quilt club with stacey lee

WEEK 1 – YOUR FIRST QUILT – CUTTING FABRIC WITH A ROTARY CUTTER

Welcome to Week One of Quilt Club with Stacey Lee! This week we begin the course by learning how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter. Rotary cutters can seem a bit scary, but trust me, if you master it, it will become one of your favorite tools.

Here’s what I want you to do: Watch my YouTube videos and read the notes and, practice on a scrap piece of fabric until you feel confident to cut the fabric for your quilt. Remember to relax, take a break if you need to, and have fun! So let’s get started on your quilt making adventure!

VIDEOS TO WATCH

Introduction to Quilt Club with Stacey Lee

Week One Part A – Preparing your fabric to cut

Week One Part B – Cutting fabric with a rotary cutter

TO READ
Week One – Your First Quilt – Cutting fabric with a rotary cutter
TOOLS NEEDED

Ruler, Self healing mat, Rotary cutter, Iron, Ironing board/mat

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Fabric for your quilt top

NOTES
 

You will be cutting Forty Nine – 9” x  9” Squares (49 x 9” squares)

Make sure you have a nice sharp blade, you’ll know when you need a new blade because it will get hard for you to cut your fabric, you will have to press very firmly to cut, and you will have threads being skipped constantly

Always lock your rotary cutter whenever you are not using it, it is basically a razor blade on a wheel!

Always cut away from yourself

Keep your fingers away from the edge of the ruler. You can buy special gloves to use during cutting if you’d like

Working out how much pressure to apply when cutting takes a bit of practice. Don’t press too hard, it is better to recut if you have skipped threads and then work on pressing a little firmer next time

Never cut more than four layers of fabric at one time, especially when learning to cut

There are two methods to cutting fabric, with the lines on the mat or the lines on the ruler. You decide what works best for you. Below are instructions for using the lines on the mat using a 10” strip of fabric off the bolt. When you are cutting your quilting fabric, you cut strips and then you cut the strips into the desired shape, for us, we are cutting 9” x 9” squares

PREPARING YOUR FABRIC TO CUT

TASK

Iron/press your fabric

TOOLS NEEDED
Iron and ironing board/mat
SUPPLIES NEEDED

Fabric for your quilt top

Your fabric needs to be ironed so that it sits nice and flat on your cutting mat

Take each piece of fabric that you are using to make your quilt top and give it a gentle but firm iron/press

At this stage you may choose to use steam and/or starch, that is entirely up to you

If you chose to prewash your fabric (cuts off the bolt only) you will need to work out a nice straight fold line at the bottom of your fabric by lining the selvedge’s together and moving them slightly until you get a straight line at the fold Please note: never iron on your cutting mat, it will melt the lines and warp the shape

CUTTING FABRIC WITH A ROTARY CUTTER

TASK

Cut your fabric into 49 x 9” squares

TOOLS NEEDED
Ruler, self healing mat, rotary cutter
SUPPLIES NEEDED

Ironed fabric for your quilt top

1. GET YOUR TOOLS AND SUPPLIES READY

Place your cutting mat down so that it is lying nice and flat and you can easily stand in front it

Have your ruler, rotary cutter and ironed fabric ready to go

2. CUT YOUR FIRST STRAIGHT EDGE

We will cut our first line, so that we can square up the fabric, and have a 90-degree angle

Take your fabric and lay it on your mat nice and flat, smoothing it out with your hands

Decide which line on the mat you are using

Place your folded edge on the line, ensuring it is nice and straight

Look at the numbers on the mat and decide where you will do your cut

Follow the ***cutting steps ***

Check that your cut is straight and a perfect 90-degree angle by lining it up in the corner of your mat Now we have two straight lines in our fabric we can cut our first strip

3. CUT YOUR FIRST 9” STRIP

Flip your fabric around so that the fold line is closest to you and the cut fabric is lined up on a line

Place your ruler at a line at the top and the bottom so you are cutting a 9” strip When you are ready to cut, repeat the ***cutting steps ***

4. CUT YOUR SELVEDGES OFF

Turn the 9” strip around so the lines you just cut are lined up on the mat parallel to you so we can cut the selvedge’s off

Check you will be cutting both the selvedge’s off, sometimes one is shorter than the other When you are ready to cut, repeat the ***cutting steps ***

5. CUT YOUR FIRST SQUARE

Flip the strip around so the edge you just cut is lined up on the 0 (or whatever line you choose) on your mat

Line up the two straight edges you cut on the lines of the mat

We will now do a 9” cut to get our first 9” x 9” square

Place your ruler on the 9 at the top and the bottom (this is assuming the cut edge is on 0)

When you are ready to cut, repeat the ***cutting steps ***

Now you can leave your fabric where it is and carefully place the ruler along at another 9” OR you can move the cut edge back to 0 (or whatever line you choose) Repeat this step to get your second 9” cut

***cutting steps ***

Take your ruler and place on top of the fabric, while lining it up at a line that matches on the top and the bottom

Make sure all your lines are straight

Make sure that your ruler is lined up at the top and the bottom

Place your hand on the ruler – fanned out – pinkie off the edge and onto the fabric – fingers away from the edge of the ruler

Now double check, and triple check everything is still straight and lined up

Take your rotary cutter, lock it on

Place the blade against the ruler, just before the beginning of the fabric

Applying pressure, move your cutter up to in line with the end of your fingers, pause, move your hand up, then continue cutting. Do this as many times as needed

Gently move your cut fabric away from the ruler to check it’s cut properly If your fabric didn’t cut properly, carefully cut again

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