I'm more of a one-project-at-a-time person but I still use usable leaders and enders. It just might be a long while before they get made into anything. I cut 2.5" squares from my scraps and put them in a bin, and then use those any time I'm starting or ending a seam.

same with me... when I have a lot of them made, I use them to make four patches as leaders enders Later, I will come up with a design to use those squares up after I finish the main project I am working on at the moment. In the mean time it feels good to use up some leftover scrap and thinking that some day it might be a quilt!

I was taught to quilt using these. Some people call them spiders. They help to keep the fabric from being pulled into the machine when you start a seam, especially if you don't have a straight stitch plate. I used to use small scraps of batting but recently have started using actual fabric for a secondary quilt. It really speaks to my frugal nature.

Thanks for all the information, ladies. Now I won't feel like such a dunce when people use this term. I knew what it meant to use a leader when strip piecing, but making a project? That one lost me.

You can use any project you're on as a leader & ender project. That's what I'm doing now using one of Bonnie's Dancing 9 Patch patterns as my inspiration (mine are dancing 4 patch). You just keep feeding blocks thru the machine instead of starting & stopping with every block.

I tried to do that. My simple mind wouldn't let it happen and my seam ripper got a lot of use. I finally gave up and decided I'm only programmed to make one thing at a time.

That's why I work on one thing a time but I push through my blocks like I would do on a leader & ender if I had the brain to do it. In other words I always have a block under the presser foot before I clip off the ender.

I've been working on a checkerboard quilt (2.5 inch squares of lights and brights) After each seam on my main project, I send through a light and a bright square. eventually you get enough to make a quilt. My leader and ender quilt has now become my main project, while I sew it together. The strips I have now are 72 inches long and i have about 40 strips. They are hanging on my design wall.
Here is a link to the orginal, by Amanda Jean Nyberg, of Crazymomquilts blog. It's the 6th photo down in the link.
http://www.freshlyhandmade.com/2012/...an-nyberg.html

I recently completed a 4 patch / 9 patch quilt I saw on line as a leader-ender project using scrap 2 1/2 in ch squares and it was so much fun to see 2 quilts at one time evolving. I have started a dimensional bow tie using 3 inch squares and a string quilt using 4 1/2 papers from old phone books. I have lots of scraps and it has not made a dent in The volume but is a lot of fun. I have also cut out the lozenges leader ender Bonnie Hunter is doing this year. Try it you might like it. Wish I could post a photo but my skills are not good in the tech world.:(

but here is my question, sorry still newbie at this.- If you are using a square in the beginning to start so it doesn't get gummed up in the beginning, won't the leader square get gummed up? How do you start to avoid that? and if you have a method, why bother with the leader? (or just to do another project at the same time?)