leaders and enders

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06-19-2014, 06:27 AM

#31

Geri B

Super Member

Join Date: Jun 2011

Location: Illinois

Posts: 9,018

Quote:

Originally Posted by maviskw

If you are familiar with chain stitching, putting on an ender is just like adding another piece. You can keep sewing to the other end of that seam and then add another pair of pieces to make the next seam. No tangling.
I don't usually sew all the way across my ender. I just pull my last-sewn piece away a bit, start in the middle of a folded scrap and make three or four stitches. Then I pull the thread out an inch or so, put in the next pair and keep going.

If you do the L&Es this way you are NOT creating another possible quilt....just using a scrap to control wasted thread...right? But if you do as BH does you are actually piecing something other than the project you r working on at the time.....sort of a prepared bonus...a twofer....

I don't "need" to do it, but I do, just to control scraps as I work on something else...I just have a small basket of precut squares near my SM and use as I need to.

06-19-2014, 07:00 AM

#32

jrhboxers

Super Member

Join Date: Jul 2010

Location: Lexington Park, Maryland

Posts: 1,052

Another reason I LOVE leaders and enders is that it REAlLY cuts down on the stray strings clinging to everything!!!!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madan49

I never sew without a leader/ender... no matter which machine I'm using. I keep 2" squares of WOW and 2" squares of print fabrics by my machine, and those are sewn together in 2-patch units as my leader-enders, and then tossed in a bin as I go along. When there are enough of those, they get added together to form blocks that make up scrappy double or tripple irish chain quilts, or other patterns like that.

MADAN49 - this is a fabulous idea. I need to do this. I have four new boxes of scraps from my organizing of my sewing room.

06-19-2014, 01:24 PM

#33

canuckninepatch

Senior Member

Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Ontario, Canada; Florida in the winter

Posts: 721

Quote:

Originally Posted by FabStripper

I used to use the same one and just cut it when I was done using it as a leader but then realized I could get two quilts done at once if I start sewing squares together for another quilt. It takes me longer to do one quilt but before I know it I have too quilts done.

I'm just in the process of doing exactly that.....two quits at once using leaders and enders. I'm pairing a dark 2" square with a light 2" square as my leader and ender while I am making another quilt. Then I will make a 16 patch with all my pairs, and make an Arkansas Crossroads quilt from there.

06-19-2014, 01:50 PM

#34

Auntie V

Junior Member

Join Date: Oct 2013

Posts: 290

My Mom was the sewing machine police when I first started sewing. Her rule was the presser foot could not be down unless a piece of fabric was under it. When chain piecing became popular this "rule" became my leaders and enders.

She about had a cow when she purchased her first surger and was instructed to sew off of the fabric. LOL

06-19-2014, 04:47 PM

#35

Madan49

Junior Member

Join Date: May 2011

Location: Arizona

Posts: 127

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrhboxers

Another reason I LOVE leaders and enders is that it REAlLY cuts down on the stray strings clinging to everything!!!!!!!
MADAN49 - this is a fabulous idea. I need to do this. I have four new boxes of scraps from my organizing of my sewing room.

And if you get bored with doing 2-patch square units, keep some triangles handy and do up a bunch of HSTs for a future project. There are a lot of scrappy units you can make ahead of time as leader/enders and not ever have them go to waste.