With Every Stitch a Story: An Entire Quilt From Start to Finish, Part 3: Cutting

I’m adding a new Count Down up here. lol

Quilt Countdown: 29 Days

I want to take a moment and just say, that if you are starting out, please don’t get overwhelmed. I’m showing the whole process with this particular Quilt as its typical of my Difficulty Level and size, but these hours are not going to be the same for someone making a smaller quilt with less involved blocks. I also wanted to ensure that people understand just how much time and effort goes into the quilt. I’m already in for twenty hours of labor and haven’t started physically sewing yet. Suffice it to say, there is a lot more to Sewing than just sewing.

Ok, let’s talk cutting. My next step was to cut using my numerous cut sheets. I spent several hours cutting everything, and then appropriately sorting them. Everyone has a different method, but this is typically what works for me: I started with the background fabric and cut every piece of that. Then I refolded the fabric and started a stack. (this stack, along with all of its scraps, will stay together for a little while (in case I want to add anything additional….maybe Shams for an anniversary or something like that. I also try to keep one piece of wedding quilt fabric aside to add in to future baby quilts if that is a direction the couple chooses to go.) I sub-cut all pieces as well, so they are ready to get sewn. (what do you mean Danika? Well, sometimes a pattern will say to cut a strip 2.5″ by width of fabric. Later on in the pattern, you realize the directions say to cut that strip into rectangles….I’ll read through the whole pattern and cut out everything that I can.) In this particular pattern, I can sub-cut most everything, however, there will be more cutting throughout the pattern (not just squaring up pieces) because this pattern is using Four at a time Flying Geese and Eight at a time Half Square Triangles. Then I move on to Fabric 1, cut, sub-cut, stack, and repeat…..through Fabric 8 in this particular quilt. With all my cut sheets and organization, I was able to cut out the background fabric in about an hour and all of the Color Fabrics in about 20 minutes each.

Just for reference, there are 39 pieces cut (at this point) for each block…..times 25 blocks is 975 pieces cut….plus 16 pieces of background fabric for the set in triangles…..for a grand total of 991 cut pieces.

At the end of the day, each block will contain 81 pieces of fabric….times 25 blocks is 2025 pieces of fabric…plus 16 pieces of background fabric for the set in triangles….for a grand total of 2041 pieces of fabric in the quilt.

As you can see in the above pictures, this is my Sorting system. I use thick, sturdy recycled paper plates to help sort (see far right picture below). I find I can stack them when not in use and they don’t take up too much room, but for something intricate, like this quilt, I can sort each block onto a single plate to keep everything organized. I don’t prefer zip-top bags for this sort of thing…but do love them for transporting projects. I use sticky notes to label, this way I can continue re-using the plates again and again without having to cross out labels. I have plates for each block, for the set in triangles, and right now four more plates with the two sets of geese and two sets of half square triangles sorted and combo-ed, so that I can just assemble them in order for the first big step. My plan is to then trim them and sort them back onto the block plates.

I just got started on Block 1’s flying geese. They need to be squared up, so that will be the the next step: finishing Block 1 to ensure all is well before I assembly line the whole dang thing.

Hour Count:

Previous Hours: 13

Cutting and Sorting: 7 hours

Total Hours so far: 20

Next Step: “Test” Block #1, then Gooses Galore!