The Checker Cakes Quilt along is designed to cut a few blocks and piece a few blocks instead of how you would traditionally do all of your cutting first and then start making your blocks. But why do it this way? If you cut your pieces on a smaller more portable mat, you can just pick up the whole mat and move it over from your cutting station to your sewing station. I use an 18″ x 24″ cutting mat. This will keep your pieces perfectly stacked so that you don’t have to do that again before you chain piece them. If you do want to cut all of your pieces this week, just be sure to keep them organized so that the pieces from each pair are together. It will be a big mess if you get them mixed up. Nobody wants to be sorting through 504 squares trying to get the pieces from each pair back together. Use sewing clips, clothespins, or paper clips, to keep your pieces organized as shown in the photo. Stack them and clip them so that your pairs stay together. You see me doing this here.

Here’s the cutting demo video that’s linked in the pattern. I am not a hard core youtuber, so please keep that in mind. Laugh if you like, but be nice. I also have a cliff notes version in the form of an Instagram Reel for the 10″ squares.

The cutting diagram for using the 10″ squares (layer cake squares or 10″ squares you cut yourself) is in the pattern. Here is the diagram for cutting your 9 pieces from the rectangle section if you used fat quarters. You will still stack these right sides together (a high volume and a low volume) just like you do with the 10″ squares. Just be sure to only pair these rectangle sections with other rectangle sections so that you can cut them both at the same time. I have a reel on Instagram where I demo how to cut your 9 pieces from the odd side piece from the fat quarters.

Tips

1) Stack a high volume and a low volume square or rectangle piece right sides together just like how you want them to be when you start piecing them.

2) Layer cakes squares are not standardized. Unless you got all of the squares from the same layer cake, there’s an excellent chance that they aren’t all the same size. It’s actually not even possible to get all 56 squares from one layer cake since they only have 42 squares. Stack the smaller layer cake square on top so that you can be sure your cuts are getting the full 3.25″ pieces from both layer cake squares. You can see this in the picture below. I have the smaller square on top, and the solid white square is visible around the edges.

3) For cutting pieces from 10″ squares, use a square ruler that is at least 10″. I am using a 12.5″ square ruler in those videos.

4) When you need to cut in a new direction, turn your mat instead of your fabric. This will allow you to keep your pieces perfectly stacked and keep everything aligned for the next cut. I do this in the cutting demo videos in the pattern. You can also see me doing this here.

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