Puzzle Quilt

When I went to my first quilt workshop in the early 1980's, I agonized about what fabrics I should bring. Did I have the “right” ones for the project? Was there enough variety? What did the teacher have in mind? I probably had more questions and I expressed my frustration to a classmate. She said she never fussed over that because she just concentrated on learning the technique. From there on I adopted her view. And it worked.

Until I took Paula Nadelstern’s puzzle class. I bought the “perfect” fabric ... until I worked with it. I used the fabric and certainly learned the technique, but it just didn’t work. See? I matched most of the parts, except for that one center block, which I didn’t notice until I posted this picture. But that wasn’t the problem.

Paula kept telling us that “more is better” and she was right! The more blocks I made, the prints I used became smaller and not as large as in this first block. These are puzzle block # 5.








So I’m using these 2 and the first one I made will be a pillow. Next I became obsessed with all the possibilities. These are so addictive! This was my next block and the camera came in very handy. The blue corners did not work for me, but I like the corners now.




Can you believe it? This is the same block pattern as the one above! Yes, the exact same pattern pieces were used in block # 3. The blocks are from Paula’s Puzzle Book. There are 6 blocks in the book and Paula has us making 2 of each. And then I was off and running ... well, that’s stretching it. I’ve never been known to do anything fast, but slow and steady was my way.



Next came block # 1:





And then block # 4:








And I never noticed that I turned one of the parts the wrong way on this until a couple of weeks later. See it in the lower left corner? I’m so glad it was not in the middle!




Block 6:





There. Done. Now to find a sashing. I went to Patricia’s House of Fabric’s because I knew my daughter, Cindy, was taking a class there so I’d take a peek at her work and have help picking out the fabric. Cindy had already gone home (I thought the class ended at 4, but it was 1). Pat Pauly was still there so I laid out my 12 blocks and she ohh’d and ahh’d appropriately and we picked out a purple batik. Chuck was also there when Pat said, “Have you thought about making it a square?” I hadn’t, but Chuck thought it was a great idea. So in 1 week I made these 4 extras:







So now all I have to do is put the sashing and cornerstones with all these blocks and quilt it. It isn't as polished as Paula's quilts, but she has done many more of these, but I really like the blocks.

Please don't hold your breath waiting for the finished product as my next quilt is another "I Spy" for a new baby and that will preceed this one.