A little bit ago I was talking about the Zip Binding kit I bought at www.martellinotions.com/. I also bought their (they are a manufacturing company and have a whole line of different quilting thingies) rotary cutter.
I watched a video, on their site, about it and it seemed wonderful so I bought it. It came yesterday but I didn't have anything to cut unless I wanted to start a new project and I have soooooooo many projects going right now so I just tried it out on some fabric that I wasn't crazy about.
The thing about this cutter is that the blade is suppose to last for a year. You can cut like 100 quilts with one blade. And I like the design really well. But if the blade lasts so long, why do they only sell 5 packs or 100 packs of the blade? I bought a 5 pack because I always buy "stuff". I used it for about 2 minutes and it cut threw 8 layers of fabric like nothing. It's ergonomic. But it's going to take some getting use to. I see one problem with it. If you're not careful, it strays away to the right of the ruler. I could see ruining fabric because of that. Maybe I need to get use to it and then it won't do that. Martelli's sells all kinds of "stuff" they manufacture. And they have videos on each product. I watched a few videos and started thinking that I really, really needed each item. And I'm really, really bad about buying new gadgets. But I only bought their $70 zip bind system and the foot for it ($20) and, of course, the rotary cutter ($26) and the 5 pack of blades ($26). And that's me being good!!
I buy all the latest gadgets out there. Last year for Christmas I received (I'm trying not to say "got" so much. My niece, who has a doctorite degree, says I use it improperly) a vanishing design board I saw advertised in a magazine. I love it!! I can't remember how much it cost. It was over $100 but it's worth it. My walls are full of racks and quilts and pictures that I couldn't put up a design board. This is hung over my closet doors. It's an old fashioned pull down blind with flannel on the front of it. It has a wooden cabinet that it rolls up into. The wooden cabomet is stained and very fashionable. I collect Boyd's Bears, so I put about 20 of them on it and it looks great. When I figure out how to get to my pictures, I'll put up a picture of it. I put my blocks on it as I finish each one and then when I want to get into the closet, I pull on it and it winds itself up into the cabinet with the blocks attached. It is sooooooo cool!
I bought a hanging ruler holder on ebay from a man named Clyde. It says it holds 14 rulers, but I have over 20 on it. It also has a cubby hole with a lid on it and on the bottom of it, it has hangers for scissors. I think it has 7 or 8 hangers. I looooooooove it!!!! Before I had a mess with my rulers. I would lose them all the time. I would stack them on top of each other and they dig threw them to find the one I wanted. What a mess. I think if you go to ebay and type in "hanging ruler holder (wooden), it should pop up. He stains them if you want him to and I wanted him to. It looks professional.
I know I could probably get my husband to make the vanishing design board, my 100 thread holder, and the wooden ruler holder, but I want to give credit (and my money) to the people who originally thought these things up. I mean, they came up with the great ideas and figured out how to make them work and then they spent money advertising them, so I buy it from them. And my husband appreciates that he doesn't have to go to our garage/shop and mess around trying to duplicate them.
Well, I have another BOM (a mystery one) that I need to put together, so I am going to stop for now. I've been jabbering, as my husband calls it, for long enough. And also, I need to check out more blog sites. Hope you get to sew today!