B.R.C. (before rotary cutters), the dark quilting ages. I made a quilt in the late 70’s for my first born, yarn tied. But the quilting bug didn’t set in until my second child was born. A large cold farm house might have been the onset as well. I made a churn dash, twin sized quilt, in creams, mauve, lavender and touch of pale blue for my second daughter. Her room had the cutest border of little Bo Peep in those colors. I made it from tracing around cardboard templates and cutting by hand with scissors. I recall the edges getting worn from the tracing process and I added masking tape to all the edges to maintain the true size. I still have them and a couple orphan blocks too. Needless to say my points were not perfect.
I will never forget when my friend got excited about my project and wanted to make a quilt for her parents. She asked if would share my pattern with her. I said of course! I handed her the three pieces of cardboard. She inquired as to what I just handed her. I said the pattern. And the lesson began.
My first encounter with the rotary cutter happened at the local quilt show. I was there as a vendor for the home decor business I was in with my mother-in-law. I had to have one and the mat and the 22” long ruler with the raised grid underneath to allow you to snug up to the edge. I still have two out of the three items. The small cutter is now used for paper, the mat got wore out and tossed, but you can still vaguely see the numbers on the ruler. I was in love with the rotary cutter. I recalling saying to my friend Barb, I wonder how sharp this is and touched my finger to the blade. It was a nice clean cut, bleed a lot and then healed just fine. Shortly after that I then found out about this “Quilt in a Day” thing. I was off and running. Never to return to the cardboard templates and scissors. To date I have a half a dozen rotary cutters in varying sizes. What a game changing invention.
I jumped up to the big wheel Christmas 2015, I have a great husband. I really like the 60Mm cutter. If you are interested in the larger one, click on the cutter below.
