leaders and enders?
 

I am a long time quilter. I keep seeing the term "leaders and enders". Just what are they?

It's Bonnie Hunter's technique for dealing with scraps.

When you're sewing a quilt, grab 2 pieces of fabric (a light/dark) and sew them together when you start sewing a strip or whatever from the project you are doing.

You end up with quite a few sewn pieces this way. Then you take these pieces and make blocks/quilts.

Google Bonnie Hunter!

It is kind of like making pieces for a bonus quilt as you sew. I just can't get into it because it takes my concentration off what I am working on and I don't need any more distractions when working on a project. I start seeing how my leaders are coming and before I know it I am over at my design wall and you know where that is going.:D

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this. We each need to adopt the method of sewing that's best for us.

I always used a scrap of fabric for a spider to keep my fabric from being eaten by the throat plate, so when I found Bonnie Hunter's site, i was all primed & ready to go. I try and have a stack of squares cut, or the cut off triangles from a project with 'flippy corners'. I have also cut a small quilt of repeating simple blocks, like 4 patches or HSTs, and stacked the pieces so they are ready to go. Even though I assembly line sew, it is still amazing how quickly those other patches are sewn. It's really like getting a bonus quilt!
I took a class from Bonnie and another way you can use this technique is when you have a pieced border. Cut the pieces for the border at the beginning of the project, use them for enders & leaders, then when the main portion of your top is done, the border is mostly assembled. She pointed out that lots of folks skip a pieced border because they can't face putting it together after spending all that time on the top.

Here's a link to her blog with the explanation:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...-and-hows.html

I have a few. Some tumblers.

I need to start doing the leaders and enders. I always use a leader to start my sewing. Thanks for bringing this up. Now, which of my fabrics do I want to start cutting up and what size do I think I would be happy with? Two inch blocks are just too small for me, maybe 3.5" so that they finish at 3". That way I could use some focus fabric squares as a 6.5" square to make more of a design. Sounds like a plan. I could add some 4" squares, that I make into some HST's to make pinwheel blocks to add some more design....getting too complicated. And now we know why I just use a piece of extra fabric and have all the little threads hanging off it. "smile"

I am sitting on the bench with Tartan.... I have too many projects to keep up with already!

I like the concept of leaders and enders. I have had most success with using part of my current project (as described above) or just two inch scrap squares. I don't invest time in designing the leader and ender project. I cut 2 inch squares from fabric scraps as they accumulate then I pile them by the sewing machine and I now have a little over 100 nine patches that I will eventually make into a quilt. Otherwise these bits would be in a pile of scraps. It is mindless sewing.[ATTACH=CONFIG]558401[/ATTACH]

Your 9 patches are so pretty, they make me want to start thinking about the smaller squares again. I had a friend who made 100's of small 4 patches with each 4 patch having only 2 colors. They made such a bright and cheery quilt. Her constant was 2 white squares in each 4 patch. The colors just seem to dance in the finished quilt. I wish I had thought to get a picture of it.