Mostly I do not use patterns but when I do I will tweak things when I can to conserve fabric.

The exception was the DWR I made. The pattern had a bit of wastage but added more accuracy and ease of construction so it was worth it for that pattern.

I just ran across a pattern that calls for 10" squares and then instructs me to trim to 9 1/2".  I couldn't believe it - yes, it's only 1/2", but isn't the whole concept of precuts to save time on cutting?  This is an APQS pattern.  The other wonky thing is, they gave instructions for 4 different size - awesome!  Baby, Lap, QUEEN, KING.  I needed a twin size.  So I then had to grow the lap size to what I needed, forget the 10" squares and try to figure out using yardage, how much I needed.

I'm also working on a pixel quilt.  The designer did a really good job with the instructions.  The only change I made was, instead of cutting hundreds of 1 1/2" squares and placing them on a gridded fusible base, if there were, say, 10 white ones in a row, I just cut a strip and fused it.  Since the sew vertical and horizontal seams on these pixel quilt, it made no sense to waste time cutting so many little squares.

Mary in Michigan

Something I never used to do in my wild and younger days is to make a test block.  I follow the instructions to the letter on cutting and piecing.  I've stopped many an error or  wasteful cutting by doing that.  And Jenny from MSQC is really a "waster" probably because she has unlimited access to fabric.  I'm not scrimping, just being efficient.

Sue in IL

All the time.   I don't use a lot of precuts, so I can cut how I like to do things.

Smart move too.  I have tons of scraps around here so making a "Test" is always a good thing- especially with a new pattern/block.

Thank you!

Mary