Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Learn how to start a leaders and enders quilt. Follow my steps on starting a Tula Pink leaders and enders quilt.
Leaders and Enders, also referred to as thread savers, are just little pieces of scrap fabric that you feed under the presser foot before and after sewing.
I have been sewing 2.5" squares together at the start and end of much of my patchwork sewing. While I do this I'm actually creating a bonus quilt! If you have never thought about doing this, I'll walk you through it. It just takes a tiny bit of preplanning! First I cut my scraps into 2.5" squares. And I keep them together by color. Here is a bin of Green squares and Cream squares. The lights might have other colors in it but they read as a light fabric The reason I do these as 2 color is I like...
Pictured are 25 quilt blocks made from my Scrap Salad box. I thought the box was full but after making 25 blocks the box is still full. Perhaps is it just a little aerated now. I like to keep these beside my machine when I am doing some piecing and before you know it you have a block assembled. With this particular one I sew the two centre pieces together on the long side. Then add a piece across the top and the bottom. Next step is to join pairs of scraps on the short side and then add them to the sides. These pieces are 1 1/2" by 2 1/2". this design however will work with 2 1/2" by 4 1/2" pieces, and 3 1/2" by 6 1/2" pieces. I forget the 2" by? size as I don't use 2" strips very often. Once you have a good collection of little blocks made join them together alternating the direction of the centre pairs. No seams to match. another win-win block and project. This pile is enough to make a lap quilt or a baby quilt. Piecefully, Joanne Linking with A Quilting Chick for her Leader and Ender challenge and later this week with Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Did you enjoy Worldwide Quilting Day yesterday? I sure did! After work, I quilted a Quilt of Valor quilt. When I finished that, I loaded another! But I will share those later this week. Today I tho…
I'm chain piecing miles and miles of Leader and Ender (L & E) blocks for donation quilts. For the past few years, I've been using 3.5" squares for L & E. Each year, I piece them together to make simple patchwork quilts for donation. Because these are amenable to straight-line quilting, I am able to use the white-on-white (or natural) fabrics that have the thicker paint on them. These tend to shred my thread with FMQ, but quilting with my walking foot works well. Each year, I gather the blocks and assemble the quilts--it's fun to see the different fabrics that I have worked with during the past year. I have found that working with consistent squares as L & Es is less confusing for me than trying to use parts for a more complicated quilt. The first couple of years that I did this, I used two-rail fence blocks (even or uneven rails), but the stairstep quilting I usually did with those was quite tedious (stitch, turn 90 degrees, stitch, turn 90 degrees, etc.). I love using L & E--in fact, I feel guilty now when I use my machine's thread cutter because I feel like I should have another block to go under the needle! I also like the idea that I am creating donations for those in need every time I sit down to sew. Happy Quilting! 😸
Hello Friends, it’s check-in day for our Leaders/Enders Sewalong. Months ago when I was working with Marcus Fabrics to develop designs for their Aunt Grace Sew Charming fabric line, I knew I was go…
What are leaders and enders in quilting? If this is a new term for you, we will help take the mystery out as we explain what leaders and
A peek into my love of fabric, piecing, and quilting!
Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Leaders and enders are one of those things in quilting that everyone seems to do, but no one seems to talk about. A leader/ender is that little piece of scrap fabric that you use to start and end a line of chain piecing. I usually have a few of these laying next to my machine. I like to have several on hand because
Okay, so maybe not exactly 2 for the time of 1. But, so far on my Leaders and Enders journey, I’m seeing some progress on a second quilt in between piecing a few others. So, the concept beh…
On July 1 - Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville releases the new block for the leader and ender challenge. I think I just might join in this year as one version is using 1.5 inch strips and making a cute block. I really need to start going through the bins and taming them and I think this little block might help tame it. Here is the first one. Will you be joining in on the fun?
Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Leaders and enders are a way to not only save a little bit of thread but make multiple quilts at one time. Find out what patterns work best.
I’ve finally finished these leader/ender blocks! I’ve been asked to do a tutorial for these. They are very simple. For one 12 inch block, you will need 40 scrap squares cut at 2 inches,…
I’ve finally finished these leader/ender blocks! I’ve been asked to do a tutorial for these. They are very simple. For one 12 inch block, you will need 40 scrap squares cut at 2 inches,…
Are you familiar with the quilting term leaders and enders? Maybe you’ve heard it before, but just weren’t sure what it meant. These terms refer to the use of a scrap piece of fabric that is placed under the foot of your machine to start (prior to chain piecing, sewing blocks or rows together, etc
Having a leaders & enders project is a great way to get a free quilt. See my current project is progressing. Get inspiration for your own
My postage stamp quilt is a finish and I'm so excited about it! Doesn't it just shout "Spring"! I made the blocks as leader/enders over the course of a year using 2 inch bright pastel squares from my scrap stash coupled with 2 inch Kona white squares. Did I mention that the blocks had been finished for a year? Sad, but true! The backing is a fun Swedish print that I purchased from Ikea last summer. Since the fabric wasn't quite wide enough, I pieced in some leftover squares and Kona white. The quilt measures 65" X 83" and for binding I settled on a black and white stripe from the Happy line by Me and My Sisters as a contrast to the colorful piecing. With the busy patchwork, an all over quilting design seemed the way to go. From a white section on the back, the daisies and loops show up really well. My quilting adds some great texture to the front of the quilt. It will look even better after a trip through the washer and dryer! This picture shows off the colors in the quilt really well. After lots of thought, I named my latest finish, Ambrosia because It reminds me of a big luscious fruit salad....which has nothing to do with the fabulous green train engine. Oh, well! Just under the wire, I'm reporting on my progress at finishing up a bunch of UFOs in 2013. Leanne is hosting a Finish-Along all year long to help keep everyone motivated. Tonight is the deadline for finishes in the first quarter. (Maybe you would like to join for the second quarter.) You can see my original list and post here. Of the nine UFO projects that I had listed, I was only able to complete three. Do you think that maybe I was a just a bit unrealistic? Besides Ambrosia, here are my other two finishes: Dipped: The top was already pieced so this was a fairly easy UFO to complete. You can see more views and details here and the "before" view here. Pow: Starting out as just a few completed blocks, this twin size quilt took a lot of effort and time to complete. Because I wanted to give it as a gift for my grandson's birthday, I was super motivated to finish it. See all the beauty shots here. Although I can't claim "Bam" in the Finish-Along because I hadn't actually done any more than purchase the fabric for it, I consider it a finished UFO in my own mind because these two quilts 'go together' and it was also a birthday gift that I'd been putting off making. Progress on the other 6 projects: Fortunate Friends: Lots of progress made, with the top almost completed. The other 5 projects get big fat zeroes as no progress was made on them at all! Thank you, Leanne for helping to motivate me to keep FINISH as a priority in 2013.
Leaders and Enders, also referred to as thread savers, are just little pieces of scrap fabric that you feed under the presser foot before and after sewing.
My leaders-and-enders project in recent months has been half-square triangles. [See www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml for more about leaders-and-enders. Half-square triangles, HSTs for short, are not triangles. They are squares made out of two right-angle triangles.] I began with 3" squares and trimmed them to 2.5". The blocks are 12.5" unfinished and each contains 36 HSTs. There are 49 blocks, so the quilt has 1,764 HSTs (and thus 3,528 individual triangles). Many of the fabrics are repeated, so this is not a 'charm' quilt (in which each fabric must be different). It's 84 x 84 and I am not going to put a border on it. Did it make a dent in the box of 3" squares? Somewhat!
I’m quite pleased with my leader/ender blocks. I actually only make the four patches as leaders/enders. Every now and again, I piece them into blocks like this. The more I make, the more fun …
As promised I have started a new and simple patchwork project! I started cutting out 2.5" squares from my scraps about eighteen months ago... So I decided it was time to dive in and go for it.... making 16-patch blocks.... I need 50 of these for the plan I have... an idea I saw on Pinterest... And here it is waiting to be pieced together! I hope to get it together this week sometime..... (edited: a full tutorial can be found here ) Happy sewing! SUZ
I finished my leader/ender quilt. I used an old favorite pantograph called Any Which Way. I love the backing fabric. The sharks are so fun! It was supposed to be a sheet. The binding was leftover f…
