I, cbott: 2018 Leader-Ender Challenge

Thursday, January 24, 2019

2018 Leader-Ender Challenge

I'm usually not much of a joiner-of-group-projects (having been burned more than once with block swaps), but Bonnie Hunter's Leader-Ender Challenge last year caught my attention. Firstly, I was finally caught up on all her posts and was reading in the present, so could actually join in time. Secondly, it seemed a great way to use up my large stash of 3.5" bricks and strips. Thirdly, 2" squares have long been my go-to leader-enders, so I had a large stash of 4-patches already sewn up, waiting for a project.

From the bin of 3.5" pieces I pulled all the novelty, bored with, how-do-I-use-this?, and otherwise unfavorite fabric strips and bricks (3.5"x6.5"), stacking the neutrals in one pile, and everything else in another.

From there I paired them up as they happened, cutting triangle pairs as I went.

My method of triangle cutting is far different than Bonnie's, one reason being that I don't own her specialty ruler, and the other reason being I already have a template I find easier to use. This is how I do it.

I position my template on a squared end of the paired fabrics. Because the template is made of thin plastic, it's too easy to accidentally shave minute slivers off the edge while cutting, even if it's covered by a ruler (experience speaking here). Instead, I butt a ruler against the edge I want to cut,

remove the template (out of harm's way), and cut along the ruler's edge instead:

I continue along the fabric, turning the template, butting and cutting as needed:

Happy discovery: the end of a 3.5"x6.5" brick, once 2 sets of triangles have been cut off, results in a 2"x3.5" brick for my 2" stash. No waste!

Lots and lots of triangle pairs were churned out.

Over the months these were eventually sewn together, pressed, and the dog-ears trimmed off, the construction step of this challenge I was most dreading. After dealing with 100s of these now, I no longer fear triangles as much.

Here's where the project stands today. The current pinwheel correction project is helping get these elements completed at a record pace.

Let's look at the various steps in the process, shall we?

I just replenished the dark 2" square box using some dyed 6" charms I was given for Christmas by my chorus. The lights are from a 4" charm pack, also part of that gift.

The round container says "stash"--how perfect is that? Found at my favorite grocery store.

I'm deliberately making sure there are no duplicates in each 4-patch, and the paired 4-patches (to a set of HSTs) don't contain duplicate fabrics either.

When I sew the 4-patches to the HSTs, I do them in pairs and keep them joined by a thread link until they're ready to be sewn together to form a complete block.