Anyone who spends any amount of time sewing with me will hear this, and hear it constantly if you’re one of those people who leaves your rotary cutter open when you put it down.

If fact, last week, at my quilt guild’s lovely charity sewing day*, I got told by a member that I was being micro-managing because I was being a hawk about open blades.

Well, I am a hawk about open blades, ESPECIALLY in a group setting. This particular group had over a dozen people in it, and we were all wading through piles of scrap strips to make string blocks. Imagine what would have happened if an open blade was buried under the strips someone grabbed. Yep – there could have been an injury.

Getting hurt on your own turf, and through your own misfortune is one thing, but taking your bad habits to the quilt store is negligent, and let’s face it, somewhat arrogant: you are more than welcome to risk your own hands, but please don’t risk mine. I need both of my hands to be fully operational to run my business and enjoy my life. You have no idea which medical conditions your friends might have that can be compromised or exacerbated by a cut. And let’s face it, NO ONE has time for an inopportune injury, and I daresay the unexpected medical bills that would accompany it will give most of us a bad case of the sweats, if not kill off the next fun thing we’re saving for.

We obey plenty of laws for the common good, so adding a good blade closing habit to your skills shouldn’t be something to resist!

I’ve had several friends do battle with rotary cutters and lose big time. One friend recently gashed her palm while changing blades and was off work for the better part of a month over it. Another had to see a hand surgeon to re-attach a finger tendon that got sliced right through (did you know that those tendons can snap back up into your forearm?) Several friends have had stitches. Personally, I sliced the side of my finger off one night when I was working late (and tired) and because I was on blood thinners at the time, it took over an hour to get it to stop bleeding. And that finger is still skinnier along the side I sliced.

Rotary cutting is a major innovation for quilters, but these blades are dangerous and need to be respected.

I was fortunate to be taught by a great teacher who made sure that we learned to close the blade from the very first class. If you can’t get your head around closing the blade you MUST buy a cutter that will do it for you. There are good cutters out there that will close automatically when you release them:

Olfa makes this one – you squeeze the handle to uncover the blade and it retracts when you let go.

And Dritz makes this one – it’s pressure sensitive, so the guard goes back as you press down to cut (and FYI, if you dropped this on your foot the blade would probably come out and cut you – so you’d be better off learning to close your blade on one that can’t do that!)

SO CLOSE YOUR BLADE!

And for my tips on maintaining your rotary cutter, read this post Slicing, dicing… and oiling.

* More about this to come… I’ll be interviewing the amazing woman who runs our charity sewing it in the next couple of weeks.

Links are NOT affiliate!

The post Close Your Blade appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

In concrete terms, efficiency becomes a big deal in how I choose my tools. So here’s what I use, and why I chose them (and I have no affiliations so this is not an infomercial!). And I would love to hear about your faves in the comments – you might be turning me onto my next big tool crush!

Before I get going – a quick word about labels… if you ever take your sewing kit on the road, be sure to mark your name on EVERYTHING. It makes for saner retreats and workshops, and less misunderstandings about whose ruler is getting passed around. I use Sharpie pens on most things (especially the rulers so that there is no label obscuring the one section of the ruler I’m bound to be looking at). And when I’m not using Sharpie I use ribbons (which will make sense once you see the pix). Mostly ORANGE ribbons. Like you needed to be told that!

So let’s start at the cutting table..

Like many quilters, I grew up with the dark green Olfa mat, but a couple of years ago I was introduced to a mat made by Fiskars that is pale green on one side and pale yellow on the other – easy to reverse depending on the color of fabric you are working with! A bonus with this mat is it lasts twice as long because once you’ve grooved the heck out of one side you just flip it over.

Also – note the dots in the squares on the yellow surface above. This is some additional alignment help that I’ve come to appreciate.

For rulers, I use Omnigrid and its newer sister Omnigrip, which has scrubby/grippy bits on the underside to help mitigate the slipperies. I prefer the grippy texture and green color of the Omingrip (I seldom use that color of green fabric so it shows up well) but I’ve had my Omingrids a long time with few issues (and I’m too frugal to replace them without good cause). And if you take a look, you’ll see that the Omnigrips also have those extra alignment dots I like. The sizes I use most are 6″ x 24″, 6″ x 12″, 3″ x 18″ and 4″ x 14″. Yes, I know that Creative Grids have the same grippy texture on the back, but most of their rulers are something-and-a-half inches, and I’m not used to that dang HALF (having used whole number sized rulers for twenty odd years). I invariably cut wrong with them because I’m not catching that I aligned the wrong side – which makes for a reduction of efficiency and increase in waste, not to mention a rather grumpy Sam.

However – there is a caveat to just about everything. Behold, above, the Creative Grids yardstick. It’s 2.5″ x 36.5″ and I’m utterly in love with it. Definitely a tool crush. I cut mostly 2.5″ bias binding and this is my go-to ruler for that and any fabric that is 60″ wide. Get one. You can thank me later.

And onto the rotary cutters. Again, I grew up with the original Olfa 45mm cutter and haven’t found a reason to abandon it (and I got to test a bunch of them for the team that is now GenQ Mag so I’m not just being an old-school luddite). I do keep a 60mm version too, and use it for cutting batting, fusible fleece, canvas, and any other thick or weird stuff. I also keep a spare cutter designated for paper. Note that it has different identifying ribbons so that when I grab the handle out of the pot I know which 45mm I’m getting.

One thing I will say, nay SHOUT, about rotary cutters is this: if you are not willing to close the blade yourself when you put it down (or you have hand issues that make it difficult to slide the guard closed), you MUST buy one that will close for you. YOU MUST. You may NOT have blades out in the open. Because getting a bad cut is REALLY inefficient. Not to mention terribly inconvenient. And somewhat embarrassing.

This lovely little goody is another tool crush – a magnetic pincushion by Clover that has a lid. No more putting the pincushion into a Tupperware to take it out of the house. And the lid clips to the bottom when you need it open. Swoon! My only complaint is that it doesn’t come in ORANGE. What were they thinking?

Clover also makes the best seam ripper in town – this one consistently wins magazine test drives for its nice fine point and a good sharp blade. I keep a spare new one on hand at all times and toss the one next to the machine as soon as it starts snagging (and then buy another new one to keep spare). I think I had my first seam ripper for a decade, never realizing that they need to be replaced periodically!

Last tool for this post – a small pair of scissors. These are by Fiskars, but I know that they are being made by several companies now. I use them at the machine to trim threads from the surface of a quilt when I am quilting. That little bend keeps me from snicking a cut into the fabric.

Hmmm…. I spy a purple ribbon. Heresy! Must change that!

The post Process – tools! appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.