Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First: Why I Treat Quilt Patterns as a Suggestion
When you buy a quilt pattern, almost every one starts the same way:
- Buy fabric in X amounts.
- Cut fabric into Y strips, squares, triangles, or whatever else the pattern calls for.
- Start sewing.
In theory, this makes perfect sense. You want to make sure you have enough fabric, get everything cut and organized, and then sit down and piece your quilt. In practice, it doesn’t always work out quite that neatly. And if your blocks don’t finish at exactly the size the pattern designer expected, having every sashing strip, border, and connecting piece already cut can create a whole new set of problems. That is why I rarely cut an entire quilt before I start piecing.
Quilt Patterns Are Designed for a Perfect World
Most modern quilt patterns are designed using computer drafting programs. These programs are incredibly accurate, which is wonderful. The problem is that fabric isn’t. Fabric stretches. It shifts. It folds. Thread takes up space. Pressing changes things slightly. Your rotary cutter can wander. Mine certainly can. I’m definitely rotary cutter challenged.
A while back, I wrote a blog post for the BERNINA We All Sew blog showing how to turn a pair of jeans into a purse. Since everyone would be starting with a different size pair of jeans, I needed a formula that would tell people what size to cut the bottom panel. My son is a mechanical engineer, so I asked him to come up with one. He returned with something that looked like 2∑(w(X)π-4√y-z). Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, but that’s what it felt like.
I told him there was no way I was putting that into a sewing tutorial and asked if he could make it easier. He came back with something much simpler, but warned me it wouldn’t be absolutely perfect because the tolerance might be off by something like .002″. I told him I could live with that.
Fabric is a lot more forgiving than whatever engineers are normally building. The problem comes when we try to make our fabric behave with the same mathematical precision.
Tiny Piecing Errors Add Up Fast
In a perfect world, every seam allowance would be a perfect scant 1/4″. Unfortunately, I don’t live in that world. I try to cut accurately. I try to sew accurately. But being off just a tiny bit when cutting, combined with being off a tiny bit in your seam allowance, can dramatically change the finished size of a block. The more pieces and seams you have, the bigger that difference can become.
Let’s say you make a simple baby quilt with nine 12″ blocks. If those finished blocks are off by 1/2″ each, your 36″ section might end up roughly 1 1/2″ larger or smaller than expected. Not ideal, but manageable. Now imagine a much more complicated quilt, like a Dear Jane Quilt, with nine 4″ blocks across and each block containing 15 seams. If every one of those seams is off by only 1/16″, that tiny difference can add up to almost 8 1/2″ across the quilt. That’s a big difference!
Of course, we should always strive for more accurate cutting and piecing. But sometimes things just don’t finish at exactly the size printed in the pattern. That doesn’t mean you need to throw everything away, rip out 100 seams, or buy more fabric. This is your hobby after all. It’s supposed to be fun and stress free. If your hobby is giving you an ulcer and making you want to pull your hair out, you need a new hobby.
My Solution: Cut as You Go
Instead of cutting the entire quilt before I start, I cut only what I need for the section I’m working on. If it’s a row-by-row quilt, I might cut enough pieces to make the first row. If it’s a medallion quilt, I cut the center section first. Then I sew.
After piecing each block, I carefully press it. And yes, I said press, not iron. Ironing is that back-and-forth motion we use on clothing. Pressing means setting the iron down, lifting it, and setting it down again. That helps keep your blocks from becoming distorted. Then I square up the blocks.
Here is where my approach might be a little different. I am less concerned about whether the pattern says the block should measure exactly 8″ than I am about whether all of my blocks are consistently the same size. If they all finish at 7 3/4″, I can work with that. If they all finish at 8 1/4″, I can work with that too.
Consistency is more important to me than forcing fabric to match a number printed on a piece of paper.
Cut Your Sashing to Fit Your Actual Blocks
Imagine the pattern tells you to make 8″ blocks with 2″ x 8″ sashing strips between them. You follow the cutting instructions and cut every sashing strip before you start sewing. Then your blocks actually finish at 7 3/4″. Now you have an 8″ piece of sashing that needs to fit a 7 3/4″ block.
What usually happens? Something gets stretched. Maybe you stretch the block to fit the sashing. Maybe you stretch or ease the sashing to fit the block.
Do this over and over again throughout a quilt and all of that stretching begins to accumulate. That’s when quilts start waving, having extra fullness, and refusing to lay flat, or giving your longarm quilter a headache.
Instead, I finish my blocks first and then cut the sashing to fit the blocks I actually made.
What If Your Blocks Aren’t All the Same Size?
It happens. If my blocks vary slightly, I take an average. For example, imagine four blocks measure: 8″, 8 1/4″, 8 1/2″, and 8 1/8″. Add them together and divide by four. The average is approximately 8.22″, so I would cut my sashing just slightly under 8 1/4″. Then I would gently ease the blocks to fit as I sew.
I use the same process when joining rows together. I would piece all the rows together and then measure each row. After I have all the measurements, I would average the row lengths and use this measurement to cut the connecting sashing strips. This is going to give you a much flatter quilt and save you time and wasted fabric, as you won’t have to recut a piece that’s too long, or join together a piece that is too small. Or, worse yet, need to buy more fabric.
Use the Same Method for Borders
I never assume my finished quilt center is exactly the size the pattern says it should be. Before cutting the side borders, I measure the quilt vertically in at least three places: near the left side (A), through the middle (B), and near the right side (C). I average those three measurements and cut both side borders to that length.
After attaching the side borders, I measure across the quilt near the top, through the center, and near the bottom. Then I average those measurements and cut the top and bottom borders.
This helps square the quilt and encourages it to lay flat instead of letting the borders create additional fullness.
What About Sampler and Medallion Quilts?
This method is pretty straightforward with quilts constructed in rows. Sampler quilts and medallion quilts can get more interesting. That’s when I start using filler strips.
Let’s say I pieced 100 half-square triangles that were supposed to create a 36″ section. When I finish, my section measures 34″. Am I taking apart 100 HSTs and starting again? Absolutely not.
If that 34″ section needs to join a 36″ section, I can add fabric to make up the difference. I need 2″ of additional finished width. If I add a strip to each side, I need 1″ finished on each side. Adding the 1/4″ seam allowance to both edges means cutting each strip approximately 1 1/2″ wide. Now the section fits. A piece can be added to the sides, the top/bottom, or both.
Those filler strips don’t have to look like an accident either. Use a fabric that blends into the background and most people will never notice. Or do the opposite. Use a contrasting fabric and suddenly your solution becomes a design element.
Sometimes the best design decisions start with, “Well, that didn’t work.”
Medallion Quilts Really Benefit From Cutting as You Go
For a medallion quilt, I strongly recommend waiting to cut each new round until the previous section has been completed. Finish the center. Measure it. Then calculate and cut the next section based on what is actually sitting in front of you.
Finish that section. Measure again. Then move on.
I also recommend buying a little extra fabric when making a medallion quilt. Since your measurements may change slightly as the quilt grows, having a little extra gives you flexibility if something needs to be cut longer than the original pattern called for.
Sampler quilts work the same way. Divide the quilt into sections and work through each section before joining to the next using the previously discussed techniques.
Your Quilt Doesn’t Know What the Pattern Says
This is probably the most important thing to remember. The quilt sitting on your cutting table has no idea what size the pattern says it is supposed to be. Your blocks don’t know they were supposed to finish at exactly 8″. Your border doesn’t know it was supposed to be exactly 52 1/2″ long.
Instead of fighting the quilt you actually made because it doesn’t perfectly match the quilt in the instructions, work with what is in front of you. Measure. Average when necessary. Cut the connecting pieces after you know what they need to connect. And give yourself a little room for fabric to be fabric.
You should absolutely work toward accurate cutting and piecing. Accuracy makes everything easier. But quilting should not require engineering tolerances of .002″.
Want to Learn More?
If you would like more help with accurate piecing, borders, bindings, quilting design, machine quilting, troubleshooting, and all the other little things that can make quilting either fun or incredibly frustrating, check out my upcoming classes.
My goal in class is not to convince you there is only one “correct” way to make a quilt. I want to give you techniques you can use to solve problems when your quilt does what quilts occasionally like to do. Because they will.
And if you want more quilting tips, tutorials, new blog posts, class information, and occasional adventures from my textile travels, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss the next one.
What Do You Do?
Now I want to hear from you. Do you cut your entire quilt before you start sewing, or are you a cut-as-you-go quilter? Have you ever finished a set of blocks only to discover they were nowhere near the size the pattern said they should be?
Tell me what happened and how you handled it in the comments. And if your solution involved strategically adding another piece of fabric and pretending it was part of the original plan, you are definitely among friends here.
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First
Stop Cutting the Whole Quilt First