Hidden Threads

The tool of choice for cutting quilting fabric is a rotary cutter.  It’s fast, accurate, and easy to use.
  
What is a Rotary Cutter Anyway?

A rotary cutter looks a bit like a rolling pizza cutter and has a disc shaped razor affixed to a sturdy plastic housing.  There are safety catches on the cutter to keep your fingers safe. Proper rotary cutting safety will be another topic we will discuss here later. Quilter’s have embraced the rotary cutter like few quilting tools before because it makes grouping tasks easier.

Speed Up Fabric Cutting and Increase Accuracy 

Instead of cutting one piece of fabric with a scissors, bobbling a bit and possibly distorting the fabric, you can cut many layers of fabric with a rotary cutter and prepare all the fabric you need to make you masterpiece in a fraction (really) of the time you would normally need.  An added bonus is that the results are often more accurate and reliable than those you would have achieved using scissors.  The cutter is used with a self-healing mat that is gridded and includes guidelines for the most popular cutting angles.

If you only want to make one project and don’t want to make the investment of $40.00 or so for a rotary cutter and mat to use with it, no problem.  You can still use scissors and mark your fabric for cutting like they did in the old days.  One thing is likely though, once you’ve made your first quilt, you’ll be thinking about the next and the one after that.

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