Greetings Cheryl, having been a sewer and a quilter all my life I can completely relate to your issue. For the last 12 years I have worked and assistant managed one Fabricland Store, and now am sales clerk in a machine sales/quilt shop, and I have always tried to be considerate of the buyer, trying to allow as much leaway as management would allow, and also have been eagle-eyed as to flaws and such. Fabricland (Canadian) was always very generous with their cuts, but the shop that I work in now, wants the cuts to be exact, and to only give the customer the exact amount that they have paid for. (This is a privately owned shop, and not Canadian wide business) Fabricland has 49 stores across country. Probably similar to Joanne's Fabrics. Even at the privately owned shop, I am always looking for flaws, asking the customer what increments they need their fabric in so they can work around flaws and always adding extra AND with a discount. Always PLEASE the customer! If customers don't come back, the shop and I are out of business ! But that's just me. And yes I see that the extra wide backing fabrics are tricky to cut. At Fabricland we always tore our fabrics unless the customer requested it to be cut, the shop I am at now, we only use a rotary cutter and ruler, and with the fabric not always being rolled onto the bolt on grain and straight, this is very tricky. Certain fabrics need to be prewashed, because they shrink at different rates as other cottons. We recently had a customer come back with complaints with a rag quilt, she had put Osnaberg as her batting, and it had shrunk at a greater rate than her flannel. When I suggested that she buy 4" extra per yard, and pre wash, then cut her rag quilt, she was , well I shall say, not very pleseant. But the results of her not pre-washing anything, was a disaster to her beautiful rag quilt. And that's what it is like on both sides of the fence. Always allow a small amount extra for errors, shrinkage, crooked cutting, ask the clerk to cut not tear, and yes, ask her to re-measure, even if there is a lineup. Fabric isn't cheap, make sure you are getting what you paid for. Nice to hear from you, and glad to put in my 2cents worth. Greetings again from Auntie B in Saskatchewan, (That's Canada , eh) Yes we quilt here allot, just to keep warm. ha ha Take Care !!!!!!!!!