Puzzle Quilt Part 3

Sorry to keep y'all waiting so long. I've had my nose to the grindstone (no, not literally!), the pedal to the metal (if you count my sewing machine's foot pedal), and been working my fingers to the bone (raised a blister on my needle finger - I've never been comfortable with a thimble). The puzzle quilt is nearly done as I write this but let's back up and show you how I got to where I am now. Or at least another step in the path I've taken.

My friend C~ brought these orphan blocks to me a little while ago. I think they were actually from someone else's stash:


You may have noticed the Dresden Heart block on the design wall in the last picture of my last post. I tried out all three blocks in this quilt at one time or another. The Dresden Heart is the only one that made it into the final product. It acted as a great anchor for the lower right side of the quilt. What I needed, however, was something to then fill the hole between that and the big Contrary Wife block on the left side. First I tried a ten inch Spinner block:

Too much blue all in one place for my taste. How about this Churn Dash, also ten inches?

Maybe. But what if I sewed some five inch blocks together to make a 10" unit?

I rather like that. Now, how to fill in that strip between the small blocks and the big one?

What about a strip of strips? I'd been piecing these odd strips together while I was over playing with the 15 Minutes bloggers. I first saw Sujata doing it for one of her quilts (the one she calls Confetti I think). I find I have a lot of those short little strips in my scrap basket. They work okay when you're first starting out a liberated log cabin or crumb block but I wasn't using them up very quickly that way. This seems like a good idea and may become part of my standard repertoire. Sort of like sewing those odd half-square triangles into sawtooth strips.

Meanwhile, my lovely canary officially has a name now: Mr. Bingley. Those of you who are familiar with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice may recognize it as being the name of one of the characters from the story. The description of Mr. Bingley's personality just seemed to suit my little bird. Darling Daughter came up with a unique and accurate moniker too: Colonel (kernel) Corn (as in the color of my bird). Fitting, but I just couldn't go there. ;- )

I promise to be back soon with the next installment of the construction of this quilt top.