Wow, wow! First, thank you for your opinions and great ideas! It's taken me a few days to get logged in during break at work -after a 9-hour day I never have the energy to go online, let alone quilt!
I'm half convinced the print is *not* meant to be exactly square...meaning the pattern is 'casual' and not made on-a-grid. Julie Paschkis is the designer (I adore her fabric!) and looking at another person's completed quilt, it looks a bit uneven as well!
Either way, I think I'd be more pleased with removing the patterned border (whose black, I agree is not a perfect match) and maybe use the idea of 'wonky' borders, or offsetting the squares as diamonds instead. I love the video on how to 'disguise' an imperfect panel in a like patterned border...unfortunately this one is pure black and maybe hard to match exactly/distractingly enough.
I'm sure I'll end up squaring other blocks w/the starch/block method - which is nothing I'd ever thought to do! Awesome wealth of info here.
I also LOVE the idea of adding applique'd bits to move the eye around. I may just keep that in my sleeve, so to speak!
This is a picture of someone else's quilt - same block.