This is a pet peeve of mine - - I HATE HATE HATE it when they rip the fabric!!! It messes up the fabric 2 inches from each end, and do they give you an extra 4 inches to account for this? Heck, no! And nobody cares anymore if the fabric is "on-grain." People place patches crooked on plaid on purpose so it WON'T be on grain. And when you're paper/foundation piecing, it never ends up on-grain anyway. So why bother?!