when i saw the black and grey checkers on the left side of the tile, i assumed it was blank space.

poop.

yeah yeah, that's what they all say. ;)
Anyway, the blending on the top isn't quite matching up, otherwise this would be a pretty good tile to blend with. (except it looks like you got a border tile. Haven't seen it on the full quilt yet.) So since your story seems to "check" out, I'll vote easy on you.

And for not reading my mind and getting lost in all the rubbish there and realizing that I could not be capable of reading instructions and actually be the first (I think) idiot to use the transparent area as part of the design, I will have to give you an enormous score of -99999999