Red Puzzler revisited

LAST October I pieced all these red segments... thinking that I would make a 2nd Ocean's Wave quilt (like my green one), but in red. Except, somehow, I cut all those triangles much bigger than needed, sewed them all together and only then did I realize - I had made an error. I don't want to use these segments to make an OW quilt because the resulting plain square is EXTRA large. While the green quilt is a great size for my queen bed, these jumbo sized blocks would give me a bigger than king quilt. Nope - not going to make an Ocean Waves quilt with these segments. So - back into my sewing tote they went to simmer and stew while I tried to come up with a plan for them (ok, so maybe I had to simmer and stew a bit too - I was a bit upset that they were the wrong size). I already spent all that time and effort getting them made - might as well use them. But how? And believe me, it took me awhile to piece all those units together.
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This week I think I hit on a good idea... that dark fabric is just a super cheap dark fabric that I keep around for a background auditioning - I will actually have to buy a dark background fabric... but it gives you a good idea. I like either one of the above options... Just imagine the top one set straight - the photo is just a bit slanted to work around the Thomas the Train track right next to it, plus other toys, because of course, School Boy is right by my side! The 2nd option would be the blocks set on point and that nice wide triangle corner idea for the 4 corners - which I think is a bit unique, so is interesting.
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Speaking of the toys - SB had Mon, Tues. and Weds. off from school this week for Canadian Thanksgiving. Yeah, ok - so we were waiting for the school bus on Tuesday - I didn't know that "Teacher Meeting" on the calendar was code for "School Closed". ALL other days that school is closed is clearly marked!
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A rejected idea was this zig zag setting option. I like the zig zag setting and have used it before, but am not sure I want to fiddle around to get such a narrow zig zag with these bigger blocks.

The idea below was my starting point on the dark background. Right away I knew that while this particular lay-out didn't strike my fancy - I really did like the dark background. As much as I didn't want to like the dark background, because...


What I really, really wanted to work - was this beautiful yellow and blue stripped fabric. I tried ALL kinds of different layouts - narrow strips, wide strips, set different ways, considered bordering blocks with the yellow and blue... I'll spare you all the photos, but here are some. All these ideas were rejected. I wanted that stripped fabric to work because I bought is specifically for these ideas - which seemed good in my head at the time, but when I saw it laid out on the floor, well - I think that the idea was actually better than the reality!
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Isn't having a digital camera grand?! After reviewing these photos, I really don't think that making the initial cutting error was such a bad thing, my red puzzler is starting to come together! With a dark background. The stripped fabric is going back on the shelf... for now.