Hello, and happy April! I decided not to post this yesterday, seeing as it was April Fool’s Day. Nevertheless, I don’t intend to trick you in today’s puzzle; with a sound mind and a firm resolve, I’m sure you can figure out the solution. Let’s get right into it, then!

The next entry is based on Stitches. Marie Touveau, an expert in various art styles, has recently taken up quilting. Her creations are special in that they involve a rather complex stitching pattern. Your goal is to stitch one of Marie’s quilts, represented as a grid, according to the following rules:

• Each patch in the quilt must be connected to all of its neighboring patches with exactly one “stitch” each. To make a stitch, poke holes in two adjacent cells from different patches and connect them with a straight (not diagonal) line.
• Stitches cannot overlap with each other or use the same grid square.
• The numbers outside the grid indicate the number of holes in that row or column.

The pictures below depict a sample puzzle on a 5×5 grid, along with its solution. Each patch is colored to help distinguish it from its neighbors.

Now, can you solve the puzzle below and help Marie stitch her quilt?

The solution will be released in the next blog post. Also, if you tried the puzzle from the last blog entry, here is its solution below. Let the dominoes fall where they may; or, in this case, where they should!