Ouch! Rotary Cutter Accident

Yesterday I was working on a fun new Dresden Plate quilt and was quickly squaring up a shape. Rather than reposition my ruler, I cut across the top from left to right – you know, exactly how you’re NOT supposed to do it?!

I ended up cutting off the tip of my middle finger. Don’t worry, it wasn’t through muscle or bone, but it did shave off the entire top several layers of skin and bled like crazy.

Moral of the story – Don’t try to speed through projects! Take your time and put attention and focus in every cut. The time I saved by not re-positioning my ruler, I’ve now lost by the buckets because it’s harder to do everything with a painful finger.

Now because I have a weird sense of humor, here’s a fun design you can stitch to celebrate my accident!

Lol! Maybe I need to create a new design called Bloody Fingers? I’m definitely going to be thinking about ways to capture this silly mistake in thread.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

13 Responses

  1. Robbie says:

    Ouch! Been there…done that!!! I couldn't get my finger to stop bleeding..finally put super glue on it which sealed it…pharmacist suggestion..had to put it on a few times but sure helped!

  2. Kate Chiconi says:

    Too weird! I'm sorry for your pain, but I came to your post one second after I'd just ordered a rotary blade sharpener oneline…. I promise never, ever to cut the 'wrong' way, I'm accident prone enough as it is…

  3. Wow, didn't think I was going to get a laugh out of that, but I did! Bloody sawblades? I'm going to check this out not only for the stitching but to find out why, in particular, those sawblades are bloody… 🙂 Seriously, thanks for the reminder. I occasionally do some pretty risky things with rotary cutters in the interest of 'saving' time. You are so right, there's really nothing 'saved' about it!

  4. Ouch! Been there; done that. It's rather painful. Hope you heal fast. ~Jeanne

  5. Glinda ♥ says:

    Ouch! Hardly touched the top of my finger once and it bled for ages and it hurt 🙁
    Great safety tip reminder … it could happen to anyone. Hope it heals quickly 🙂

  6. Oh you poor gal! I can vouch for learning not to speed through projects. Put the needle through the middle of my index finger this past February. Soooo painful. Hasn't stopped me from quilting though.
    http://www.thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com

  7. Gee, I just did that a couple of weeks ago too. ouch!! It's a sensitive spot…

  8. And wear those Klutz glove or other knife glove that prevents you from cutting your fingers/hand! Ouch!!! I have had a few friends who cut their fingers and had stitches and bought one of those rulers with the guard to protect their hands.

  9. OUCH! A few months ago my rotary cutter slipped and sliced across the top of one of my knuckles… it also bled like crazy and because of where it was it took forever to heal. Even after it healed I swear it still hurt. I feel your pain – literally! Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

  10. Carla says:

    Oh My! At retreat last March one of my retreater's did that same thing. Scared the heck out of me. We took her to the hospital. A little glue and one stitch. She just missed the bone. Too close

  11. Marion says:

    I did the same back in April, but had to go to the Quick Care center to stitch the side of my finger back together!! 6 stitches later I was back home, picking up where I left off! You can't keep a good (well, fairly good quilter down!) It healed really nicely, you can't even see where I cut it. Hope yours heals just as well!

  12. Ashley says:

    New comment on an old post — just did this to myself 48 hours ago and OMG the pain is unreal! So many nerve endings in a fingertip! Do you remember how long your injury took to heal up?

    • LeahDay says:

      I seem to remember 2 weeks before I could really put pressure on that finger again. A month before it was back to normal 100%. I hope your cut heals faster!

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