Oh that block is beautiful!
I share your pain when it comes to picking matching materials! Patterns? I can spend hours in the quilt shop pondering the possibilities. It all somehow comes together for me in the end, but not without lots of trials and tribulations. It never gets so bad that I give up and I hope it never does. The lady at the quilt shop tells me it takes practice, practice, practice to get good at this.
The person who suggested you send this story in to a quilting magazine hit the nail on the head. Great story!