Thank you all for your compliments!
To those of you who have never tried a stack-and-whack... this was my first attempt. Really, it was a very easy quilt to put together. As long as you take your time lining up the eight layers of fabric, and cut accurately, putting it all together was simple. Once and a while I got some of my seams going the wrong way, which I had to just pick out that 1/4" and re-sew it. I would not have bothered except that with the white, everything would have shown through.
But nobody should be afraid of stack-and-whacks.
If I do another one, though, I will probably do smaller blocks. That way I can make MORE blocks. It's fun to watch the kaleidoscope designs unfold, with each block being unique, the more blocks the more fun!
Perhaps this quilt has the "pop" it does because the focus fabric only has three colors. Most suggestions I've read for choosing a stack-and-whack or OBW fabric say you should have five or more colors in the fabric. But I think having just three colors made for a quilt with a more unified look to it.