Cutting Squares Fast!

I teach quilting at Just Sew in Highland, Utah.
The quilt one of my classes is making needs 160 - 2 1/2" white squares. The squares sewn on as half square triangles shape the petals in this Pretty Posies quilt.

That's a lot of squares.
So let's cut them as fast as we can.



Start by cutting 2 1/2" strips across the width of the fabric. You can cut 16 -  2 1/2" squares from 42" of fabric. If you need 160 squares it will require 10 strips.

Please note: For this tutorial I will only be cutting 24 squares for a smaller quilt.

After straightening the edge of the fabric I begin cutting the 2 1/2" strips.

Here I have cut two strips which is all I need for my small quilt. Continue cutting as many as you need for your pattern.

 

Without unfolding them, layer the strips with the selvage edges together.

You may layer as many as three strips on top of each other for 6 layers of fabric. If your rotary cutter is not sharp you may find 2 strips for 4 layers is better but not as fast. :(

Make sure your cut edges are exactly even. Don't fuss if the selvage edges on your folded fabric are not even. Keep the fabric folded as it came off the bolt. You have some 'wiggle' room on this one.

Holding your ruler down tight to keep the layers from being 'pushed' by the rotary cutter trim off the selvage edges.

 Now flip your stack of strips over so that your cut end in on the left and begin cutting your squares.

Here I have two strips in my stack so I am cutting 4 squares at a time.

Continue cutting toward the fold. Six cuts gives me the 24 squares I need.
If you are cutting more, when you cut the final stack of 4 squares from the layered strips, open up the folded ends and see if they are big enough for one more cut. If so, stack up these unfolded ends from the layered strips and cut them all at once

Squares cut fast!