I think that if you have an equal balance of muted to bright it looks purposeful and good. It would look better to me with more prints from different lines of fabrics with slightly different hues, like it is a controlled color scrappy. I made a red, white, and blue quilt with at least 50 different fabrics quite a few years ago. It has dull to bright blues and reds. I used whites and off-white backgrounds in the prints. It is my bed quilt and is almost threadbare in places because it has been used and washed so much. If I were to remake it today, I would add even more variety in the lights using recycled men's shirts because I love plaids so much.