Crazy Quilt

Crazy Quilt is the most visually distinctive layout here: 64 cards laid alternately upright and sideways into an interlocking eight-by-eight weave, with eight foundations — an Ace and a King of each suit — climbing and descending toward each other.

The mechanic follows the picture exactly. A card can only be played when one of its short sides is unobstructed, so the quilt unpicks along its seams, and each card you take rearranges what is available around it. Nothing is ever built within the quilt itself; it is purely a question of what you can reach and where it can go. Its relatives Indian Carpet and Persian Rug loosen the redeal rules for anyone who finds the single second pass too tight.

Two decks, with one Ace and one King of each suit removed first as eight foundations: the Aces build up by suit, the Kings build down. The other 64 cards go into an eight-by-eight quilt, laid alternately upright and sideways so the pattern interlocks. A card is available only when one of its short sides is free — that is the whole puzzle, because the weave means freeing one card often exposes a neighbour and blocks another. Cards go from the quilt to a foundation or to the waste pile; nothing is ever built inside the quilt. The stock deals one at a time, and once it is spent the waste may be turned over unshuffled for a second pass.

Read the weave before playing. Because availability depends on which short edges are exposed, taking a card can unblock two others or block one permanently, and the difference is visible if you look at the orientation pattern. Work the edges of the quilt inward. There is no building inside the quilt at all, so every decision is simply whether a card can reach a foundation now — with Aces climbing and Kings descending in each suit, most ranks have two possible destinations, which helps. The single unshuffled second pass through the waste is your only reserve, so spend the first pass extracting rather than hoping.