Actually, I cut my fabric from selvage to selvage - or WOF.......because: though I have up to 100 values of, say, blue or red or yellow in my stash, there may be less than 1/2 yard left of some of those fabrics in the particular value/print I need. I'd have too many 1/2 yard or 1/3 yard short strips if I cut on the LOF.
To make this log cabin, for instance, I had many different fabrics to cut, but only 2-3 strips of some of them. So I used less than 4" of some of those fabrics and was able to cut 42" long strips from that. To cut long strips otherwise, you'd have to have yardage. And I don't often DO yardage!
That's just my stash-building personality; if I'm out of one print, I have the opportunity for the creative challenge of finding another that will work and add texture to the quilt, but often the viewer's eye isn't aware of the *detail* of that in my finished quilt; they just know they "like it"!
Jan in VA