Hey Everyone, welcome back to Technique Tuesday.

What is fussy cutting? It is when a certain part of a pattern in a piece of fabric is cut out. It can be as small or as big as you like. Fussy cutting allows you to manipulate what part of the fabric design is going to be in the quilt. One draw back to fussy cutting is that there is usually a fair bit of fabric wastage but it is worth it with the end result.

To fussy cut just place your ruler over the fabric until the area you want to use is under the ruler and cut out the shape and size you need. When cutting odd shapes such as for appliqué place the template on the fabric covering the area you want in the piece. Using fusible web from the back side of the fabric is a bit trickier to ensure you get exact placement. If you were to use freezer paper templates and iron them onto the front of the fabric then the accuracy of placement would be much better.

For example the Christmas ornaments in my Seasons Greetings wall hanging were fussy cut. The fabric was a Laurel Burch fabric and I just wanted to have ornaments randomly placed among the trees.

Original Seasons Greeting quilt

This fussy cutting was very precise.

Close up of ornaments

Where as most fussy cutting is in a geometric shape to fit into a quilt block.

Or for shapes in an applique such as this butterfly.

The fabric was fussy cut so the wings were virtually identical

Fussy cutting is great for highlighting and showcasing a large print as is the case with the gerber daisies in this quilt.

The flowers were fussy cut to ensure a nice display in each block

Some fabrics are just meant to be fussy cut so that they are used to their full potential while most others look great with random cuts made throughout the design.

Happy Quilting!

I shared this on WIP Wednesdays , The Needle and Thread Network