Once you have your fabric planned and in your hands, it’s time to cut out all your pieces! (If you’re still planning your fabric, check out my Sawtooth Starshine Tutorial #1: Fabric Planning blog post!)

Taking your fabric from yardage to small pieces can feel like an overwhelming task. I use to dread the cutting part of making a quilt until I figured out a few time saving tips! Now it’s actually one of my favorite parts of the quilting process!

First, you need a few key tools to get started.

1. Iron/ironing board and wool mat (My favorites: Oliso SmartIron, Novodon Pressing Mat)
2. Rotary Cutter (My favorite: Missouri Star 45 mm and blades)
3. Ruler and handle (My favorites: Omnigrid 6″ x 24″, Omnigrid 12.5″ x 12.5″, handle)
4. Self-healing mat (My favorite: Mat 18″ x 24″)

Since we are making my Sawtooth Starshine Quilt for this tutorial, be sure that you have your copy of the pattern and print out the cut labels that I created as a free bonus to the pattern!

A NOTE ON LABELING YOUR CUT PIECES: When I first started quilting, I never labeled my pieces as I cut. I thought I would remember which piece was A, B, etc. I wish someone would have told me, “You will not remember!” So, I’ll be that person for you 🙂 I would have to back track as I was sewing, measure pieces and compare them to the cutting chart, and I often sewed the wrong pieces together so I would have to take them apart and figure it out all over again. Labeling you pieces will save you so much time! I made it easy for you too, just print out the cut labels sheet, cut them apart, and you’re ready to go!

STEP 1: IRON YOUR FABRIC

It is very important to make sure your fabric is free of wrinkles before you start cutting. You pieces need to be exactly the size listed in the cutting chart in order for your pieces to come together correctly as. you sew, and if there are little wrinkles or warped spots in the fabric, when you cut the pieces they will be slightly off.

I keep my fabric folded selvage to selvage when I iron before cutting. The selvage is the “top” and “bottom” of fabric yardage, where it is tightly woven by the fabric manufacturer to prevent fraying. So, I am ironing two layers of fabric at the same time.

As I iron, I am lightly moving my iron across the fabric, not pushing down and dragging it. If you push down and drag, it can stretch your fabric.

A lot of people like to use starch or steam while ironing their fabric. I will sometimes use steam from my iron or spray a light mist of water over my fabric before I start ironing. When using high quality quilting cotton, I just turn my iron on the cotton setting (very hot!) and it gets the wrinkles out for me. You can experiment to see what you prefer!

I place my Novodon Wool Mat on top of my ironing board and iron on top of it. I also have an extra wide ironing board to fit larger pieces of fabric. Ironing on top of a wool mat has been a game changer for me because of how flat the surface is, the fabric kind of sticks to it and doesn’t slide around, and the wool absorbs the heat and reflects that heat on the backside or the folded piece of the fabric. Since I iron two layers at once, I do not have to flip the folded fabric over and iron the other side when I use my mat.

I will iron part of my fabric then shift the part that I’ve ironed away from me, hanging over the backside of my ironing board, and continue ironing all the yardage of that color. I repeat this step for each color and lay out the fabric somewhere flat. I do fold it up a little after I take it off my ironing board, but I try to not place anything heavy on it and keep the folds very loose.

CUTTING

Next we start the actual cutting part!

Move your fabric from your ironing board to your cutting mat. You can place your cutting mat on any large table, I really like to use my kitchen island. I am right handed to I place the “raw” end of the fabric on my left and the rest of the fabric to my right on the cutting mat, keeping the fabric folded from selvage to selvage.

The first cut I make is to even up the end of the fabric. Often when the fabric is being cut off the bolt, the edge isn’t exactly straight. I take my 6″ x 24″ ruler, line up the 6″ edge with the folded end of the fabric, and cut just enough fabric off to make the edge perfectly straight. I use my rotary cutter to do the cutting.

Now it’s time to look at the pattern and make the first cut! I wrote the Sawtooth Starshine Quilt cutting instructions guiding makers to first cut a “WOF” or “Width of Fabric” (meaning from selvage to selvage) cut first and then cut these strips into smaller pieces.

Your fabric is now prepared and ready for making clean WOF cuts. It is still folded selvage to selvage with the fold at the bottom. The first WOF cut that I am going to make is 7 1/2″. My 24″ ruler isn’t wide enough so I “stacked” another ruler next to it. I lined up the smaller ruler against to raw edge then placed my 6″ x 24″ ruler next to it, making sure to line up the bottom edge with the fold of the fabric. By keeping the fabric folded, you can easily make a WOF cut with a 24″ long ruler.

(Side note: I keep a handle on my 6″ x 24″ ruler because I use it the most with long cuts, and this increases the risk of cutting your finger accidentally. Rotary blades are very sharp, so keep your fingers safe!)

Now I need to make the smaller cuts listed in the pattern out of this WOF piece. I usually keep it folded in half still, selvage to selvage. I rotate it so that the selvage end is to my left and the folded end is to my right. I will usually cut the selvage off first.

If I am cutting an even amount of pieces out of this WOF piece (for instance, cutting four 7 1/2″ squares) , I will keep the fabric folded and cut two pieces at the same time, making sure to get the correct amount of cuts out of that WOF. If there is an uneven amount of cuts needed I will cut two at the same time still and then iron the piece left at the folded end to get the crease out, then cut that last piece out of the remaining WOF.

(^There are two 7 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ pieces of purple fabric under this ruler.)

Once I have all the cuts made, I will clip on the label and start the next cut! Before long you will have all your cuts made and be ready to move on to piecing!

Bonus tip: If you have lots of small cuts to make, you can line up your folded WOF pieces under this slotted ruler and cut so many pieces in one swipe of your rotary cuter!

Next up is making Half-Square-Triangles!