A Leader in the Quilt Room

That's me!  The Queen of Everything around here!

Zipper system

When I awoke this morning I thought about leaders.  The kind that attache the quilt to the quilt frame.  I want new ones that are easier to load a quilt on then the ones I have now.

I know there are those with a huge zipper, but I don't feel confident enough to make a perfectly straight line with a zipper.  My sewing skills tend toward the Modern, Modern Art if you know what I mean.  My mother could do it with 100% total precision.  That is probably why I do not do anything with 100% precision.   But I digress.

Snap system
From Regina's Quilting Studio photo

I possibly want leaders that attach with that new leader snap system.  It looks easy enough to do and set up.  They average around $70 so I wonder if I had a good leader already, I could make a set myself.  It looks easy enough to do.  But I have to find the things that snap on to a dowel or tube.

Leader markings

I need to hang around the hardware store for a while and pick men's brains.

Meanwhile, I will ask the superior brains of women, have you ever used a zipper?  Did you buy it or make it yourself?  Have you ever used the dowel and snap system?  Where did you buy your leaders from?  are they marked with a lot of increments?  What are the increments?

Mine are plain, but I can mark them if I have help.  Maybe, I can't cut anything straight or the same length twice.........

L&Es

I had a few questions about L&Es and what they were and why those bow ties would be a good L&E Project.  So let me explain what they are.

Bonnie Hunter, scrap queen extraordinaire, introduced a concept to us quilters a couple of years ago that was one of those "duh" moments.  Many quilters will use a strip of scrap fabric at the end of a chain of patches.  This is the Ender.  It saves you from pulling out the last piece, having 3 or 4 inches of blank thread hanging out there.  Then when you start the next chain of patches you have that 3 or 4 inches hanging out the beginning of the chain.  It needs to be cut off eventually and tossed.  Just more work and a waste of thread. 

ENDER

LEADER

When you sew on to that scrap of fabric it also keeps the thread ends from tangling and becoming a rat's nest under your first piece.  I would have two, one for the beginning of one chain and one for the beginning of the next (so I wouldn't have to cut that first Or, if only using one, I would cut the beginning off and use it to start the next chain.  A "leader" and an "ender".

Somewhere in there Bonnie Hunter began to use scrap pieces from her scrap bucket as her leaders and enders.  Duh!  We all said:  How come we didn't think of that?

If you keep a stack of small pieces by the side of your sewing machine to use as Ls and Es you will be amazed at how quickly you can sew them together.  And in no time you will have a "free" quilt!

Bonnie has a book called Leaders and Enders to help you get ideas about putting the pieces together and how to set up your workspace to make it easy to just pick up a set of blocks and use either as a leader or an ender.  You can see her book and the discussion of this technique at:

http://www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml

glen