This is exactly what I wanted to describe. You rock Margo!

Hey Ron! Yep! I've got the answer for you! You need to use a starty/stoppy at the beginning and ending of any kind of chain piecing to keep tension on the thread tails. They are just small scraps of fabric used to start and end a line of stitching. An added benefit is that it saves a lot of thread that is normally cut off at the beginning and ending of a line of stitching, as well as not having to deal with the long tails of thread!

You can see here that I've started sewing on my "starty" then fed first unit through the machine. When you are sewing triangles the machine doesn't eat that leading edge if it's already stitched across the "starty". (I really like Alex's 4-in-1 tool for cutting the thread gaps between the patches!)



At the end of a chain of pieces, I sew off onto a "stoppy" which will then become the starting scrap for the next line of stitching.

BTW...You need to send Keith a note and ask him what he calls them!

OOPS...Teri, I guess we were posting at the same time! Great minds and all that......

couple of things take a small scrap of fabric as you begin piecing
use the needle down feature, lift the presser foot part way and feed the half square triangles to that point, put the presser foot down and stitch
stitch slowly and let the feed dogs do the work for you
when you get to the end of the half square triangles you're doing use a second piece of fabric to end with so that there's no catch at the end.

Teri

Hi. I've had this problem before, and now just asking rather than struggling again. I'm chain piecing scrappy half-square triangles. As I feed the triangle point into the machine (Bernina 440), the points gets caught and does not feed through. Makes a mess of the point and I end up tossing the square. Any advice on the best way to feed the triangles through the machine without them getting caught? Thanks for the help! Ron