Paper Piece Storm at Sea cutting out fabric
 

I'm cutting out fabric for a Storm at Sea quilt (google Storm at Sea quilt patterns to view) and am struggling already.
There are three blocks, two the same, but different size. (Square in a square) The shashing is a 3 x 6 in. rectangle with a diamond as the middle. Are the pieces suppose to be on the grain of the fabric? I pp because Jodi Barrows waist too much fabric. Just need to learn how to do this. Reading all the Storm at Sea patterns, they don't actually till you how to cut out the fabric. Thank you as always.

When you're paper piecing you don't usually worry about grain. You just need to cut a piece that's large enough to cover the patch in the design, plus room all around for seam allowance, and often there are no cutting directions. Paper piecing is also considered a fabric waste by some people.

Not me!! :D

Practice enough and you get to a point where you figure out tricks, shortcuts, and how-to's, and you get good at it.

I ended up PP the weird elongated triangles had to match. This isn't as easy of a pattern as it looks. I have never seen any cutting instructions with any PP pattern I have made.

Judy Niemeyer of Quiltworx gives cutting instructions in most of her patterns. In looking at several of her patterns she does not specify with grain or WOF.

Edited to add: Judy will have you layer all your fabrics and cut up to 12 at a time. Or she will have you cut 5 or 6 at the same time as a template.

If you don't want to PP look at my the QIAD pattern. It takes one special template that is $16 and gets used in lots of her quilts.
https://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponline/book/38789

I think if you take the time to make templates from the paper piece pattern and cut your pieces from those, you waste less fabric. Sometimes I do that and it does seem to work nicely.

I waste little when I paper piece. It's all how you place or pre-cut some of the pieces!

I have noticed that Carol Doak also tells you what size to cut on her paper piecing instrutions. But others do not. I do not worry about grain direction when I paper piece.

I don't think that quilt you posted is a Storm at Sea, Maniac...?