I have the red snapper system and it works great. So much easier than pinning.

Hi quilts4charity,
I am trying to make my own cloth leaders also. Can you tell me if you hemmed your canvas? Also, did you add any additional markings to your striped canvas to help with centering & such? Thanks for any help you can offer.

The leaders that came with my long arm, had the selvages edge of the canvas where I pin the quilt on. I had thought of making a hem so I could use red leaders, but never gotten "round" to that. Ooops! I like pinning actually, seem to have more control and easier to line up the edges. I did mark the center of all the leaders by measuring from the ends of the rollers and then I made an offset mark I could use by determining how much space my machine would take at one end of the frame and then determining the center point of the remaining rollers. I did this so I could get the largest area where I could center a very large quilt. However, since I have gotten the 12-foot frame instead of my old 10-foot frame, I think I have only used that offset center one time for a king-sized quilt.

I had gotten plain canvas to make my leaders, I serged the raw edge, then used clear HEAVY-duty tape to attach them to the poles.

I have used a few methods to attach backings to it but am now LOVING using staples. This method goes very quick and you have the top of the staple on the backing fabric and when finished--pull the backing so the staples pop off the canvas and then trim a couple inches off that has the staples.
Using the staples was given by a fellow board member, ??, and it has been working very well for me.

Hi quilts4charity,
I am trying to make my own cloth leaders also. Can you tell me if you hemmed your canvas? Also, did you add any additional markings to your striped canvas to help with centering & such? Can you also tell me how long & wide you made your cloth leaders? Thanks for any help you can offer.