I am using Patches and Rhymes for my sample, which came out 52" x 43"

Fabric Requirements: 

3 FQ's of your focus fabric. This is the fabric you will use to choose the colors of the dark and light prints used in the rest of the mystery. The 3 FQ's do not have to be all the same fabric, but they should all have the same basic colors.

¼ yard (9" x 42") fabric for an inner border. Try a solid or something that reads as a solid in one of the focus fabric colors.

1 FQ light (To make it scrappy, use five 2" x 22" strips in different light prints)

1 FQ dark (To make it scrappy, use five 3" x 22" strips in different dark prints)

2 FQ's that co-ordinate with the dark and light fabrics.  Value doesn't matter, but make it a print that is clearly different from the focus fabric. (To make it scrappy, use eight 4 ½" wide strips from different fabrics)

1½ yard backing fabric

Optional: extra strips you have laying around, any width, any length.

Step One: cutting the focus fabric

From the 3 FQ's of Focus Fabric, cut ten 8 ½" x 8 ½" blocks.  Cut the extra fabric into strips, any width, it doesn't matter.  Put these in your extra strips pile.   

Step Two: Cutting the lights

Cut your light FQ into 2" x 22" long strips.  (If you forget and cut them 2" x 18", that's okay, they will still work.)  You will need 5 of these strips.  Put the extra in your extra strips pile.   

Step Three: cutting the darks

Cut your dark FQ into 3" x 22" long strips.  If you forget and cut them 
3" x 18", that's okay, they will still work.  You will need 5 of these strips.  Put the extra in your extra strips pile.   

Step Four: cutting the inner border

Cut the 9" x 44" quarter yard into four 2" strips. Put the extra in your extra strips pile.

Step Five:  cutting the setting blocks

Lay out the two FQ's that co-ordinate with the dark and light fabrics the long way (as you did above) and cut four 4 ½" X 22" strips from each.  Cross cut five strips into 4 ½" squares.  You should have twenty squares.  Put the extra in your extra strips pile.   

Time to stop and smell the coffee!  You should have ten 8 ½" x 8 ½" blocks from the focus fabrics twenty 4 ½" blocks from the co-ordinating fabrics five 2" x 22" strips from the light fabrics five 3" x 22" strips from the dark fabrics four 2" x 44" strips for the inner border a bunch of extra strips in different widths in your extra strips pile.

Step Six: Sewing the light and dark strips together

Sew your five light and dark strips together the long way.  Here is an old dressmaker tip: before opening up the two strips you have just sewn together, lay them on the ironing board with the dark strip on top and press along the seam.  Don't move your iron when you are pressing, you could distort the fabric. This is called "setting the seam". Press. Now open the strips by just running your finger between the two and folding the darker one back. Because you placed the dark on top, the seam will automatically fold to the dark as you press it open.  

Step Seven: using the extra strips.

Sew all your extra strips together the long way randomly. Keep sewing until all your strips are used up. Don't worry if you have two strips of the same width next to each other. It doesn't matter. Click on the thumbnail to the right.  Pretty, isn't it? 

Once you have them all into one piece of fabric, press it so all the seams go in one direction. Cross cut them into 4" wide strips. This will become the "piano keys" outer border.  You will need a pieced strip 172" long and 4" wide.  

Step Eight: cutting the two part strip from step six 

Cross cut each of the the five light/dark strips into eight 2 ½" wide X 4 ½" tall light/dark blocks. You will need 40 two-part blocks.

Step Nine: Making the blocks

Take your two-piece light/dark blocks and sew them together with the light up on one side and the light down on the other to make a 4 1/2" square block, like the thumbnail to the left.  Press from the back so the seams are nice and flat.