heron

I'm making Two Gray Hills: https://www.swdecoratives.com/shop/P...s-x4505755.htm

The quilt emulates an old Navajo weaving. The pattern-maker was ingenious in designing the quilt as series of pieced strips, which further gives it the feeling of a weaving. Notice in the photo that the pieced strips run vertically.

I'm trying to figure out which would be better: cutting the length of the strip pieces on the cross grain (more stretchy) or straight grain (more stable)? All the strips are 1" wide (finished).

BTW, I'm going to try paper piecing this. I have some software from my fashion sewing days which allowed me to work up each individual strip pattern and I've printed all 22 of them on a large plotter (roll of paper).

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

PaperPrincess

I'm guessing that you are making strip sets then cross cutting. In this case I would cut them cross grain. I think that you can more easily control the stretch sewing the long strips into sets. The stitching will stay the stretch in this direction. Then, when you cross cut, you will have the straight of grain on the edges, keeping that stable.

Onebyone

When I cut strips straight grain the strips seem to be wavy when sewn especially long border strips.

heron

Ah, right! That makes total sense.

bjchad

I concur with cutting cross grain as you really need the 1 inch measurement (width) to be stable and that will be on the straight grain.

patricej

cut your strips on the warp/straight/parallel to the selvage.
your seams will stay straight more easily and you won't have wavy strip sets.

you will need the stretch when it comes time to line up all those sets to get straight looking dark bits of square & rectangle shapes.

dunster

If you are going to paper piece it then it doesn't really matter which way you cut the strips. But I don't understand why you would want to paper piece it.

gigi712

That's my question. It looks like a simply pieced quilt. It's very pretty btw.

SusieQOH

Until I found this board I didn't realize that cutting crosswise is a better way. I used to get so frustrated with wavy borders. I've had great success since I started cutting this way. Thanks everyone!

heron

Thank you. Regarding the piecing, this is only my 3rd quilt. The first had traditionally pieced blocks, and boy-oh-boy did I learn a lot about not stretching the fabric. I had a heck of a time squaring things up and matching seams as I put the thing together. Shall we say, I was only moderately successful. I called it my "Pre-K" quilt.

The second quilt was paper pieced (irregularly shaped triangles), and it came out with perfectly matched seams. Made me pretty happy

On this one, since it's meant to look like a weaving, I want to absolutely ensure that every seam matches up when I sew the final strips together. I don't feel like I've built enough skill yet to manage doing that without paper piecing. If I were making this for myself, I'd go for it. But this is a gift quilt, so I'm extra nervous.