I've been trying to follow color schemes in the book, more or less. I don't want to end up with all blue, or too much pink, or whatever. I figure our author has balanced the colors for us, so the finished quilt has a good mixture. I just try to get as close as I can to hers with what I have collected in my stash for this project. Pastels aren't usually anything I use, either. I bought FQs of a bunch of solids to go with my prints.