I agree with you. I get to use fancy machine stitching that way. :)

I don't follow patterns------drives my mom nuts. lol I'm always modifying something. My wedding dress was made from 4 patterns and at the last minute she found out groom was waring cowboy boots and made me a cowboy hat out of the lace leftovers from my dress. Thanks mom, glad she loves my I know I drive her nuts all the time.

I wear white after labor day...

What is this pre-washing you speak of? ;)

If I have lots of strips to cut from a large piece of fabric, I fold my fabric
selvage to selvage and start cutting at the fold. I cut double width then
re-cut...that way I don't lose my straight grain as quickly as cutting strip by
strip. The first strip is a smidge wider than the width of two strips because I
will trim that smidge at the folded edge afterwards. If I don't add a smidge
the width could be a little off when I cut right on the fold. Don't know if this
makes sense but that's how I do it and it works for me. :) Oh and I starch
my fabric heavily before cutting. Must be the strangest method of cutting
but I came up with this one day and was very happy how it came out.
When the fabric is heavily starched I have a problem finding the straight
grain so I fold the fabric in half and that's where my straight grain falls. :-D

There are no rules when you are quilting. You create what you want.

Ok, the one fast rule I always follow is:
wash every piece of fabric that comes into the house before putting it away.

The rule that say not to put fabric softner in the wash, is what I don't always follow. They say it will make your fusible not adhere but I haven't had any problem when I did it. I don't use a lot of either fabric softner or fusible.

My quilt...my rules.
I do whatever works best for me. The quilt police would hate me but they haven't found me.

I machine sew on my binding. With a fancy stitch on the front.