When I started working at American Quilting, all the employees raved about Leaders and Enders. I had no idea what they were talking about!
Lucky for me, they taught me what all the fuss was about. And I am totally converted. They are awesome.
So you want to know what Leaders and Enders are?
It is a great way to avoid long, tangly threads from trimming your blocks and a great way to avoid having your needle come unthreaded on your machine. Because you NEVER LIFT YOUR PRESSER FOOT. You also save a lot of thread!
Basically you have a basket of scraps set by your machine. When you are done chain sewing a row of adorable quilting blocks (or whatever it may be) you grab one of these scraps and feed it under your needle and STOP with the needle in the fabric. Then just use your scissors to snip the little bit of thread running between the block you are working on and the scrap (or ENDER) under the needle.
Then the next time you start you sew off that scrap of fabric and continue on into the block you are really working on!
Get it??
Here are some pics to help.
So I’m sewing along, my cute quilting blocks.
I sew all I can. What do I do? Lift my foot? NO!! Grab a scrap of fabric and keep right on sewing in to it.
Sew right on in to that scrap and leave your presser foot down. Then snip your thread and continue on with your project.
Then, when you are read to sew again, you just sew right off your scrap (or LEADER) and begin chain-stitching your blocks once again.
You can reuse the same leaders and enders over and over OR some people are such amazing multi-taskers that they can make whole Leader and Ender quilts! How cool is that.
Here are a few Leader and Ender quilts I found around the web:
Really you could do almost ANY quilt as a Leader and Ender quilt. You just have to be organized and have all your pieces right by your machine, ready to be sewn.
(Leader and Ender pictures taken from Bee In My Bonnet blog.)