Big Ocean Sew Along Week 2: Cutting Your Fabrics

Welcome to Week 2 of the Big Ocean Sew Along! I hope you enjoyed choosing your colors, checking the value breakdown of your fabrics, and getting into a good space to be creative and play with your fabulous fabrics! I am excited to start cutting it all up! This week, we are going to learn some tips for accurate cutting, talk about why I like to cut my HST squares as big as I do, and get ready to start designing our quilts in Week 3.

The Big Ocean quilt can be made with any cut of fabric – fat quarter, quarter yard, or scraps - as long as it is at least the size of the triangles you’ll need for your HSTs. Check the quilt size chart to confirm what size squares you’ll need. If you’re using fat quarters or quarter yards, cut as many squares as you can from each piece.

Let’s talk about some cutting tips for achieving accurate HSTs. Be sure that your rotary cutter blade is sharp. A sharp blade is easier to cut with and will get you cleaner cuts. Use the lines on your ruler to measure your fabrics, not the lines on your mat. Align the straight edge of your fabric with the correct line on your ruler, and cut. For those who use the lines on the cutting mat, this might take some getting used to, but I suggest trying it! It’s one of many habits that help me achieve accurate piecing.

Speaking of accurate piecing, you may have noticed that the pattern calls for cutting your squares an inch and a quarter larger than your finished HSTs. Many HST cutting methods call for cutting your squares 7/8ths inches larger or one inch larger, but I have found that sometimes it still isn’t enough room for trimming them down to the right size. You can sew a practice square with scrap fabric to find a size that consistently leaves you with blocks big enough to trim. Here is a picture of 2 different HST blocks made with  5" vs a 5 ¼" squares of fabrics- what a difference!!