False starts, or quilt seeds?

Three things to be happy about:
(1) school buses in the morning
(2) the colors blue and yellow
(3) busboys and poets

I just discovered this channel, Centric, that's probably been there a long time, but I just discovered it!  Anyway, they were re-showing the mini-series Roots all day yesterday starting at 9:00 am, and I wanted to watch it all the way through.  I went out for a little while but I watched almost the entire series til they ended at midnight.  I actually met Alex Haley after the book but before the mini-series; I thought he was a very nice, personable man.

While working on my 6-1/2" string blocks the first idea I had didn't pan out as expected, but here's the process.

I cut two 1-1/2 x 6-1/2" and two 1-2/2 x 8-1/2" strips for the border.

My idea was to treat the string block as a log cabin style block.

Bordering the string block also stabilized the edges, so that was a win-win!

Except... I didn't like how it turned out.

I used 1" strips in scrappy colors and finished with a white and black outer border - nope!

I made a second block but this time I used black as the inner border...

blah!

The third time I went at it a bit differently!

I started with 1" strips for the inner border and used a range of 3/4", 1" and 1-1/4" strips for the surround.  Better than the other two, but no cigar!

I finished off with strips large enough to make a 16-1/2"(?) block.

 Can these blocks be saved???  I was bound and determined to use 6-1/2" string blocks for something, trying to stretch my stringy wings as it were...

I won't just toss these away, I've heard it that the quilt police roam up and down the alley behind quilters' homes and search their trash!

Can this be the start of a quilt?  Or are they better used as fodder for an art quilt?  Thinking, thinking...

While I'm thinking, sew forth and sew on!