One of my quilting friends uses several different light colored pieces for background in her quilts deliberately. She calls it a "muckled" background. I have done that for 2 quilts now and find the ones where the background all matches to be boring now. I have a pinwheel quilt done this way and now my fractured jewel quilt pieced but not borders or quilted and I really like both of them.Actually 3 quilts as my Avatar quilt is done with this method.