I learned 'assembly line sewing at a sewing' factory, and from Eleanor Burns, I don't think I would stay with it if I had to go back to old style. (Oh, who am I kidding? I would quit if I had to give up assembly line work.) I do so enjoy seeing a finished quilt.

I think Amy Butler's patterns are not the easiest things to use. I bought one for a handbag and the directions were so confusing I stuffed everything in a bag and donated it to a thrift shop.

I think it depends on the pattern. I have many that I have taken shortcuts on and others must cut each little piece with the template. I think its a judgement call.

I think it depends on how proficient the individual cutting the patches is with scissors or shears.

I'm cutting patches for my second quilt, using a template and shears. It is a quilt pattern that relies on mirroring fussy cut patches. I put the template down on the correct spot on the fabric pattern, then trace around it with triangular tailor's chalk to give me a nice, big, fat, high contrast line. When I cut, I cut inside the chalk line so that I end up with a patch the exact same size as my template.

I spent years showing dogs (just lost my old champion, who was also my retired service dog) and I had to learn to cut accurately in order to trim their feet and leg furnishings. When I started showing, my mentor handed me an old pair of shears and a stack of used copy paper. Before she let me use the shears on any of her show dogs, I had to show her I could cut 10 perfectly parallel lines into the paper that were all exactly the same distance apart and ended at the same spot. No jaggies, no crooked cuts, no inaccurate cuts.

By eye. No marking of the paper allowed.

Only after I acquired that skill was I allowed to take the $300+ shears to the hair on the show dogs.

Cutting quilt patches is way easier than trimming dogs. And wow, a good pair of fabric scissors or shears is sooooo much cheaper than ones for hair.