Originally Posted by alimaui
I feel like this is a stupid question. I have always cut selvate to selvage....
but anyway...
I have a charm square, it is recommended to cut on the lengthwise grain.
So I am holding the charm square with two hands, finger and thumb. I give it a tug, and there is a little give. I understand that this is the crosswise grain that is tugging....
If I turn 90 degrees and give it a tug, no give....I know this is the lenthwise grain. Am I cutting on the imaginary vertical line between my thumbs?
Or another way to ask the question, do I want the short side or the long side to be the stretchy side?
My suggestion here is that if you are told to cut "on the lengthwise grain", then cut on the
non-stretchy side. That way, what should have give will have give, and what should not, will not.
I hope this makes sense ...
As for cutting my borders on the lengthwise, that is my preferred method. In this fashion, I do not generally need to piece. I love long areas of no seams to quilt in, especially since I prefer to hand-quilt. I will very carefully fold my fabric, first letting it hang until the bottom edge isn't "warped" by being off-grain. From there, I carefully bring the two shorter ends back to this fold, and again make sure the fabric is not hanging off-grain. I repeat this process until I have a piece that will fit under my ruler.
Then I go about "slicing" the narrowest strip off the selvege of my fabric, checking for "peaks and valleys". If I have some, I adjust accordingly and begin again. These slivers of fabric I am removing from the selvege are sometimes no more than 1/2" to 1" in width, but they are really important in getting the border pieces straight.
With practice, as with anything, you can cut lengthwise border strips quickly and with little waste. The beauty, for me, is that if I have enough length to cut my borders, I usually have plenty of that same fabric for my piecing, too, without too much waste. I may even have enough to cut bias strips for binding, if I have planned correctly.
Then again, there never seems to be enough fabric in my stash ..... :roll: