mary74

I purchased the Connecting Thread's Kinetics Quilt. I am going to cut strips and the directions have me cutting the strips lengthwise on the fat quarters instead of selvage to selvage. Will this make my strips stretch? It appears there would be enough fabric to cut the strips selvage to selvage. Not sure which way to cut them. Any help would be appreciated.

Prism99

Selvedge-to-selvedge is cross grain and actually stretchier than lengthwise grain. Lengthwise is the most stable grain.

ckcowl

it is probably less wasteful to cut them lengthwise---since fat quarters are 18" x 22" (the 22" being the salvage to center) -- if you only need the 18" lengths ...and you cut them the other way you probably cut off (waste) 4" that is not used- and- like Prism99 said===lengthwise is the least stretchy *weave* of the fabric.

mary74

Oh yes, I get so confused on the selvage and lengthwise grain. It makes sense to me now. I was thinking the opposite! The light bulb finally came on!!

nativetexan

spray starch them before cutting. That should help.