I particularly like what I call 'muckled up' backgrounds. These are faint/hardly distinguishable prints in light colors. For instance, the purple quilt below uses a pale purple print of fishes - the ugliest fabric I ever saw *before* I used it here. Now I love how it looks in the quilt!
The background fabric in the righthand quilt is one pale yellow print with different star sayings written over it. It sort of looks 'muckled up', too.
If I don't have a large, faded-looking print like this one handy, I often use fabrics in as many shades of, say, ecru as I can find....each with tone-on-tone prints/patterns.....in the quilt. If the color is in the same 'family' the same across the fabrics, the effect is quite interesting and rich overall, as you've probably found out.
Jan in VA
Note purple background in lefthand quilt
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