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.

I use a leader to keep the thread tails controlled but not when chain piecing. I don't use one as a block unit. When the leader if full of thread I toss it. Any fabric scrap can be a leader. I like using a large piece of scrap so I don't keep losing it after snipping off.

I also stitch a 1/4” or so between pieces. It will be a chain stitch and I feel it helps secure the seam so it would be harder for it to unravel.

Thank you so much for clearing up the leaders and enders. I always thought that was a waste to put a small piece of fabric to sew before going onto the actual block you are making. Now I know if I am making something then I will just have a container of 2 1/2" squares right by my machine and away I go and it. Then you have two projects in a sense to do. Great idea and thank you wonderful members here.

I have sewn for more than 60 years and started using leaders about 10 years ago. The bigger the machine the more problems I seem to have with it pulling my fabric to the bobbin side. Older straight stitch machines don't have huge holes in the plate and were not much of a concern, but as machines got bigger and fancier, I have had to use leaders or I end up with a wonky corner when I start. I often use cut-up paper to get started rather than fabric pieces. I prefer the paper because I can keep little pieces cut up by the machine and they NEVER get pulled in.

I"ve never gotten the hang of them. and if used many times, how are they then used for a quilt. I'd have them full of threads...

I've always wondered about them as well. I like the idea of making 2.5 inch patches with them. Thanks for all who posted. I'm going to try this.

I think Bonnie Hunter is the queen of leaders and enders (at the very least a princess!) While it takes a little planning you can do a lot with her system.

Here's a link to her tutorial https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005...-and-hows.html

I use triangles as leaders and enders so I end up with HST units. I usually pair a light with a dark or medium. I do triangles because it is easy to get a triangle out of an odd shaped scrap and before I got the Deb Tucker wing trimmer tool I made FG from a rectangle and two squares so I had lots of triangles from the cut offs. I have ziploc bags of HST that are 1 1/2", 1 3/4" and 2". Pretty sure I have enough of the smaller size to make a scrappy tree of life quilt.

There are two different strategies for leaders (and enders).
1) Use a scrap many times (usually until it is too full of thread to be used anymore), and then discarding it.
2) Deliberately plan to have fabric on hand cut and ready to piece to use as a leader/ender and then use this element in a quilt. (So this fabric is sown only once.)

So, if you're doing strategy 2, you might have a bunch of small squares on hand that you use when ever you are having a session of piecing. Let's say you sit down with your machine having nothing under the presser foot.
1) Get a clean start and piece two small squares together. To get the clean start, you can sew on a small scrap (to eventually be discarded) or hang onto your tails whiles you start on the squares.
2) As you finish the seam of the small squares, chain piece onto your "main" project. Keep chain piecing on the main project as much as you like.
3) As you finish your last seam on the main project piecing, grab another two small squares and chain piece onto them, sewing about half way down the seam. Cut the threads between the two small squares and the rest of chain piecing. Cut the threads between each of your chain piece elements, and set the two small squares used at the start aside for what ever project you will eventually put them in.
4) Go iron or do what ever you need to do ready for your next bit of piecing on your main project.
5) Come back to your machine and you already have your half sewn small squares under the presser foot to act as leader. Finish the seam on the squares and chain piece onto your main project.

So by planning ahead, you can always start and finish with the small squares, and avoid having to do (almost) any "cold" starts where you hang onto tails or use a scrap. As a bonus, you get a steadily growing pile of pieced items that you can use in another project.

If strategy 2 doesn't appeal, you can just adapt the above steps to work with two scraps and sewing half way down the second scrap as your ender, which gives you the similar thread savings of not having to do a "cold" start. When doing this, I like to have a handful of scraps near my machine, so that when I (temporarily) misplace one, I can just grab another one and not have to hunt for the missing one.

I learned how to chain stitch when I got my serger. That's what you do with a serger; put the next piece in as soon as the current piece is just past the needle. Then I took that to my garment sewing.
First I sew the two shoulder seams, one after the other, then the sleeves go on, then the side seams, all in one long sew. Some other things can be sandwiched in there also, as sewing the gathering stitches at the top of the sleeves in between the two shoulder seams; working on a collar or cuff at the end of any other seam. You can put a whole blouse together without ever pulling out and cutting the thread. That is really a thread saver and nothing gets jammed up.

I never need leaders or enders as my two main straight stitch only machines never pull fabric into the bobbin area.

My other machines did when I used the plate for zigzag instead of straight stitch plate with a small hole in it.

Thanks for the link. She's made some beauties out of them!!

Wow! I've gotten all inspired by this thread to use leaders and enders and then make a scrappy quilt out of them. I happen to have some 2 1/2 squares left over from my EPP project. I think I'll put them in a little box so I can have them next to my machine.

Thanks to all the wonderful members on this board! It makes more sense now and I will consider making some some blocks with my new leaders. Thank you. :-)

Are you sewing with a zigzag machine with the large hole plate on? I have no problem with beginnings being eaten with a machine with a small needle hole. My zz machine that only has a wide hole will eat the beginning corner of a half square triangle, but she isn't allowed to quilt, so it's not an issue.

My current leaders are going into an Arkansas Crossroads so I need 16 patches - lots of 2 1/2 squares used up.

After finishing a quilt I keep all my scraps together and use those as leaders/enders and make a random-pieced slab of fabric that can be used as a doll quilt, or as an art quilt, or as a non-traditional block in a quilt - this uses up scrap fabric with pieces that have already been color coordinated. I even appliqued several "spiders" to a small art quilt (3 per row and 3 rows) to make a cool small quilt. There are uses!

You don't use them the quilt. I use, like most others, scraps left from piecing. And yes, they do get full of thread which is the purpose. I save all scraps and toss them frequently after several uses. Maybe you are a very accurate cutter, but I usually cut a bit bigger and there are always "bits". You only need an inch or so, folded in half.