Puzzles -

Of any sort - jigsaw puzzles, in particular - can be very frustrating or very relaxing - depending on the design - the colors - or even the "cut" of the pieces -

When my friend came over yesterday, we chose another jigsaw puzzle to play with. Usually I put the coffee on, she comes over - we pull out a puzzle - then sit and chat the afternoon away. The first puzzle we chose was more frustrating than the last one we did so we didn't even bother to finish it.  After about an hour - we put it back in the box.  Then we pulled out a little one - from the CEACO - Our Colorful World - set of 10 puzzles - Colorful pieces of Chalk - 100 pieces.  It took almost no time at all and finished at a whole 7" x 9" - smaller than a sheet of paper - ;))

So we did another one - Marbles - 100 pieces - also 7" x 9" - ;))

That was about all we could handle that afternoon - so after she left - I went back to playing with my Crumb Squares - a puzzle of a different sort -

I did a quick sketch - a simple re-do of something I had seen on AllPeopleQuilt -
HERE - Inspired by Stamp Of Approval from Designer Tonya Alexander (EyeCandyQuilts - blogspot - com)

Nothing fancy - just to see how many I needed -

And then I made some more puzzle pieces - I need 36 of these -
For the "alternate" blocks -

And when I put my Crumb Blocks on point like this -

And made the "alternate" blocks -

I got this -

Here's a close up -

There are so many different fabrics in these blocks that I didn't even try to keep the "same" fabrics separated - and I didn't worry about getting some blocks upside down or turned around because there was no "pattern" to the blocks. All I had to do was sew a set of four - and press toward the black - ;))

It still needs to be sewn together and the side setting triangles and corner triangles added to square it up - and then I'll decide if I want to add a piano-key or wonky strip border. I'm leaning toward wonky - but I may change my mind - ;))

When I went to the APQ site to find the link to the pattern -

I found the other links to Tonya's blog - and then her quilt - Stamp of Approval. I thought that it was funny that because my Crumb Squares are smaller than the 16-patch blocks in the APQ version - I sketched my version out at 4x4 only to find that Tonya's "original" was 4x4, too. Of course, she added a terrific leaf and vine border that I'm not even going to try to duplicate - ;))

And since this one only took 64 of my 130+ Crumb Squares -

I have plenty to make another version with Cheddar sashes - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -