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Thanks for reminding me about tearing! My grandmother did it but I'm more the precise measuring and rotary cutting generation of quilters. We haven't been taught to tear!

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Originally Posted by feffertim

good tip, I needed to know that

Ditto - great tip to know

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Originally Posted by Mona Marie

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Originally Posted by AlienQuilter

I went to Paducah once for the quilt show. Shopped at the Quilt in a Day tent. They tore the fabric and gave a little extra to make up for it. Would be a good workout if you had to tear fabric all day.

When I was a kid, not only did we tear fabric, we also used razor blades instead of seam rippers. Never owned a seam ripper until I was an adult.

I used a razor up to the time went to high school and they required a seam ripper.

OMG - if I had to use a razor blade instead of a seam zipper - my fingers would be stubs & I would be soaking them to remove the stains.

I had forgotten about using a razor blade to rip seams out until AlienQuilter just mentioned it. My mother used one.

It took me awhile, but I finally figured that tearing my borders lengthwise was was earier than trying to fold and cut. Some of us take longer to learn. LOL

I remember we use to tear fabric all the time. Sewing teacher in school taught us. lol I can see her now, grabing that material and giving it the one two three.

There were times when I needed a bunch of skinny quarters and I wished they had torn the fabric to get the straight of grain. I really needed to make 2 1/2" strips width of fabric, but the elbows were so bad, I could only get the strips half-width, which meant they were on the bias, which isn't good.

With good fabric, tearing only distorts the edge. It helps you with folding the fabric and you can always trim off the little bit that's distorted.

Panels are notorious for being wonky. I used one recently. It had cute little kittens that, at a glance, were squares, but when I measured, they were 1/8" taller than they were wide. I wound up choosing the shoe-fly pattern with the kitten block in the center. Made my side pieces the same size as the sides of the kitten blocks.

You just need to make your own judgement call on when it's right to tear (when you really need the straight of grain) and when it's better to cut (like when there's a directional pattern on the fabric).

Happy quilting!

About the safety of using those razor blades. I never cut myself on them even though I was just a kid. The only time I have cut myself is with my rotary cutter. That's when I realized that I was a quilter because all I cared about was not getting blood on the fabric!

Wow, that's so smart! I am glad I read this topic.

Wow, Scissor Queen. That sounds so much easier than anything I tried when I did my first quilt! I am glad I read this topic. :thumbup: