Me too. I've tried it, but my habit of not doing it is so ingrained that I don't know if I could ever get used to doing it and because my machine rarely gives me a problem with threads getting caught in a mess, I have no great motivation for doing it.... love my old Bernina!!

I have seen this suggestion before but I don't really understand, don't you then have the same issue with starting your leader with the thread getting caught?

[A leader is a piece of fabric to start the sewing with so fabric &/or thread doesn't bunch in the beginning. I keep a "leader" and "ender" on - simply feed it into the throat as fabric I'm piecing is finished. It saves lots of thread because you don't have to pull it out & cut, just snip between the scrap leader and pieced fabric and keep going. I do a long row of pieces whenever possible, then snip. The "ender" stays under the needle and becomes the "leader" for the next piecing.

If I'm organized enough, I use 2 1/2 inch scraps that will eventually become another quilt - but that organization is more wishful thinking than fact.
Jan[/quote][/quote]

I have seen this suggestion before but I don't really understand, don't you then have the same issue with starting your leader with the thread getting caught?[/quote]

OK - a bit more - I do hold the thread for the 1st leader I feed into the machine. After that, I chain stitch my quilt pieces, as many pieces as I can have ready to sew, then add an "ender". I sew through to the end of the "ender" piece I've added after the quilt pieces, leaving it under the needle already stitched.
Then the next 2 quilt pieces I sew have the former "ender" now being the leader for the next piecing. No bunching of thread because the piece has been left in place under the needle.
Clear as mud?
Maybe there is a tutorial somewhere with pictures - pics always help me.

What is a straight stitch plate? Just had to ask.

cathyvv, some newer zigzag machines come with two plates with a needle hole. The one with a wider slotted opening is for zz stitching and the small circular one is good for quilting or other straight stitching.

Leaders and enders? I wish I'd known about them when I was trying to quilt with my Elna. She is a very hungry machine and ate lots of narrow corners. My vintage Singer 301 is a SS, so I don't need the leaders for that reason. I do use a few to save thread tails if I can't chain piece.

My 13 year old GD made her first quilt here last week. My son says she can't bring the machine home until she can unjam it. Because she used leaders and enders, it never once jammed - not even one nest. With her leader, she could concentrate on her 1/4", not holding threads. She reused her little squares. Her piecing is near perfect. When we measured the three spots to average for the first border, the measurements were all the same, both the length and width. I think the leaders and enders helped.

Irish Rose, thank you for this information. Glad your grand daughter is learning to quilt. I've been doing the same with my 'grands'. It's fun!

Never, just hold the threads taut and go!

Always!!

Always, I hate the spaghetti underneath begining of seams.

ALWAYS. I use leaders and enders. I keep a bunch of them on the shelf next to my machine. I use mine over and over and over and over and over and over until you can hardly tell what the fabric looked like to begin with.

My Bernina requires that I hold the threads when I start a stich; Janome doesn't as it has a thread cutter. BUT, I find that leaders and enders save a fortune in thread and save a heck of a lot of work picking up thread off the floor. If you use an ender, you'll always have a leader under the foot.