My first thought was to put the nine patches back together and put a narrow black sashing between them. I see other have the same idea. Let the colors fall where they may and enjoy the scrappiness. Sashing is just a narrow strip separating the blocks. There are several easy ways to do it. Ask here if you are interested. You could do the same thing with four patches, but it's your quilt and you wanted nines.
I'm sorry your aunt wasn't more supportive and didn't keep in mind that this is your first quilt. A scrappy TATW isn't as easy as it sounds. If you like the TATW quilt, save it for your next quilt and look up Eleanor Burns directions. It's an easy quilt but only if you start out making that one.
Welcome to the world of quilting.