How do I get myself going on using leaders and enders?

Leaders and Enders are when you start a seam/finish a seam onto a different piece of material so you don't waste as much thread.

How do you set up your odds and ends or pieces so you always use leaders and enders? And, do you sew all the way through the item or only partly through the item when you do it?

I get one or two set up but quickly run out of pieces. I finally decided I could have my strips or squares or other precut pieces just sitting nearby, but haven't gotten into the habit of doing it.

How did you get the habit?

I take a day or two and cut up scraps with my Go.. My fav is the 2in sqs.. I keep a small bin next to my machine and pull two when I need an ender.. I dont care which ones I grab, as long as they are not identical.. I sew enough that if i leave my sewing machine the foot is not resting on the feed dogs, its is cushioned by the 2 pieces of fabric.. and as for habit, i just see them and i just know they are there, so i grab them when needed..

Wow, great idea, thanks for sharing

Sometimes I have a container of HST leftover from Flying geese or binding seams, pair 2 of them up and use them as L & E.

Do you sew all the way through when you pair them up, or just part of the way...to pick up the rest when you do the next part of your project?

I sew one pair all the way through, then continue with the current project until I need another L & E. Put the sewn HST (or 2 squares) into a small bin to be dealt with later.

Great question and answers! I was wondering this myself and having been wanting to start using them. I think I was too worried about matching up a light one with a dark one. It would be a lot easier just making sure they are not the same fabric!

as with all habits- it is something you just do-more and more until it is second nature- at our lqs they have a basket of 2" squares---they just cut them out of what ever scraps when cutting- and put them in the basket- it sits near a machine- when needed 2 are simply grabbed and used-
practice-causes habit

I had recently decided to make a 2" square quilt and had thought of the leaders & enders... I will start with this one of these days... eventually lol. It will take me more time than I have right now to get organized enough to do it but I love the idea of a 2" quilt. I'm going to have my guild start saving scraps for me to make it with for more variety.

I cut a lot of 2 1/2" squares (or whatever size I need) and have them separated by lights and darks. I'll sometimes sit down for 20 or 30 minutes (or just while watching TV) and pair them up right sides together. I then stack the pairs turning each 1/4 turn from the previous pair. This makes it quick and easy to just grab a pair and sew it without taking my focus from my main pattern. The 2-patches can then be paired up and stacked turning 1/2 turn each time.

I used this method to make a scrappy Double Irish Chain using 2" squares.

Check out Bonnie Hunter's blog, she has some good ideas.
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...-and-hows.html

I do the same, except right now I'm doing 9-patches. I just make sure I don't have the same fabric in each one.

I just keep a box of them them by my machine as part of my "habit". Each time I finish a project, I cut the pieces up and add to my box. I hate having the long strings attached to my sewing, so the leaders and enders make that NOT happen!!! When I stop sewing (or start), there is ALWAYS a leader/ender on my machine. It is a nice habit that makes me feel more productive and less wasteful!!! LOVE IT.

My small pieces are to the right of my machine and just grab 2 and sew them together as needed. I usually make crumb blocks or 4 patches.

I do exactly as loveTooQuilt does. I only sew one set -- one pair together, 2 pairs together; my blocks are 6 squares by 6 squares. I only have 14 blocks done, but figure eventually I'll get my postage stamp quilt done, lol. (My squares are 2" square; the 1.5" squares are pretty, but too small for me.)

It does take some planning. Rather than using scraps, I completely cut a 'bonus' quilt and work that in between. Right now, I'm working on christmas gift quilts made from used men's shirts. For my bonus quilt, I am using brights plus white and doing the Bonnie Hunter Patches & Pinwheels.
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...pinwheels.html
I took a day and cut all the pieces for the patches quilt, placed (not sew) them into twosies and put them in a basket by my machine, where I can grab them as needed. Since i chain piece, I usually only have 1 or 2 bonus pieces sewn when I go to the ironing board and I just press them too. The color combo is totally different from the main quilts I'm working on so it's easy to keep them apart. I'm making four Christmas quilts and i figure that I will have the blocks for my bonus quilt done at about the same time.
My advice would be to set aside a whole day and cut those scraps (or a bonus quilt). You are not going to do it if you keep running out.

Thank you for sharing everyone! I have lots of scraps and didnt know what to do with them. How pretty the pictures are of the completed squares.

I use pieces that I have trimmed off units or blocks ... using 2 layers ... but starting less than 1" from the end so that it is easy to pull out the thread and reuse later. I keep a small pile of them by my sewing area.

ali

I start my leaders in the middle so the edge doesn't get caught up in the feed dogs. Then I usually just go through the ender far enough that I can clip the thread. I reuse my leaders and enders until there is so much thread on them that you can hardly see the fabric pattern. I usually just grab a quick scrap from my garbage bin as I don't usually keep anything smaller that 2". Sometimes I'll use left over scraps of binding - they're also good for checking your stitch as you go through several layers of fabric.

Left over binding makes great leaders and enders.

I think she's referring more towards Bonnie's (of quiltville)method of working on 2 quilts at the same time, using the leaders and enders between the main project you are working on.

My mom used to use leaders and enders the same way you do. She kept sewing on the same piece basically forever. When I was young I really thought it was something special that couldn't be lost. :lol:

Once I threw it away and panicked, I spent 30 minutes sorting through the trash. Mom just about died laughing when she saw me searching the trash. That's when she explained it was just a piece of scrap fabric. It wasn't anything special.

I do that too... when I get my machine serviced it comes back with a different one.

Bonnie Hunter has a great book which I bought. It is Adventures With Leaders And Enders. Im making the little bow tie blocks.
www.quiltville.com

Thank you everyone! I see I'm going to have to get some scrap cutting done so I have enough lights and darks to make something organized out of the leaders and enders.

In the meantime, I have a lot of 2 1/2" strips, so I guess I can just get them started into a strip quilt while I figure out what comes next.