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There's a difference between leaders and enders and a scrap piece (often called a spider) for starting and stopping. Leaders and enders are meant to become parts of another quilt. You basically have the pieces of a, say four patch for a secondary project at the ready. Then you start and stop your chain on those as you are working on chaining your main project parts together. Bonnie Hunter uses this method and this efficiency surely contributes to her amazing output.

I am not so organized. I like the idea but I'm usually too excited about what I'm doing to mess with being this organized. So I just grab a small scrap, fold it a time or two and it becomes my spider. I use three or four of these over and over, just snipping them off the chain for reuse. If you do this, you'll soon see why it's called a spider. I am sure I have pitched a thousand or more of these lifesaving "critters" into the trash over the years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurora (Post 7455490)

I am odd man out here -- I absolutely hate chain piecing, as well as leaders and enders. I have tried this technique numerous times and I find it boring and tedious. For me quilting is more about enjoying the process as well as the end product.

explain the last sentence as you understand it.
so, from I gather, you construct each block completely, then on to the next one? Just wondering

I used to use a leader or "spider," as someone called it, but found that if I simply hold the thread tails snugly behind the machine, I never have to mess with another piece of fabric and snipping it off. If I had a scrap quilt planned, I might go back to the leaders and enders, however. But even starting a leader on a diagonal would mean holding those thread tails at the start. Each machine sews a little differently. I could get away with just beginning at the fabric edge with my old Kenmore.

I usually keep a piece of doubled fabric next to my sewing machine. I start sewing in the middle of this leader and then the first piece of my quilt chains together without any problems. I also hold onto both of my threads until the first few stitches are made.

Quote:

Originally Posted by feline fanatic (Post 7454543)

I use leaders and enders as well but I noticed a new trend. I usually don't have this issue due to using leaders and enders but it started happening to me just the last few days. I realized I had a bobbin in with poor tension. When winding the bobbin, the thread had slipped out of one of the guides so the tension on the bobbin was not good, the thread wound on the bobbin was not nice and tight but spongy. I had wound the full bobbin and was loath to waste the thread so sewed a test strip with it. The tension was fine for sewing so I decided to use it and found I was getting the birds nest issue when chain piecing just as you describe. I am thinking it has something to do with my "spongy" wound bobbin. I am still to frugal (cheap!!) to give up on the bobbin and will continue to use it up but I am making sure I am putting some tension on my chain as I add each new unit. That is solving the issue for me. I am pretty sure once I use up this bobbin and load one that is wound correctly I will quit having the issue.

When a poorly wound bobbin happens to me, I use it on the spool pin and either rewind to a new bobbin or use it as the top thread. Just a suggestion.

A straight stitch plate, one small hole, can help significantly cut down on this problem. You can also use older machines that have but one small hole for the needle to go through. Now with all we expect the machines to do the openings in the plate are bigger. I bought a straight stitch plate with a small whole for my janome 6500. It was about $40 but it did cut down on the eating of fabric when piecing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurora (Post 7455490)

I kind of switch back and forth. Being a sewer first, I am still used to back stitching which isn't conducive to chain piecing, plus I often do applique or samplers and it doesn't work there either as each block is different. Recently when I did a huge churn dash quilt of 198 squares I had to remind myself to chain piece and it did speed up the process and I didn't get so bored with doing the same block over and over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManiacQuilter2 (Post 7454642)

I use scraps of fabrics (as mentioned above) otherwise you need to hold on to your threads especially the bobbin thread until the first couple of stitches are made by your machine.

I thought it was the top thread which was most likely to become the "nest". If you use threads of a little different color, you will see which thread makes the nest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaperPrincess (Post 7454523)

The other options are to hold both the bobbin and top tail threads to the back of your foot as you start to stitch.

I do this EVERY TIME I start a seam. It's a no fail method!

Besides using leaders, small bits of fabric that you stitch first, then stitch your pieces; I would also recommend what I have been told in the past, that you use a one hole face plate, as it helps keep the machine from "eating" fabric.