I've heard them called 'starties & stoppies', 'leaders & enders', 'thread bunnies' and even 'hairy spiders'. They're those little scraps of fabric that you use to sew onto and off of your blocks. I use them because my machine seems to like to eat the fabric when I try to sew directly onto a block. Some people think that it is more efficient to use them when chain piecing.
Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville has opened my eyes to a whole new concept of efficiency with leaders & enders! She uses her scrap 2" squares as her leaders & enders, sewing two together to form four-patches, nine-patches and more that eventually end up in scrappy quilts!
Well, I too, have stacks of squares cut from my scrap fabric, and making them into a quilt is on my to-do list. Now, I can work on sewing those scrap squares together while I'm working on my other quilting projects - kind of a two-for-one!
I'll confess, I used my 'hairy spider' to sew onto that first pair of scrap squares, then chain pieced my blocks of my current project (only six blocks to go on my super secret sample of my new cut & sew technique - yea!).
At the end of my chain piecing, I sewed onto another pair of scrap blocks. Those blocks are now sitting under my needle waiting for the next time I start to sew. I have my scrap squares tucked under my sewing machine table, in easy reach at any time. For a more detailed discussion on Bonnie's leaders & enders concept, click here.
And now I can say good-bye to my 'hairy spiders' for good!
~Sharla
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you! Please leave some comment love here, and I will share some love back! I make every effort to respond to every comment by email, unless you are a no-reply blogger, then I will leave a comment here.