Mine around here cut. Some with the rotary cutter others with scissors. I have been to places that tear, even one of the vendors at The International Quilt Festival in Long Beach tore their fabrics.

Gayle,

Tell your son and daughter "Thank you" from a Marine Mom.

Shops here cut--scissors and rotary. I visited a shop in VA years back. They rotary cut the regular bolts but tore the wide backing material.

Come to think of it, it happened like that too in a shop I visited in PA too.

I have no real "preference" per se, just accustomed to cutting since that's been the norm.

Interesting enough, I frequent two Amish stores. (Perhaps one is Mennonite), one cuts, the other tears.
The one says it gives a more precision cut, the other says it is the true straight of the grain.

I prefer to have it torn so it is on the straight of the crosswise grain. Most stores here don't do it, so I just live with off-grain fabric. :?

around here they cut, I tear before I sew so I have a straight grain.

here they cut and that is what I prefer ! the sound when they rip just doen't sit well with me :?
Sharon

I prefer to have my fabric cut.

I've been tearing 15-18 inch lengths of muslin off the six yard piece I bought for the "Dear Jane" blocks i've been making - it really doesn't seem to afflict it very much and I've been able to press the ends so they aren't ruffled.I estimate that I'm losing less than 1/4 inch on each torn end.

In my opinion, the grain of the fabric is the grain of the fabric regardless of whether it's cut or torn. When it's torn, the crosswise grain is more obvious, but tearing it doesn't make it straight if it's off-grain to begin with.

A shop I visited recently cut the printed material and ripped the batiks.

I always understood that ripping would keep things on grain. but might release fibers and chemicals in the air which might bother those with allergies.

Hmmm... any off-grain issue will be multiplied by the width of the fabric, so it probably makes sense to be doing tearing with the wide backings.

And yet... supposing it was off-grain, you'd now have a very large diamond-shaped piece of fabric for your backing. So you'd better wash it, right? So that it straightens out before assembly?