ABOUT THE COLORS:
In this quilt, I stayed away from bright red in the strips. I only used one. It's right in the center of the quilt. I used a few lighter reds though. As stated earlier, I picked out light blue and yellow to scatter through the quilt. Staying away from the bright reds helped the bow ties stand out better! The bow tie colors are strong and vivid and that was the goal. They needed to be lifted above the background colors to show their wonderful depth and twisting feature in the quilt. Those 2 toned ones really make a difference!
There are no rules here! You might want red all over your quilt or it may be your theme! You may want the bow ties watered down in color. They'll be diffused if you overuse red in the background. I used color and shape in this quilt to cause the bow ties to stand out which is why I opted for deep toned fabrics rather than pastels or medium colors. I made it my focal point so naturally I would want them to be first noticed.
Speaking of focal point, I didn't plan it but naturally placed the all white bow tie in the 3rd row from the top and 3rd row from the bottom. I think it should stay right there centrally located! In looking over my quilt so far, it definitely says 'I'm the focal point of this quilt.' Use oversized prints to help your focal point block stand out the most!