Last week during the Quilt of Valor sew-in (where quilters meet once a month in Raleigh to make quilt tops for the organization), one of the girls set out her ruler and rotary cutter for everyone to use.
I have a rotary cutter. For those of you not familiar with them, it's like a pizza cutter, but with scissor sharp blades (older quilters seeing them for the first time call them scissors on wheels). It's and ideal way for cutting fabric. Once you've used one, you have no desire to go back to cutting fabric for patterns with scissors.
But this girl, she had one of the newer rotary cutters. It looked like this:
See the curved handle? That fits in your hands so much better. The lever underneath, when pushed upwards, extends the blade. So when you're not gripping it, there's no blade sticking out. (Meaning if you bump it and it falls off the cutting table, it won't cut whatever it hits.) It still has the traditional Olfa red safety button to lock it in safety mode, but the thing that amazed me the most was how lightweight it was. I used it twice, cutting out a lot of blocks, and had no shoulder or neck muscle tightness at all when I was done.
The third time I go to use the blade, I was talking to another girl at the cutting table, and thinking "I SO want to get one of these. This, in my mind, would be like a good pair of scissors...a little pricey, but once purchased is forever yours." And then, a feel a pain. While running my mouth, I missed the edge of the ruler and placed the blade ON the ruler, which meant there was no guide while I was cutting and cut the only thing on top of the ruler...my finger. I was very, very fortunate. Once slight curve to either side and it would have been so much worse. As it was, I caught the back/fatty part of my finger (the pad, as some people call it), and rolled up over the edge and perfectly into the cuticle part beside my fingernail. Had it rolled a smidgen more to one side, I would have sliced my nail. Had it curved slightly more to the other side, we'd be seeing bone. I have a friend who sliced her finger almost to the bone (as in, they had to reattach the hanging skin and tissue) with a rotary cutter. That was the first thing that ran through my mind when I felt pain.
It's now been a week today, and the cut area still feels a little tender, but is 95% healed. YEAH!!!
When I was telling Bobby what happened after I got home, and how I had been thinking how I wouldn't mind having one of these, he immediately started shaking his head no. But I'm thinking he'll eventually come around. After all, every girl needs a power tool or two.
I have a rotary cutter. For those of you not familiar with them, it's like a pizza cutter, but with scissor sharp blades (older quilters seeing them for the first time call them scissors on wheels). It's and ideal way for cutting fabric. Once you've used one, you have no desire to go back to cutting fabric for patterns with scissors.
But this girl, she had one of the newer rotary cutters. It looked like this:
The third time I go to use the blade, I was talking to another girl at the cutting table, and thinking "I SO want to get one of these. This, in my mind, would be like a good pair of scissors...a little pricey, but once purchased is forever yours." And then, a feel a pain. While running my mouth, I missed the edge of the ruler and placed the blade ON the ruler, which meant there was no guide while I was cutting and cut the only thing on top of the ruler...my finger. I was very, very fortunate. Once slight curve to either side and it would have been so much worse. As it was, I caught the back/fatty part of my finger (the pad, as some people call it), and rolled up over the edge and perfectly into the cuticle part beside my fingernail. Had it rolled a smidgen more to one side, I would have sliced my nail. Had it curved slightly more to the other side, we'd be seeing bone. I have a friend who sliced her finger almost to the bone (as in, they had to reattach the hanging skin and tissue) with a rotary cutter. That was the first thing that ran through my mind when I felt pain.
It's now been a week today, and the cut area still feels a little tender, but is 95% healed. YEAH!!!
When I was telling Bobby what happened after I got home, and how I had been thinking how I wouldn't mind having one of these, he immediately started shaking his head no. But I'm thinking he'll eventually come around. After all, every girl needs a power tool or two.
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