could carry your tiny scraps with you and even cut out while you ate at a fancy restaurant or a business office somewhere! I cut out and pieced 87 blocks of the "Broken Dishes" pattern, but then, we moved and I lost those blocks. What a bummer.

That is what I know too. I may have made my first quilt in the early 1960's, but then there was a time when life was so busy I couldn't do it at all.