It's me again....please help!
 

I need to start by saying I am NOT a wing-it person! I definitely need a pattern :) Needless to say, this is a wing-it quilt for my DH who loves eagles. Where do I go from here?????? The two different blocks that I made look terrible; just solid colored blocks look terrible.....PLEASE, PLEASE, give me some ideas that will make this work.

I love that panel. I would just start building around it with star blocks. Go to www.quilterscache.com to find about any star block you could want. Fill in with sashings and before you know it you're going to have one beautiful quilt!

Jennie~any star suggestions? I have never paper-pieced.....and how large would you make the blocks? These 6" blocks that I made are just overpowered by the size of the panel with the borders I have already put on.

I am just lost at this point :(

It you want something simple maybe a piano key border or braid border using your fabrics.

I can't tell from your photo how big your eagle panel is but many of the fabric companies have free patterns featuring panels that might work for you. I just finished a kid's quilt using the Fabric Fun Quilt pattern by Lessa Chandler Designs, 2012 (it's in the free section) www.leesachandlerdesigns.com and it worked really well for my truck panel and I made four 9 inch finished blocks for the smaller blocks. I didn't add the small squared outer border as I didn't need my kid's quilt that wide. I have quite a few kid's panels to use up and have been checking the free patterns out and have noticed a lot more recently featuring different sizes of panels or large focus prints that should be great.

How large will the quilt be and how big is the panel? I would make the size of the star dependent on the center size.

Here are two great 5 Point Star which are paperpieced. One is, as written, 8" but could be smaller or larger ( you could go to a copy center and do that) or it could be made larger by placing a border around it. The other actually appears to be a short tutorial on how to do it with another PP pattern. Looking at your picture, you could try a white star on the blue background with a red (or red and white stripped) border.

http://www.quilterscache.com/F/FiveP...StarBlock.html

http://alittlebitbiased.blogspot.com...-tutorial.html

http://quiltingtutorials.com/browse-...r-quilt-block/ maybe a star like this?

How big is the panel? I love the "friendship star block" and it's very simple to make. Bigger pinwheel blocks would look good too.

My idea is to use the reds minimally and concentrate your main colors in blues, whites and greys. Then add just small touches of red. I think you may have too many reds in your squares of fabric and they are overpowering the panel which does not have much red in it. I am thinking something like a log cabin in blues and whites and greys with just the small center square in red.

there are plenty of star blocks or others that are not paper pieced. take a deep breath and slowly start again.