Rotary Cutters

When I first became interested in quilting, I was introduced to rotary cutters. I took a special class on how to use them, and actually have never hurt myself with it, which is an amazing thing in itself. I bought my cutter probably about 18 years ago, and have even managed to change the blade a few times since then. At that time there was only one model available. Now there seem to be several different brands and types on the market. Recently when I was cutting out some fabric, I thought that perhaps I might like to look into updating mine. So when I attended the Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago, this really caught my eye:





I was able to give it a try, and liked it immediately. Some of the advantages that I like are the way that you hold onto it (it seems to be much more comfortable than my old one); the easy way of opening the safety cover over the blade (you just give it a roll on your cutting mat, and it opens by itself); when changing the blade you just have to unscrew one little knob and pop the new blade one (no more wondering in what order to put back all of the extra pieces that seem to fall off on the old ones -- at least that always left me wondering); a model is made for both left and right handed people; and boy does it glide through the fabric (of course that could have a lot to do with the fact that the blade is actually sharp, in contrast to me trying to get as much mileage out of my old blades as I possibly could). There were other colors, but I favored the red one. Here is another view of it:

And this is how you hold it:

Now I must make a note here just so as not to lead anyone astray. Yes, I have had a rotary cutter for a long time; yes, I am very interested in quilting; and no, I have never finished a full-sized quilt (well actually one, but that was before I knew what I was doing, and I don't really count that one). I have made a few doll quilts, wall hangings, and blocks to a couple of full sized quilts that have just seemed to remain in an unfinished state. But I really do have high hopes of actually completing some full sized quilts some day. Maybe now that I have this new snazzy red rotary cutter, that will be just the incentive that I need.