It's all about the rotary cutter.......................

The rotary cutter - an indispensable tool for quilters.

There are many brands of rotary cutters on the market. I cannot stress enough the importance of buying a GOOD QUALITY rotary cutter.  I was fortunate enough to purchase a excellent quality rotary cutter from day one  - I'm not sure how that happened. I purchased it many years ago and I don't remember that purchase.

By the way - I still have that rotary cutter!  What is it?  It's an OLFA.    Wait - you're going to be shocked in a moment. Oh god - who am I kidding. You won't be shocked - I'm just one of many crazy quilters after all.

So last night, I'm cutting and decided I needed to do something with my cutter. Yes - I don't change the blade often enough and well - it was time to put a new blade in the cutter.

Now here is the beauty of putting all LIKE supplies in one spot.  I went to the drawer that holds blades and cutters.

The rotary cutting supply drawer

Besides the rotary cutter that stays on my cutting table and the travelling one (and I did find one on my desk upstairs), all the rotary cutters stay in this drawer.

Hmmmm - there are a couple of other things in the drawer. Let's look at them first.  AHA -  glue supplies although I do have glue in my applique box as well.

Glue supplies

There is another container. That would be filled with tape measures.

Extra tape measures

 Yes - one can never have too many tape measures.  These ones below are in constant use - OK - so I probably don't need quite that many, but what if one gets lost?

Tape measures by the cutting table

Tape measures by the long arm

Tape  measure in the "sew away from home" box

Both of these containers are see through, so no need to put a label on them, although I was prepared to come upstairs to get the labeller!!!

No labels required

This one already has a label - we'll see in that box in a minute

I decided to lay out all the rotary cutters.  Ooops - where did they all come from?

Eleven rotary cutters - ooops - a tad obsessive behavior!!!!

I bought this cutter many years ago because it had the safety mechanism on it. I hate it.  Well HATE is strong a strong word.  I like the original style better and so this one gets used for special cutting.   A pinked edge and two other fancy cutting blades that were in the labelled box.

Fancy blades for special cutting - rarely used

 I have TWO small cutters - 28 MM.   One is OLFA, one is not.  Guess which one I prefer?  There is a HUGE difference between the quality and the feel of them and technically, I should toss the NON-OLFA one.

Two 28 MM cutters

 And where do I use such a small rotary cutter?  When I am paper piecing.  So the cutter stays with the paper piecing supplies.  Which normally reside in the paper piecing supply box, however I found it in the bag of tools in a project bag.  That is a huge problem - do I keep the tools in the project bag so when I was to "grab and go", everything is there?  Or do I put it back in the supply box for paper piecing and double check all projects being worked on outside of my studio to see what tools/supplies are needed?  Or do I put this kind of stuff in a big tool box and pull from it when I'm home and take it with me when I am away???  This is a dilemmna that we all face and I'm not sure how I will end up storing things.

Small rotary cutter is perfect for paper piecing

Currently stored in a bag with other tools/supplies

 Let's look at the 45 MM cutters.  This is the cutter that I originally purchased.  It's the middle one. Yep - there's even a BRAND new cutter there.  The silver one is my travelling rotary cutter. The rest were in the drawer.  No idea why I ended up with so many.

45 MM rotary cutters

I'm always afraid of getting to work and not having a cutter with me, so I could leave ONE of the spare ones at work. I don't like the ones we have at work.  Oh yes - I'm VERY picky about my rotary cutter.

 I even found an extra case in the drawer.

Extra rotary cutting case

 So I picked the pretty rotary cutter and now it's ready to go to work and stay at work.

Rotary cutter and case for work!

 I also have TWO of the 60 MM cutters. I purchased a second one because I wore out the first one. I like the big one for trimming quilts, but so used to using it at home, that I now use it all the time.

You can see in the picture below that the hole in the one on the right hand side is much bigger than the one on the left.  Yes - that hole wore out and the screw won't stay tight.

The right hand one is worn out!

 I decided it was time to tidy up, so I tossed it in the garbage.  Then I noticed this writing on the packaging of the brand new one I have.

Guaranteed Forever - hmmmmmm..............

 I dug it out of the garbage and will be contacting OLFA.

OK - so things are shaping up - just the blades left to sort out.  Yikes - look at all those blades.

Rotary cutting blades!

There is a small container that is marked USED, so I'm guessing the rest of these are brand new!  OK - so I can afford to change that blade more often than once a year (or whatever ridiculous time frame I use).  All I can say is that I don't change the blade often enough.

I even found a blade wrapped in a piece of paper.  Does that mean it's new???  I'm guessing yes since there is a plastic case that is marked USED.  Would it have killed me to write on this paper????

Assuming this is a new blade

 And let's not forget the circle cutter.  I don't use it often, but when I do - it's a dream to cut circles.

OLFA circle cutter

 I notice it also says Guaranteed Forever on the packaging!!!!

And once everything was sorted, tidied up and squared away, I put everything back in the drawer.

Drawer is all sorted out

The fact that all supplies for these three items were in the same spot made cleaning up, finding, sorting, resorting a snap!!!   It took me longer to edit the pictures than it did to sort through this drawer!!!   That's the beauty of organization and now if I could just apply this skill to a few other areas - I'm actually not in bad shape with tools.

On that note, I have pictures edited for the rest of the week - well almost.

Nothing to do today!!!   OK - who am I kidding!!!   I don't have any commitments to anyone or anything (OK - Lexi wants to go to the dog park), but I have the entire day to just veg out - I mean cut and sew and cut and sew.  I'll give you an update on that project later this week.


Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!