Welcome to Week 2 of the LoriAnn Quilt Sew Along! This week, we are cutting into our fabric. If this brings a drop of sweat to your brow, have no fear! We’ve got some helpful tips and tricks to make cutting a breeze.
The cutting for this quilt is pretty easy, especially if you’re using precuts! It’s just a bunch of squares. A Stripology Ruler can really speed things up here. (If not, don’t sweat it; I don’t have one either.)
Helpful Tips for Cutting
Pressing
Get that fabric as flat and as stiff as you can! For pressing, I usually just use a mixture of water and vodka. But I think I am officially a convert to the Magic Quilting and Craft Spray. It really gets the fabric nice and stiff, and I like the spray bottle it comes in.
Lighting
Time to bust out the work lamp. Having a well-lit space will reduce eye strain and make getting precise cuts much easier.
Tools
Is it time to change the rotary blade? If you’re pressing super hard or your blade is skipping, it’s time to just change that blade! A larger cutting mat and ruler can be helpful here. I used fat quarters for my quilt, and I used a larger cutting mat and ruler. This allowed me to layer 4 FQs at a time.
Technique
Really take the time to make sure your ruler is lined up perfectly. You want the edge of your fabric to go right down the center of the line on your ruler. When cutting, I like to have my pinky off the edge of my ruler on the table. I find this helps to prevent the ruler from slipping around. You can also use some surgical tape on the back side of your ruler to add some grip.
When cutting, start at your body and cut away from you, applying firm, even pressure. Avoid rolling the cutter back and forth; this creates frayed edges and inconsistent pieces.
Tips for the LoriAnn Quilt Pattern
There are a lot of squares to cut for this pattern! Layering up your fabrics can really help speed up the process. To cut my squares, I laid 4 FQs on my cutting mat. (I find this is the most I can do and still get nice cuts.) I started by cutting the whole FQ into strips. I very carefully left those strips in place and then went back and made the horizontal cuts to break the strips down into squares. *This is where the good lighting is really necessary.
I was able to speed through the squares pretty fast! I didn’t count my squares as I went; I just broke down all of the fabric that I had. When cutting the scrappy squares, I recommend cutting more than is needed. Whatever size of material you’re working with, I find it’s easiest to just cut it all down into squares.
It’s much easier to piece the patchwork triangles if you have a lot of options as you get towards the last couple of blocks. This will ensure you don’t end up with a bunch of one color in a block.
For cutting the background fabric, I find that it can be really challenging to work with that much yardage at once. I like to tear it down into small chunks to make it easier to work with. It’s a good idea to get an extra ¼ yd if you do this to ensure you have enough fabric to square up each time. Check the pattern to see what size WOF strips you need, and then tear a piece 1” larger to allow room for squaring up.
For the background and accent borders, I like to just tear the fabric to ensure perfectly straight pieces without bends. I will wait to cut my borders to size until I’m ready to attach them. I’ll measure my quilt top first and then cut my borders to match.
This quilt makes a great scrap buster. Since designing it I’ve been breaking down my remnants into squares to use in a future scrappy LoriAnn!
Next week we’ll start piecing together our patchwork triangles!
