I will admit that i was less than enthusiastic about the process when I first was told about it, but now I love it. You did a good job. I think you would have liked it better if you had gotten some of the secondary patterns going by leaving out the sashing. My first was a baby quilt with some rather blah fabrics I was given, but my second was with some high end Japanese prints. As you surmised, the fabric does make a big diffference.