Heather then explains that when it comes to piecing a quilt, whether the pieces were cut on a straight fabric grain or not doesn't really matter. However, if your quilt is made up of many very tiny pieces, having them cut on the straight of grain can make them easier to work with.
Here are two things that might happen if you cut your fabric off grain: Your fabric will twist around your body. If it's off-grain, you're cutting closer to the bias, which increases stretch. In drastic cases, if your pattern pieces are not cut on grain, your fabric really will stretch and grow as you wear it.
If you want the quilt to have a more streamlined look, cutting lengthwise may be the right choice. Cutting fabric lengthwise will allow you to cut the long border strips in one piece, so you won't have to worry about piecing the strips together.
Fabric is usually folded right sides together for cutting. The only time it is cut right side out is if it has a design that must be taken into account and that does not show through to the wrong side.
It is incorrect to cut a fabric piece along the selvage edges as this edge should remain intact and is an essential tool for aligning your sewing patterns in the sewing process correctly. Lengthwise Grain: How to Align A Sewing Pattern On The Lengthwise Grain.
The golden ratio occurs in nature and is widely considered to be the “perfect proportion.” Objects that adhere to the golden ratio appear balanced and pleasing to our senses. The ratio, in its simplest form, is 1.6 to 1. This is applied so that each border should be 1.6 times larger than the previous one.
Use horizontal seams when piecing your quilt backing to make it easier to square up. If you must use vertical seams because of the size of your quilt, be sure to square up your quilt backing and consider adding additional width and length to make that easy to do.
I suggest the running stitch. This stitch is the most popular hand quilting stitch, and for good reason. It not only holds the layers of your quilt securely, but it also has a beautiful, modern feel because running stitch quilting is usually done in straight lines.
Traditionally, the binding is sewn to the front of the quilt and wrapped to the back and sewn down by hand (or machine). By starting on the back and wrapping to the front, you'll be able to do the final stitching by machine and it will look awesome (front and back.)
Whether you are quilting top to bottom, left to right, or along the diagonal, always start at the same end and finish at the other end, sewing in the same direction each time. If you zig zag your way across the quilt top, you will create visible drag lines as the fabric is pulled back and forth and back again.
Measure your Quilt Accurately
Generally, the side borders are added first.
I would not be able to sew the border onto this quilt without squaring up the edges. If your blocks are almost even and less than 1/4" off along the edge where they are sewn together, you would not need to square up your quilt top before adding the borders. But, it could make it easier to sew on the border.
It's not uncommon to be given a direction like "cut against the grain". If you make a mistake and sew along the bias or against the grain, then you could find your fabric starts to pucker in places. It may also start to stretch in areas that shouldn't stretch.
Nevertheless, you should cut them off and not use them in your patchwork piecing. They don't always press flat, and they often pucker and tighten when washed, meaning what they are sewn to doesn't lay flat. They are often thicker to sew through, and longarm quilters often have difficulty quilting through them.