HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY OLFA!!!

Raise your hand if you remember life before the rotary cutter! Ok, because I don't. I'm sure my mom does, 'cuz, uh, when it came on the scene I was 10 years old. Does that make me sound young? I hope so, I'm not feelin' it.

Anywho...thank QUILTY GOODNESS OLFA came on the scene and developed a product that changed the world! Well, the quilty/sew-y world anyway. Just imagine, without that rotary cutter, terms like "stack and whack" would be more like "stack and hack" at it with your scissors until your arm aches and your carpal tunnel flares up. Dear Olfa, we should be thanking you for saving our achy arms on a daily basis! Thank you, thank you, thank you! From the bottom of our....arms, er hearts.

Ok, NOW raise your hand if you LOVE OLFA and would like to WIN a prize to celebrate their 35th anniversary?!  All hands are up? Yeah, I thought so. Well you're in luck....because we have one to GIVEAWAY!

We were one of the lucky designers asked by OLFA to do a block for their 35th anni quilt, how cool is that??? 

They sent us this cool box:

Which was filled with these lovelies:

Look at that little rotary cutter pin! Isn't it the cutest? Yeah, I'm wearing it around until my kids notice and wonder what the heck it is, haha!

So then we were tasked with designing a 6.5" square block....notice the handy dandy OLFA ruler to help us out there? AND a rotating cutting mat! Coolest ever.  Seriously been playing with that thing! Wonder if I can get my whole 45" cutting mat to rotate...hmmmm. 

Ok, so then we rubbed our hands together to create a block. What to make, what to make? It had to include yellow (for obvious yellow OLFA reasons!), and had to represent OLFA in some way. And, it had to have a Lizzie B look to it after all, right?  Soooo, I whipped up a little sketch on my iPad, cuz who doesn't whip up sketches on their iPad?

Very precise, right? Hey, don't judge, it works for us, 'k?

Then I got to work with my yellow patchwork strips...

Looks fab with the cutter, right? I cut those babies up into 1.5" strips and did some nice little patchy lookin' blocks, making just enough for them to fit in my block. 

Then I thought, hmmmm, I think I'm gonna use turquoise instead of white since in my head, this OLFA block was the sun spreading it's rays of OLFA sunshine, right? I know you thought so too.

So I pieced those strips onto a 7" square piece of paper, ready to square up to 6.5" when I was done. Lookin' good, right? Now here was the fun part....

ROTATING MAT TIME!

So cool...just kept my hand on the ruler and simply twisted the mat to cut the next side!

(Note: yes my cutter is still open, and NO I never keep it open when it's not in use and you shouldn't either! Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program...)

See how the mat turns over the rubber pad on the bottom? Coolness.

Just kept rotating and cutting until my block was all squared up!

See? Finished, told ya I keep it closed when not in use...ha! Now all that was left to do was "Lizzie B-ify" it by adding a bit of appliqué. 

et VOILA! There you have our Rotary Cutter block of sunshine! Cute or what? I kinda thought so, but I might be biased.

So, are ya ready to win a rotary cutter and small cutting mat of your very own from OLFA?! They've set one aside just for our readers. Gotta love them.

Ok, so comment on this blogpost for a chance to win, tell us what your 

FAVORITE OLFA PRODUCT is!

Please include your email addie in the comment so we can contact you should the random generator pick you.

*THE WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN! 

And don't forget to wish OLFA a... 

P.S. You can follow OLFA on social media by using the handle @OLFAcreates

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING EVERYONE!