leaders and enders to me please? Thanks!

small pieces of fabric that you use at the beginning & ending of your chain piecing.
They can be scraps - or you can use squares that you would eventualy put into a 4-patch
(yeah..ive been reading up on bonnie hunter LOL)

it's a scrap you use to start stitching on before you put your quilt piece in because sometimes the very begining wants to get stuck down in the hole= leader, and ender is for the same thing, it turns into a leader when you start sewing again, it also saves thread because you don't have to pull out a length to remove your project.

Go to http://www.quiltville.com

Bonnie Hunter is a quilter/lecturer and author. She has wonderful concepts about using scraps and turning them into quilts. Watch out you will get hooked. Also, she has a featured article in the Quiltmaker magazine. You can google those.

Oh sorry, it did not make a link. Let me check that web again.

Okay, maybe this update will make a link for you.

Love Bonnie Hunter and her website!!!

Are you talking about leaders and enders like Bonnie Hunter does in Quiltville? In her system when you are chain stitching a bunch of units for a quilt, rather then pulling the last pieced unit and cutting the thread, stitch a HST or two squares together. That is your ender. Next sewing session it is your leader and helps prevent those tiny corners from getting pushed down in the bobbin area. Hope this makes sense. The point behind them is you eventually end up with enough of these HST leaders/enders to make a scrap quilt out of them.

Just an FYI, a straight stitch plate makes leaders and enders unnecessary.

The ladies are correct but as I had a prob finding it on Bonnie's site here is the link for you: http://quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml

BTW she is my idol for Scrap quilting :thumbup:

It's an old sewing technique to prevent the thread tangles and the machine from un threading itself when you first start sewing. On old machines the take up lever just stopped where ever and if it was down when you stopped and you pull your project off the machine and cut the threads then when you started the next line of sewing the take up lever would go up and pull the thread out of the machine. Even with the take up lever in the up position you always had to hold your thread ends or you would end up with little birds nests on the bottom of your project.

I called them "Blocks as I Go" because I sew them as I work on other projects.

Here is a tute I made explaining this and a couple of other things :D:D:D

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-38684-1.htm