Leaders?
 

I have never understood why people use leaders and enders. What are the advantages? To me, it seems like a waste of thread and time to stitch through an extra length of fabric. Help me understand! Thanks.

Actually, it can help you save thread! If you're prepared, the leaders and enders are actually pieces you are using in another quilt. Or if you're using all 2.5in squares, you have yourself a very easy patchwork top when you're all done.

The point, regardless of whether or not you intend to use the pieces, is to prevent your corners from getting eaten by the machine if your machine is one that does this. I am in the habit of holding onto my thread tails anyway, so this is usually not a problem for me, but I don't have an auto thread cutter on my main piecing machine. My fancy (new to me) machine does have auto thread cutter, and it definitely eats the corner if I don't sit there and try to pull up the short little thread tails.

The action of pulling up the thread tails obviously wastes thread, so the leaders and enders are basically like chain piecing constantly.

It keeps the back of the quilt very neat with no thread tails. I can sew for 2 hours and never restart - just keep either the next seam in the quilt or a leader coming.

With my machine, if I don't hang onto the tails when starting a seam, the bobbin side of the fabric will often end up having a blob of thread stitched in. I start my seams with a small scrap of fabric leader, so the blob ends up there, and my next piece is clean and tidy. To hang onto the tails, I need to pull out about 3" of thread; with my scrap, I'm sewing less than inch, so I'm actually saving thread.

I used to think the same thing when I was only using a scrap as a "spider" (a starter piece that looks like a spider after all the threads are hanging off it). I would throw it away and think "what a waste, but at least the needle isn't eating the corners of my good fabric."

Then I discovered leaders in the form of 2.5" squares. I keep a small box of them near my machine. Two together act as my spider, and the needle then glides smoothly onto my "real" project. Two by two you're building a second quilt, wasting no thread or fabric. Make 4 patches, 9 P, 16P , 25, or a postage stamp quilt without adding extra time. I make doll quilt backs with mine.

But doesn't your machine eat the corner of your leader?

Only the first one, when you begin, perhaps. The rest will never begin with a loose thread, it follows the previous piece, patch, etc. and sits under the needle until you feed the next piece, patch etc. I guess after the first one they are all 'enders'.

It speaks to my frugle genes, no thread is ever wasted; nor scraps for that matter as my leaders/enders are either 2/5" squares or string QAYG blocks.

It really isn't. I usually hold my threads down when I begin to chain piece. You could also begin on a junk piece of fabric and either way prevents "bird's nests" from forming and you having to deal with them.

But, if you're organized and can plan ahead you could make entire quilts with leaders and enders. I have a couple of Bonnie Hunter's books and this is what she teaches. I took a workshop from her and began one of her quilts. If you're focused on this (I am not), you could accomplish quite a bit with just leaders and enders.

You can also check your thread tension and stitch quality if it has been an issue. This way it prevents you from having to rip out unnecessarily.

Keeps my seams from coming apart. I swear by them. I’ve had quilt tops that I’ve drug around to several stores looking for border fabric, backing, etc, and no matter how much I abuse them on those trips with opening and refolding I’ve never had seams come apart. I only use a 2x4 inch piece of fabric that I fold in half to make a 2x2. Criminy, I’ve thrown scraps away bigger than that. Why not put them to good use!

I've tried various techniques, from no leaders (most of the time ok, sometimes terrible results), just leaders or leaders and enders (rarely use enders but sometimes will with triangles), and to what I do most, which is use a piece of ugly fabric folded over as a leader, it usually starts something around a 6" square, and I repeatedly use that one piece until I can't stand it anymore. It's big enough for me to see and easily find, periodically I might trim the loose threads off of it, or not... Current piece is an unattractive Hawaiian square of a suspect blend.

The big thing is that small pieces don't get sucked down into your machine. It helps me be more precise with my seaming and keep from joggling that starting or ending. Helps keep those threads off me and my projects. I've been using leaders consistently for at least the last 10 years. For me, there are always little scraps and snips of fabric and I have no problems using them in this way.