Question.....can you rip a piece of material to make it square....will it follow the true grain or thread of the material and making it square???

Thank you

I'm not much of a ripper - I rotary cut. I have ripped the starting line, but I don't like how ratty the edge looks and end up trimming it anyway.

About ripping fabric. there is a store here in town that sells fabric by the pound,I have never been there,but a friend of mine went there and made her selections and then went to the "cutting table'' to have them measured out and cut.the girl measures and rips them, my friend about had a coronary,she asked the girl not to do that to cut them with scissors, the sales girls said that is how we do it,my friend repeated her request not to rip the fabric and she did it anyway.my friend turned around and walked out.Now I have heard that ripping is a more accurate way of "cutting" the cloth,I disagree any thoughts?

Actually if it is good quality fabric I will rip for long borders and if I am making a large backing, and it works great. When I started quilting 26 years ago you did that to pull a thread full length of the fabric to make sure you had a definite straight grain. All the fabric stores would do a small cut and then rip. but I only do that for tearing the back or the border.

I'm not sure about ripping. I have heard that it works great and is actually more accurate than cutting.

for large pieces it is more accurate. Just press after you rip. It will tear on the straight.

So! With all this talk about ripping fabric (and, I put my two cents worth in, too <g>) .. I loaded a backing onto my frame to quilt a quilt, and of course ... it was too long, so I figured .... I will just snip it a bit and rip it ... my grandson (14) was helping me pin, and he said, "Are you sure?"
Of course! I wouldn't do it if I wasn't sure ... and, he was quiet while I tore the other end.
Then, I rolled the backing up, (oh, yeah ... I do remember telling the boy that I wasn't sure the first part of my pinning was straight, since I forgot to square it, but I wasn't going to worry about it right now ... I'll fix it later)
Got to the end of the backing, and it wasn't straight ... no problem! I will just rip that!
The boy says: Omakmama ... it still isn't straight, so your ripping doesn't do what you said it would do.
I patiently remind him that we really weren't that sure that the beginning pinning was straight - - the ripping was straight, apparently, the cut edge I just "eyeballed" wasn't straight, and now we know!
I am not advocating my outlook on life (most rules are merely guides and tools) ... but I thought you might enjoy my ripping story.
I do believe on those big pieces, it will tear straight ... the key is: Do it BEFORE you load it on a quilt frame.

Yes definitely do it before putting on the frame. Works great otherwise.

my lqs always tears... they actually did it both directions the other day! i have no problem with their doing it for my fabrics - however, when someone specifically asks them not too - someone here posted that - then they should respect it and not do it - is losing a customer worth taking a few minutes to cut with scissors or rotary cutter? i think the customer is far more important

I have shopped at fabric stores that tear yardages exclusively..and I won't shop at those any more. I know it tears straight on the grain of the fabric, but it just goes against my grain. I bought fake fur at a place that insisted on tearing it... I was left with 3" of unusable fabric because it stretched the knitted backing and distorted it horribly.. just my preference.