A brainteaser

As I work along on my Block-a-Day challenge, I'm trying to assemble the blocks into actual quilts, rather than just creating a huge pile of orphans. One of my "rules" is that I piece the blocks in accordance with the colors presented on the calendar page each day, so the stack of blocks waiting to be used is pretty diverse.

Throughout the entire year, though, there are only two black and white blocks, both of them odd ones. Since April 1, when the second one came up, I've been trying to figure out some way to use them in a quilt.

Yesterday I started fiddling with the two blocks, and decided that I needed to really think outside the box. The Telephone became four telephones, making a large center medallion. The Puzzle block went into the top and bottom rows. Then I expanded everything else as much as I possibly could within the limits of using up these particular fabrics. I stayed at it late last night, to get the last border strips sewn on. Kind of a quirky quilt, but it's done!

I have a length of black and white check that will work for backing. The remaining purple has been cut into binding strips, and the rest of the odds and ends have been dumped into my scrap bin -- this project bag is retired!!

It will become my donation quilt for next month's guild meeting. It makes me think of wizards, or some team's colors ... maybe the Minnesota Vikings? Anyway, not pastel floral, as so many donation quilts seem to be. Hopefully a young boy will be comforted by it one of these days.

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