After yesterday's Fourth of July family time I found a little energy left in me to square up a few half square triangles. These HST's are my newest leaders and enders challenge I started back a few weeks ago. You can read about it here.
What is a leader and ender? Well I could tell you but it's not my invention. I heard about it years ago from Bonnie Hunter. You can read her explanation of the process here. You can see some of her yearly FREE leaders and enders projects below.
Leaders and Enders by Bonnie Hunter
They go WAY back. If you would like to see more you can Google
Bonnie Hunter Leaders and Enders 20?? <--- then add the year to the end.
She's the master of scrappy quilting, in my humble opinion. I've followed her since the very beginning of her quilting journey. Long before she wrote her first book. But I didn't jump in the fun of making a leaders and enders quilt until this year. Oh I've tried and I would start one and get so frustrated with the process and then just finish the quilt. This year I have finally made 20 leaders and enders blocks but once again I could not stick to the leaders and enders way of doing things for the sashing. It's a new to me way of doing things and I'm willing to keep working at perfecting it.
My current leaders and enders is HST's and could take awhile. You see I have thousands of triangles and making more with almost every new quilt. My current stack needing to be trimmed is fairly small.
As you can see they don't even need to be triangle scraps for me to use them. And they don't need to match in size.
Every little bit of scrap fabric is used.
Then squared up to the largest size possible.
The box to the left is full of HST's needing to be trimmed. But at the bottom of this box is a bag full of triangles, hundreds of them needing to be sewn into HST's. The box on the right is baggies of trimmed HST's. Each baggie holds a different size of HST's. So far the largest HST is 3.5", the smallest I will go is 1". Trimming all of these may take months or years. Slow and steady wins the race. I'm in no hurry but would like to use them all in a quilt/quilts before I die.
And then I have a stack of "needing to be sewn" beside the sewing machine. I keep adding to the jar and tin box. I've made a pretty good dent in these even though I add to them with every new quilt. I could kick myself in the rear for letting them get so out of hand. Occasionally I'll do a little marathon sewing of HST's. Marathon sewing them is the easy part. Marathon trimming them is foolish. Talk about a literal pain in the neck! UGG! I think the most I've finished in one setting is 150. That won't happen again. How many HST's have you trimmed in one setting? No breaks, just trimming without stopping.
I think this afternoon I'll sew a few together just for fun. I need some sewing time before quilting on the frame later. Juggling more than one project gives my body a break. I'm sure most of you understand the achy body parts. Don't sit too long and don't stand for too long or those parts will remind you of your age. Like a need a reminder! HA!
My word of the year. I'm MOO-ving along these HST's.
Have a pleasant afternoon of trimming before you quilt!
ReplyDeleteOh gosh I have tons of those HST's that need sewing and trimming too. I can't decide on a layout for them since there is nothing consistent in size or color/theme. Or is it because it got overwhelming I shut them away, LOL. You always have such good ideas so I will be watching what you do with yours.
ReplyDeleteyes, the trimming of HST's is a pain!! :-) Have you tired the block loc trimming temmplates: they are amazing!! Look up one of their video's on youtube. Hugs, H
ReplyDeleteI had not sewn for a LONNNNNGGGGG time. Bad hip, finally got the joint replaced then broke wrist. TODAY I cut my squares and made 12 4-patches!!! I need 2 more so have to go find the fabric and cut it! Later, my shoulders are aching!
ReplyDelete