How complicated are the patterns you are planning on making?

I love cutting with a rotary cutter. Love it. Love the sound it makes whooshing through 4 layers of fabric. I love the 'first cut' to start a project.

maybe you should invest in one of those gloves that Fons & Porter uses on their show. I am sure they would have it on their web site. :)

It's okay, I think my MIL has that fear too! She always gets me to "help" her start cutting a new project...which means I end up cutting all of it! :-D

I love my rotary cutter and have also cut myself several times. I hate it when I bleed on my fabric!!! I never leave it open when not in my hand as my cat always helps me with all phases of my quilting and I certainly don't want my helper to cut himself.

Not at all.

I love cutting with the rotary cutter. When I don't have time to sew but need to get all touchy-feely with my fabric I cut squares for I Spy quilts. I find the cutting process rather soothing, actually.

I love my rotary cutter also. The best advice I could give is to TAKE YOUR TIME and pay strict attention to what you are doing. Once you and your cutter develop a relationship and you trust each other you, too, will love your rotary cutter. Its a wonderful tool ... you just need to have a healthy respect for its power.

Also, be sure to use the same ruler to cut an entire quilt. Surprisingly, rulers sometimes differ slightly in measurement, and just that slight difference could throw your quilt off.

I did for a little while. I was down to just one stick type rotary cutter and I do much better with the ergo dynamic ones where the blade is lower instead of on the end of a stick.

My solution to "rotary cutter fear" is to use one of those suction cup handles on my ruler. It keeps your hand totally out of danger and also applies even pressure on the fabric keeping that last bit from moving when you get to the end of your cut. I purchased mine at Harbor Freight for about 6 dollars, much better than the ones at the LQS.