Originally Posted by
Princessnancy
I never use the lines on my mats, but I am always in shock when so many You Tube quilters do this, and another thing that bothers me about many You Tube quilters is that they do not press their fabric. I cannot cut into fabric with wrinkles or creases.
It depends on what brand of mat you are using. I search high and wide until I found mats that have extremely accurate 1/2 inch grids with larger and smaller measurements on the sides. They were expensive, but well worth it to me. I have a long cutting table with three mats set up end to end. I also keep my mats in place permanently with double sided tape. That way they don't shift or move when I'm cutting, or setting up to cut.
The last mats I had, had 1 inch grids and were off from 1/32 to up to 1/4 of an inch in different areas. Definitely couldn't use those lines to cut along.
I'm in the field of not pressing my fabric before cutting it as I found that it stretches the fabric. Then after cutting, the pressed pieces eventually relax and some end up being slightly different in sizes/cuts because of how much the fabric stretched. The only time I will press before cutting is if there is a large fold over crease.