Originally Posted by
Tartan
I figure my material needs out before hand. I make a little sketch of the design just to make sure I've got all the fabric requirement correct. I buy the fabric and usually add 1/2 yd/m extra. I then cut enough to do the first block, starch, sew, iron and see how it looks. I like instant feedback and I can also make any changes before cutting all my material. Most of the time my pattern and material look great and I continue, 1 block at a time. I have had to occasionally switch out the placement or even a material if the block doesn't look like I want it to. Starching, ironing and cutting all the material would bore me and my sholder/elbow can't take doing all the rotary cutting at once anymore.
This is exactly the way I work.....I press and cut some, I sew some.....I go back and cut. At one time, the girl in charge of our quilt ministry wanted me to test the patterns she was giving out....you know, how much of this, how much of that. I tried it but found out I was "not going into my quilt studio" because it became so tedious to me. I gave the job back to her. She asked how I know when I have enough cut.....and I told her that when the size of my quilt tells me to stop, I stop....of course it helps that I'm a scrappy quilter so I don't worry so much about all the fabric matching.