I missed signing up for her workshop that happens next week in Michigan. Hopefully I can make one of her workshops in lower Michigan when she is there - I believe in 2016. In the meantime, I am doing l/e with 2 1/2 or 5 inch squares. Love all the thread I am saving by doing l/e! Just this August I pieced three quilt tops by using the l/e process while piecing other quilts. Wish I had known of this process years ago!

Maybe you've figured it out by now by reading the other posts. They are just scraps of fabric that you sew onto after you have finished a seam. That's the ender. Then it becomes a leader when you sew onto the next piece. We use them to keep the thread from bunching up at the start of a seam, to keep the needle from unthreading itself, and to mark our progress (putting one on after each 10 pieces). Some people call them spiders (because they often have lots of threads hanging from them), and some call them startie-stoppies. Whatever you call them, they are great.

I don''t need to use a leader for my machine, but I love love, love Leaders and Enders! I am currently working on three projects and one of them is a L & E quilt from Bonnie's book Leaders & Enders. I am making a quilt for DH for Christmas, which needs to be done only at night after he's gone to bed. I'm making a fall wall hanging during the day because, well, I can't not quilt all day, and am sewing the L's & E's for a quilt for the living room to go with our newly reupholstered sofa and love seat.

At times I have to fix a seam in the middle and don't use an L or E and I feel guilty, like I'm wasting my time! I am really hooked on them. Am anxiously waiting for the next batch!

Participating in the swaps on the board is a super way to get the variety of fabrics I need for my scrappies. I am currently into my second one and am looking forward to more. Thanks again, Sewbizgirl, for doing them!

I don't have more than one project going at one time BUT I'm working on a Bonnie inspired quilt using 2-1/2 squares that I chain piece through, then turn them into 4 patches. I do like Bonnie does, pin them together in bunches of 10 so it's easy to count how many patches I have/need. I always have something under the presser foot waiting for another block to be sewn.

I would love to take a class with her. I try to do her method and I do have a couple of her books, now I just need to pick a pattern. :)

Hopefully, I will be as proficient some day

Just got home from Bonnie's crumb class in Amherst, NY! Don't know when 7 hours went faster! Go to a class of hers if ever you can!

That is a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

glad you liked her she was at our guild a few months ago she is awesome!!

Just a bit of a clarification: l/e are not just scraps of fab. These pieces are cut to a specific shape/size and used as described above, but then these pieces themselves will/can become another pieced item when those l/e are then sewed together into whatever.........spiders as mentioned above are indeed just "scraps" used to save thread, stop nests on bottom, or whatever, and used until they are globs of thread ends .........not meaning to degrade anyone here, just to make a clearer explanation to someone who may not know the differences in terms.............