laralea

I am obsessive/compulsive about wanting my fabric to be straight on the grain so I tear it. If I tear it and the crossgrain lines up, but the selvedges don't line up, it's still off-grain. I don't do tear small pieces or fat quarters, but I tear pretty much whatever will tear. I don't mind the loose threads or the lost little bit of fabric when I cut the edge. I'm tired of paying for a couple extra inches to waste on getting it straight, so I'm delighted when they tear fabric at the store. I rarely have problems with off-grain when buying quilt shop fabric, but I can rarely afford to do so. I try to find the middle ground between the horribly off-grain cheap fabric and the high-end never off-grain fabric. Yesterday, in Hancocks, I saw this adorable frog fabric that was printed in squares and I asked the clerk to tear it for me to check the grain. Sure enough, it was almost a whole square off grain. I didn't buy it.

shaverg

I tear borders for a fussy tear too. I get the exact design equal on each side. The last fabric I tore was my Bay cotton kona floral. I am attaching two quilt where all the strips and borders were torn, you can see a close up of the border. You can tell how straight they are by looking at the pattern. The baseball fabric is Alexander Henry. Both are very good fabric. The better the fabric the easier tear. If you see a strip on my quilt no matter how small it was probably torn. Even some of my blocks are torn. Length wise is much better. You can do selvage to selvage, but much harder. You will get some thread, but for me has never been that big of an issue with the accuracy I get. Even the beige baseball sashings were torn and then cut to length. They came out the exact 2.1/2 width, exact.

Lostn51

The first quilt is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!

Maybe there is something to this tearing I might try it one time just to see.

Billy

clem55

I LOVE both your quilts!! The rose for me the baseball would be perfect for my grandson, our ball player. Where did you find that fabric?

shaverg

The Baseball Players and baseballs are Robert Kaufman, I believe the borders are Alexander Henry got it from LQS. The floral was a Kona Bay Monthly floral, from last spring and summer. The blocks in the center are 9", that tells you how large the flowers are. You should still be able to find the floral online it comes in all colors and all different types of flowers, although I have seen all the fabrics online even though I got them at the LQS.

foxxigrani

I do on backing and sometimes those long borders, its so hard for me to cut, like my sewing cutting isn't perfect either. Oh I know I am a mess.

Rita

Miss Mona

Most quilts are not quite 108", so I buy 3 yards for the borders. I clip the selvage, clip to make 4 equal length pieces and then tear and I end up with 4 equal lengths of the same widths for the quilt. This way I don't have to fight the long piece trying to fold and cutting it with a rotary. If the quilt is shorter I have extra for my scraps.

cminor

How exciting! I have a WIP that I have been avoiding becuase I can't decided or boarders. Now - once I decide I don't have to stress about my bad cutting skills. I can just rip it!

Thanks for everyone's comments :)

summerstorm

Always have but just cotton.

Sharon

summerstorm

Hi,

The grain runs two ways, just imagine a plus sign. ( + ). If you look closely you will see the threads.

Sharon