I love my rotary cutter and lucite templates but back in the day I used scissors. I never traced around templates, just pinned a paper pattern onto the fabric and cut. I still do that sometime for odd shapes. Hey I made all my clothes using paper patterns so no different. I made lots of quilts that way, even made a lone star quilt cutting each diamond individually.I figured if I could set in sleeves and zippers, a quilt top would be a piece of cake, never even cringed at y seams.