Please help a newbie with cutting....

[Ule913]

I've just started sewing and so far am enjoying it immensely, but am discovering that there's so much I don't know. Stuff that is just second nature to people who have been sewing and quilting for years.

I am going to try to make a rag quilt for a co-worker for Christmas. Since I couldn't find any flannel for the front that I thought she would like, I decided to use a cotton for the front and flannel for the rest. So here is my dilemma, the fabric I picked is the one with rows Dr. Who police boxes on it. This leads me to ponder how to cut the fabric. Since the fabric has an obvious "large" design, I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to fold the fabric in half to cut my strips for the squares because it would be hard to tell if the bottom layer is straight. I was considering fussy cutting to center the police boxes from top to bottom on the squares, but this would mean probably having to cut off some material every time I cut a strip to make sure the squares started in the same spot.

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to start early so I actually have a hope of finishing it on time.

Thanks so much.

Pam

[Hulamoon]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Since the fabric is such a specific theme I would do the fussy cut. Sometimes fabric needs to be sacrificed to come out special. How big would your squares be if you fussy cut them?

[DramaMama]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Wondering which fabric it is .... any of these?

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...bric&FORM=IGRE

Depending on which fabric pattern it is, you could avoid sacrificing the fabric by making one or more rows much LARGER than the others in the quilt (this row being the one with the specialty police boxes fabric) -- no one says each row of strips or squares have to be the SAME throughout the quilt! The rest of the rows can be same size or smaller with solids or other coordinating prints.

[Ule913]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

This is the fabric:

http://www.joann.com/doctor-who-poli...%2Bwho&start=1


I was going to do cut 8" squares that would make finished square of 7" once assembled into the quilt.

[CraftySweetPeas]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

I would open the fabric and cut only one layer at a time, and just cut your 8" squares, starting with good placement on your starting strip...does that make sense?

[Hulamoon]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

I see that it's polyester. It's not going to fray.

[K. McEuen]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Like Hulamoon said, fleece won't fray. Your rag quilt is not going to have the desired effect. Fleece looks more like a fringe, depending on how thick or thin you make your snips in the seam allowances.

[Yanna]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Welcome Pam to the forum from Southeast Louisiana.

[DramaMama]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

This is the fabric:

http://www.joann.com/doctor-who-poli...%2Bwho&start=1


I was going to do cut 8" squares that would make finished square of 7" once assembled into the quilt.

Hulamoon is right -- it won't fray like a typical rag quilt; you will have fringe instead as K. said.

If you still want to use this fabric, you could use it for the borders and not rag that part of the quilt.

Were you planning to just use this fabric for the squares? Or, did you have other fabric that you were going to alternate squares with? If the latter, what is that other fabric? Also, how much yardage of this Dr. Who police box do you have?

FYI -- the first quilts I made were rag quilts because the person told me they were the easiest to make. I found this NOT to be true! I find rag quilts to be harder than a jelly roll race quilt or even piecing blocks like in Jenny's tutorials.

Sorry you may be having trouble with this. But Stay Calm and Quilt On -- it is likely still do-able, you just may have to do it differently than originally planned.

[quiltsRfun]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

If it's fleece Jenny did a tutorial quite a while back for a fleece throw that didn't require sewing. The fleece is in one piece which would keep all the Tardises (spelling?) intact and it looked really quick.

[CraftySweetPeas]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

I see that it's polyester. It's not going to fray.

TOTALLY missed that its fleece.... GREAT catch!

[Ule913]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

I realize that the cotton won't fray as the flannel will. I gave it some serious thought and did some research and found this one on the internet:

http://www.sewcanshe.com/blog/2015/6...ewing-tutorial

It still looks cute. She used cotton on the front, flannel in the middle and fleece on the back. I have 2 different cottons to make alternating blocks on the front. I have some yellow/gold flannel for the middle layer which I figured would pick up the color of the light on the top of the box. And I have both fleece and flannel for the back; I haven't quite decided which to use. I may make a sample block of both and see which I like better.

[Ule913]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Oops I see where some of the confusion is. The link to the fabric I posted does say fleece. I didn't notice that when I posted. The one I bought is cotton; but it does have the same pattern though.

[Ule913]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

Yes it does. It's kind of what I was thinking that I would have to do. If at some point I decide I don't like where some of the police boxes are lining up or being cut through, then I'll just have to sacrifice some fabric to get it to line up better again.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and encouragement.

[Hulamoon]

Re: Please help a newbie with cutting....

I didn't even notice it said fleece. I just saw the word polyester. lol I made a girls poncho with fleece and cut and tied it all the way around and it came out really cute.