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.

I've found that I get bogged down with having too much stuff around me. As someone else mentioned, it's a distraction and adds to my already cluttered area. I do use leaders and enders, but I use little scraps smaller than 2in. square. When the l/e'er has too much thread on it, I discard it and start another one.

I've always wondered if you need leaders and enders for the leaders and enders themselves to avoid thread messes at both ends! LOL

I always thought leaders and Enders were to begin and end chain piecing or any other shape to stop the feed dogs chewing the ends. You learn something new every visit here.

Yep that's exactly it! Also it saves on thread waste. Started with sewers re-using the same piece of scrap over and over, and then tossing for a new scrap.

However Bonnie Hunter came up with a plan which instead involved using pre-prepared scraps which would be seamed together in such a way that they can be incorporated into a quilt design later.

I use off-cuts smaller than 2.5 inch square (Hexie-size lol). Real scraps! I keep a jar of 1 inch squares, another of 1.5 inch. Every so often I'll have a cutting session in front of the TV.

They get leader/endeared into 2's. 2's into 4's. 4's go into 8's and then these into 16's. No thought required except I try not to have two the same fabric next door to each other. I don't bother to iron until I'm up to the 16 point. I also don't panic about seams nesting, the bits are so small they seem to match effortlessly.

Eventually I will have enough to make a postage stamp quilt, all from scraps too small to do anything with.....

If I remember I'll post a photo of the blocks so far later :-)

Cheers, K

You are right DOTTYMO. You can use any scrap for leader and ender, or a spider, or a startie-stoppie. They have different names, but serve the same purpose. Chain stitching does the same, too. You just need a leader at the beginning of your chain, and you can cut that off and use the same piece as your ender when you finish with that chain.

It sounds like a great idea but I kind of feel it's a distraction too from the project you're working on.

It's hard for me to pre-prepare that much. Honestly. I have a few quilts going at all times and wishing I could start the next, but the leaders/enders thing is not part of that picture. I don't like cutting so much I guess, and that would be where I would have to put concentrated effort to keep up I think. I bought a new throat plate just for piecing with one hole instead of the wide slot and as long as I use that I don't need the spider or leader/ender piece, but I do love the little nine patch pieces that I saw. What a wonderful bonus!

I with Dottimo. It just makes my piecing better at each end of my piecing. I
Hate having little pulls at the end
When I pull my piecing off
The machine. Helps me keep piecing
At each end aligned

I do kind of the same thing, but not necessarily with light and dark. After I finish piecing a top, I cut 2.5" squares out of the scraps and arrange them into 9-patches, none being the same. I pin the block pieces together and put them into a plastic bin. When I need a leader, everything is waiting for me. I have a few hundred blocks now that are waiting to be grouped into batik, boy, girl, and hodgepodge tops. I'd start now, but I'm always afraid that the best blocks haven't been made yet so I put it off until they appear.

Sounds familiar. I have quite a few Wonky Stars and crumb blocks that are waiting to be assembled into quilts.

Like Tartan said, it's a distraction when you are already working on something else so I keep a 3 or 4" square to start my seam. I've just tossed all my 2.5 in a box and when I need to sew, but don't want to think, I just start pairing them up and who knows?, maybe some day it will be a quilt:)

When I'm organized enough to do it, I love having a leader and ender project. It's a great way of getting the mindless sewing of an easy patchwork quilt done, while doing another quilt. At some point, though, the secondary project takes over and you have to put it together.

Oh my gosh, my head is spinning. I'm not sure if it because I am too ditzy to do this or that my organizational skills are too lacking to think that far ahead. Although I love the idea, I am going to have to think long and hard about this. If my husband sees smoke coming out of my head, it will be from me trying to figure out how to start doing this. LOL

This was actually Bonnie's original inspiration.
I think with the newer machines, the "chewed ends" is not really an issue.

On the older machines, you can just leave the "ender" in the machine when you power it off. Many of the newer computerized machines sort of "reboot" everything when you power on, which (on mine anyway) actually "eats" the leader or ender I had on it.

So I don't leave them in the machine.

I'm finding that leaders and enders doesn't work so well for me.
HOWEVER... when I have those little "flip and sew" HST's, I cannot resist just going ahead and stitching that second line before I cut the leftover pieces. I end up with various different sizes of "bonus" HST's.

Just my two cents worth.

Tartan has a good point... I just completed 30 Arkansas Road blocks by sewing 2.5" squares of leaders/Enders while working on my Gypsy Wife project. Although I was successful finishing the 30 blocks, I am still working to assemble my GW. : )

Thank you all. Will try it, and see how it goes. It's a replacement for the "thread bunny"