Do you sew like this?
 

all pieces are linked together, not just strips lying next to each other. Then I just have to sew the seams going the other way.

I have been doing this for a long time but have run into some other sew-people who are amazed at this method. To me it is a no-brainer.

My late DH, who used to do most of the machine sewing, had a way to lay out all the pieces on the floor and pick them up into one pile and sew from that. As long as he did not get turned around on his way to the machine, because direction was important.

Yes, I do that also! I learned it from Bonnie Hunter. I am not smart enough to figure it out on my own!! :)

The lady who hosts my Tuesday group does a lot with 2.5 squares and sews them like that. I've done it too but I don't do too much that can be done that way -- but I do a lot of things with my chain piecing to make it easy to match sets and such that way.

I rely on pinning. It is absolutely amazing to me how many times I manage to drop my pieces or sew the wrong edge if I don't...

I have a few times, but really hate having to snip all the joins when I want to spin seams.
The challenge is to have your pieces laid out in a way that this will work. I've used it successfully with bargellos, but again, the real trick is getting the pieces sewn in the correct order so it works.

now, if you are doing true scrappy, then it works very well.

Oh yes, Eleanor Burns did that eons ago. Works well.

Eleanor Burns call it webbing and she has been doing it for years.

yes I do this all the time, not only with units in a block but with all the blocks for a quilt,, I lay it all our on my wall and then make a stack of blocks, and take to my machine, just watch out how you lay them down so up is up

I learned that technique years ago watching Sewing With Nancy.

Use the webbing technique often. I have never had problems. One of my quilting buddies will do whole quilts like that, depending on the pattern of course, and it works for her. I do it for blocks that use lots of squares of the same size such as a checkerboard or Arkansas Crossroads.