Orphan, or Puzzle Quilt

Several years ago, our Guild Membership gal asked for donations of extra blocks that we were not planning to use, to be given as door prizes. Well, I had extra blocks, and I was eager to participate in this worthy endeavor!

I opened up my tub of extra blocks, and the first one on top was ....uhh .. well, I decided to keep that one, it was made years ago while I was just learning to quilt from Georgia Bonesteel on PBS TV programs. How I loved that program and ohhhh dear, it brought back tears and memories. OK, so I won’t give that one away, and flipped it behind me on the floor, Eleanor Burns style. Next one came out .... well it has those cute little bunnies of that quilt I made for my little niece .. . throw over the shoulder to the floor, again. The next one, oh yes, that’s where I learned to string piece – I’ll keep that one and flipped it behind me to the floor.

Need I go any farther? I couldn’t choose even ONE block for a donation – every one of them had some really great reason NOT to give it away, and they covered 25 years of collections, brave starts, practice, less than perfect construction, and the ole familiar, "Some day, I’ll make that into a quilt."

And behind me on the floor - what did I see? You betcha (a Nebraska phrase) – those blocks had mysteriously practically arranged themselves in a setting, even though not one matched any other – except for the common theme, they were MINE! Yep, another quilt to make!


This has now become a puzzle quilt, as I think it’s called , and begs me to finish it. I’ve bordered each block, added sashing between, and created only a couple extra blocks (flowers) to make a very personal quilt that I am enormously fond of. You can date the blocks by the type fabric. Arranging the blocks is where I learned about reading left to right – it wasn’t easy to decide a balanced placement since they were all so different. See the words in the center? That’s a made-up word between me and my DH, meaning something like “A special space representing Peace and Patience” ... Note how jarringly wiggly, crooked and jumbled it’s laid out!

The flower is my favorite, with the crazy patch centers.


This queen-sized top is currently a UFO, awaiting inspiration for some type of border to calm it down. Those 2 blocks? False starts for the border – too busy, I think. However, since I last looked at it over a year ago, the problem of “What kind of border?” is less unclear.

If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. The length is almost finished, but I need the width of at least 12 inches on each side to fit on a queen bed.