I've picked the sashing material for a set of blocks, and I'm cutting those pieces out now. I don't like to cut width of fabric strips for the setting pieces because it isn't usually an efficient use of fabric .  In most cases you can only get three or so pieces out of the strip, leaving odd little bits at the end, and I don't like wrestling large pieces of fabric around, nor do I want to press a big length of fabric.

I fold the large piece of fabric over again so that I have four layers (selvedges and fold aligned),   then I rough cut the lengthwise size of the sash I need,plus about an inch.  In this case I cut a piece 13 1/2" for a 12 1/2" sash, so that I could square it up as I went.  This means I can also press a relatively small piece of fabric with ease and really try to get that horrid centre crease out. Sometimes if you cut from either end the waste bit ends up in the middle and you don't have to use the fold at all.

I cut 3 1/2" strips from the piece and ended up with no leftovers at all.

 Then I trimmed each of these to the size I needed. There may be a slight bit of waste with the extra inch I've cut, but this is worth it to me for the convenience. And if you square up the width of fabric cuts you can lose a few inches anyway. This method suits me fine.

I'm cutting background blocks for a small applique top as well, and I do the same thing here. I have a four metre piece of fabric and I really don't want to press it all at once,

 so I chop off a piece big enough to work with.

  In this case the end was very unstraight, so I left a lot extra.

 I need 9 1/2" blocks, and I like to leave extra background fabric with applique anyway, so I cut this at 10 1/2" at the shortest point.

 I use one ruler to measure the length, and then square another one up to it so I can cut across the fabric.  Then I press really well and rough cut these blocks at least 10 1/2".

It feels good to be making decisions about these projects and getting fabric cut ready for sewing.