A piece of fabric that has been used for fussy cutting looks like a piece of swiss cheese. Holes all over it. A fussy cut ruler may help you. I think Quilt in a Day has fussy cut quilting rulers. You may want to check out the Quilt in a Day website.

You could use the left over pieces for the back of your quilt. I always piece my backs and that's where my fabric comes from. It's my leftovers.

I have some of that dragon fabric with flames that is red/black/bright gold.

I've almost finished one top where I did the "Swiss cheese" squares and was able to center the various dragons, then alternate squares of red and black with the dragons and use gold sashing.

I've also started another one where I cut the individual dragons out cutting along the middle of the background flames. There was very little waste doing it this way. However I ended up with multi sided pieces that I now need to add other shapes to in order to have squares or rectangles. We will have to see how labor intensive this turns out to be. Lol!

The multi sided shapes sounds like the beginning of an awesome "crazy quilt" to me.

Thanks so much for the input. I will do my best not to buy anymore "I spy" fabric that needs fussy cutting. I have some really interesting fabric, so I'm going to move forward and cut it - good, bad or indifferent.

I bought a 28mm cutter today. I have a 5" square quilting ruler, which I can use to draw an outline. That way I can try the scissor route. Wally World had a rotary mat, but I'm hoping that Joann's will have a coupon in tomorrow's paper. There has not been one lately. I'll check with my local quilt store to see if they have a fussy cut ruler before I order one online. I made the backing for my first quilt too small, so I have to drop it by this week so they can quilt it.

bk

Why don't you want to fussy cut fabric if that is the intention you had in mind. Yes it does use a lot of fabric but throwing it in the trash wastes the whole piece. Cut it up and enjoy making your I spy quilt. Use the scraps for a scrap quilt.
peace

Yes make a " frame" kind of template that is the size of the piece you want PLUS the seam allowance. Then cut out the center of the template so that the the template is just the seam allowance. This way you can position it on the fabric and trace around the outside before cutting.

Why don't you want to fussy cut fabric if that is the intention you had in mind. Yes it does use a lot of fabric but throwing it in the trash wastes the whole piece. Cut it up and enjoy making your I spy quilt. Use the scraps for a scrap quilt.
peace

Yes make a " frame" kind of template that is the size of the piece you want PLUS the seam allowance. Then cut out the center of the template so that the the template is just the seam allowance. This way you can position it on the fabric and trace around the outside before cutting. Oh, and I suggest cutting with scissors.

You can make the template out of graph paper. When it gets ragged, just make another. I use a rotary cutter and go down the right side of the template (it sheers a little off, but oh well.) Once I have the right edge and make note of where some obvious part of the design is, relative to that edge, I finish with a regular ruler. This eliminates drawing any lines or having to use a scissors. Hope that makes sense.

Hugs,
Charlotte