Synnove

Another solution to the "how to get started" problem is to put a small piece of a phone book page or other lightweight paper under the beginning of your first pair of pieces that you feed through the machine. This keeps the machine from eating the beginning, especially when sewing triangles. Then it's a simple matter just to remove the paper once you've sewn a few more pairs of pieces onto the chain.

cashs_mom

What a great idea, Lizzie! I don't have problems with my machines sucking the fabric down the hole, but I mostly piece on straight stitch only machines and hold the ends of the threads. I'll remember your system though if I decided to piece on the Bernina.

WesternWilson

This thread pushed me to get out the "Leader and Ender" books by Bonne K. Hunter. It is a great system for gradually producing units that will go into a larger work.

I often sew up a sheet of triangle papers (made with the Triangulations program) as a leader/ender...I keep stack of them machine side.

The leader/ender technique is perfect for creating your own "Parts Department" a la Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston (from their Collaborative Quilting series). I love producing small units as leaders and enders and then keeping units sorted by type (flying geese, 9 patches, 16 patches, sawtooth border, HST's etc). On a day you want a design adventure you start putting the parts from the Parts Department up on the wall and see where they take you.


Rayna Gillman also has a great technique of sewing strips together as "therapy sewing". You put the strip sets in a drawer and when you have a bunch you can pull them out and start designing. Because of Rayna I cut a 1" strip and a 1 1/2" strip off each new fabric I buy...I can just reach into the strip drawer, choose two I like together and sew them together as a leader/ender.