bkay

I think what Nan's EQ rendition does well is continuity. In your photo, the blocks are randomly turned. In Nan's quilt they are repeated in a certain order. I think that would help. It seems just too jumbled to me. The sashing will help, too.

I made a Blue quilt a while back, too. I hated it at first. It was a "quartered stripe" pattern. A friend suggested I use white sashing and set it on point. I kept looking at it and did sash it in white. It helped.

I'm sure setting it on point would have made all the difference, but it was more than I wanted to tackle, as I am not very experienced. It's now in my UFO pile. I don't hate it as much as I did. However, I don't like it enough to spend $160.00 to get it quilted, either.

Sometimes, they just don't turn out like we imagined.

bkay