I also don't sweat the small stuff, life is to short to shorten it more with worrying. I've been really lucky with anything I've ordered on line & enjoy doing so as I can't get out & run to all the QS's, have trust people it's so much better than worrying.

Sometimes "sweating the small stuff" is a welcome change from "confronting the disasters"

*LOL* My motto is "Be paranoid at all times!" :D

I prewash everything from FQs up. The worst potential dye disaster was a green FQ that left blotches of green on almost every other FQ in that load. I'd just read about Colour Catchers on this board and rushed off to WallyWorld. Two more washes with catchers and the day was saved.

So far, so good with the pre-cuts I've bought except some cheap FEs that were cut so catawumpus I ended up turning them into two Jelly Roll Race lap quilts. Buy cheap. Pay dear.

I always make a sample block from the same dedicated fabric: at some point I'll have a nice sampler quilt all made from the same coordinating fabric. Better than making the sample block from the fabric for the quilt: if it's really wrong, you might not have enough fabric left to make the quilt.

Which is why I don't trust the amount of fabric it says to buy to make a quilt: I always buy extra. Leftovers go into stash. :)

--I don't trust precuts so I rarely use them -- I prefer to cut my own (after washing the fabric to get the excess color out).
--I know that every piece of flannel shrinks differently so I prewash and dryer dry before I cut so I know they will play nicely together.
-- I rarely follow a pattern -- my eyes glaze over about half way through reading a pattern so I just figure out how to make it so it makes sense to me. I find that if I take a piece of graph paper and draw the quilt (or block) out I know how to make it by the time I am through.
-- I know the lines on my quilt mats are accurate because I measured them with the rulers that I use on them.
-- I don't trust 2 machines to have the same 1/4" so I measure carefully before going from one to the other to ensure I don't have block creep -- I use a 3x5 ruled note card to give me my accurate 1/4" and my scant 1/4".
-- I don't trust rulers of different brands to measure the same because the width of the lines is different so I either stay with one brand or mark the cutting lines carefully with tape.

Amen to that!! After all, it's not life or death.