A New Cut Above!

On the Left --Irene's Martelli Ergonomic rotary cutter -- the strange thing I always passed by in workshops when one was offered for me to use as a demo, because I was too stuck in a rut to learn something new on the fly.

It's different.  It looks weird.  It takes a bit of learning.  I am a creature of  habit.

On the right is my trusty blue Dritz cutter.

I’ve used this cutter for years and years --- it has a push down release on the blade guard, and I like the rubber grippy handle when cutting.  It’s comfortable for my hand, I like the weight of it.

I like the 45mm blades.  Often times the smaller blades are too small to do the job I want to do through layers ---

The bigger 60mm blades?

Well I can dull those by running over a pin just as quickly as I can dull a 45mm blade – and the 60mm blades are more expensive and dull just as quickly.

I’m a creature of habit and I don’t often change something that is working for me, but just this week – I have given a cutter of a different variety a go.

Trimming paper piecing!

I’ve been sewing the past few days at Irene’s house.  While I’m used to standing to rotary cut at a table that is about counter-top height, Irene’s table is much lower than mine as she is quite shorter than I am – so it makes sense.  But at the same time cutting at a short table was hard on my back, and I took to trying to sit down to cut.

It didn’t work!  The angle was all wrong with my blue cutter, I couldn’t get my wrist into a comfortable position…..

I thought that maybe this funny Martelli thing with the bent handle might just do the trick!

And it did!  It kept my wrist in a neutral position and made it really easy for me to trim up my sawtooth triangle parts for my Bear Paw units while sitting down to cut---

Guess what I’ve got on order for when I get home?

I’m not saying that I will totally abandon my favorite blue rotary cutter – but there is more than ONE way to do the job, and this is why we have more than one kind of screw driver. 

Or more than one golf club in the bag.

Or more than one pair of shoes in the suitcase in the trunk of the car as we are on our way to Houston today to start this cruising adventure!

I took a lot of photos yesterday …we visited the Alamo, three missions, and the basilica, getting home late on Halloween night after pedicures and some last minute clothes shopping.

There was no time to do a blog post last evening, and photos need to be edited down to do what we saw justice, so those are up and coming.

It’s a 5 hour drive to Houston where we will be picking up Irene’s friend Michelle at the airport.  Later on I’m meeting up with our friends Michael and Harriet, and nearly 3 year old Michelle who is about to become at big sister! 

It’s going to be a chaos of driving, airports, switching cars, seeing friends and being dropped off at the hotel where we catch the shuttle to Galveston the next morning.

I am so ready for this cruise to begin!

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