Rotary Cutter!

My birthday was last month and my parents gave me a rotary cutter and mat!  I've been wanting one for a long while; especially since I started getting into quilting last year, although I'd thought about them even before that.  I'd put it on my birthday wish list and then put it out of my mind.

So when I went home to get my car they surprised me with it!  Last weekend while I was house-sitting I brought the rotary supplies, along with a pile of calicos I plan to turn into a baby quilt.  I did the preliminary cutting into strips, and it was so easy!  The mat has a grid on it; you just square up the fabric along the grid, lay a ruler along the line, and run the wheel along the ruler.

Of course one must be careful with one's fingers, since that wheel which cuts merrily through half a dozen layers of fabric would easily do the same thing to any stray appendages.  But with a reasonable amount of caution, it's no more dangerous than using scissors, and FAR quicker.  I had the whole stack of strips for a crib quilt cut out in less than an hour (what would have taken me several.)  And they are more evenly cut than I ever managed with scissors!

Many thanks to my parents for giving me such a useful toy :)