What do you do when a fabric was printed way off kilter? I have an old piece from my moms stash (she made a baby blanket for my 27 year old from it) that is so terrible off that my only hope to use it is to fussy cut it. She used it whole and hand quilted around the designs. So she obviously had another piece of it that was "right".

Hadn't even thought of that in years.

I have done both. Sometimes I do the corner stretching bit if the fabric looks really wonky. I do it when I am ironing it. It is very important in apparel and home dec sewing to find the true straight of grain or your clothes or drapes won't hang straight, but not so important in quilting since you are usually dealing with short pieces of fabric and cross grains. Most of our quilting fabrics have printed designs rather than woven designs so the straight grain doesn't really matter.

Yeah, and I wanted wood shop for girls and they wouldn't let us; said it was too dangerous. Even went to the principal with a petition signed by a bunch of girls; he took it to the school board and we were turned down. The following year when the new school opened, I understand the boys took a semester of home ec and the girls got a year of wood shop.

I don't straighten fabric unless I'm making clothing or curtains. And I remember pulling threads, too.

I pull 2 threads so I can see it when I cut it. There are some fabrics that are so tight that you really can't pull a thread. I have a cutting mat that I attached a ruler right on the line of the mat with hot glue gun and duck tape the ends. I just slide the fabric under the ruler line it up and cut it.

I pulled the thread whenever I made shear curtains. That was the only way to get a straight line for cutting that quantity of yardage.

I have done all of those methods for straightening the grain. I am also fond of tearing.

However, for quilting, I find it is more important to pay attention to the fold, and be sure that you have lined up one line on your ruler for that. That way, when you cut across the grain, you will have a straight cut, and not a 'V' when you open out the fabric.

I use bias cuts frequently and never have a problem. I think it is more important to cut accurately than for the fabric to be perfectly on grain.

We were taught that too ... and I have never used it in quilting :)

I had one fabulous week of a class with John Willard - "spontaneous geometrics" - and he showed us how he will often cut which ever way the geometric design he is going for, is laid out on the fabric. Sometimes straight width of fabric, sometimes on the diagonal bias, sometimes just off straight.

Most of my creations are from width of fabric cuts, so I do work on getting a good straight edge without 'v'. But I'm prepared to cut at whatever angle I need, to get the right effect :)

This is the way I do it too. I was also taught to pull a thread but never used it. Way too much trouble.