A Leader-Ender Project

For those of you who don't know what a leader-ender quilt project is, it is exactly as it sound. As you piece a quilt, you have a scrap fabric "leader" to keep the threads neat and from getting tangled as you stitch. An "ender" (Not to be confused with a Wiggin) follows at the end of the chain of stitched quilt blocks.

A lot of quilts use scrap fabric, but some time ago an ingenious quilter came up with the idea that leaders and enders could be part of another project. It could be as simple as sewing together crumbs at the beginning of the chain or, because I'm insatiably ambitious, an Omigosh Quilt.

Omigosh by Sue Garman

As best as I can tell, this quilt originated with Sue Garman. I've included a link to her blog. She loves piecing "teeny tiny" pieces in what she call precision quilting. She named this Omigosh because that is what people said when they saw her working on the quilt.

The quilt consists of two types of blocks - a modified Shoo-fly that is 4.5 inches and a nine patch that is 1.5 inches finished. (I'm still working out the finer details but the pattern can be purchased online.) Yes, that is right. The nine patch blocks are 1.5 inches square, meaning I'm digging into my scrap box and cutting out 1 inch squares to make the blocks. Instead of a white scrappy background, I'm using my favorite black fabric.

Here is a finished block, next to my sewing scissors to give you a sense of scale. As you can see, I need practice with my precision quilting. It is a little crooked, but I'll keep working on it until I can get it right.

At any rate, this will probably take me several years to put together, because it is a leader-ender. One quilter estimated about 4100 individual pieces in this quilt. I'll keep you all updated.

In other news, my November NewFO is this small project. I'll be surrounding the panel with rainbow nine patch blocks and I hope to have it done by Christmas, because it is a present for my niece.

Finished size will be somewhere around 40" by 50", just big enough for an eight-year old to drag around the house.