I agree with many of you. When I look at a fabric I want to be able to use it to show off the print characters to best advantage. No chopping up birds or flowers or leaves. If the print doesn't fit, I find something else.

Ah yes -I am with the rest of you - Chopped off birds, lost petals, dead fish (love that term) and willy nilly lines drive me crazy. I have done several BOM where an obvious directional print fabric is provided and not enough fabric to fussy cut the lines. I go crazy with that.

The good news bearisgray if you did not notice it early on then most people will not see it at all.

In my world, narrow stripes with the perfect colors are a most delightful binding. Other than that, my quilts rarely feature stripes.

As for foliage, I'm not so worried about chopping off leaves, but everything in the plant world grows upward. So I guess I have a "grow up" policy. LOL

Regarding animal fabrics, it took me years--and I do mean years--to buy them because, inevitably, I would have to chop off heads or legs. Just couldn't do it. Can't tell you how many people told me to "get over it" or "it's just fabric, the animals aren't alive" or "the fabric was made to be cut." If I wasn't afraid of cutting myself by closing my eyes while finally, reluctantly, slicing into my first animal fabric, I would have. I still try very hard not to cut heads off but I think I've triumphed over my severed-legs phobia.

I don't use directional prints too often but lately I'm loving stripes for bindings.