I have appreciated everyone's comments. This morning I was leaning back towards the lighter green-blue (bottom of the first picture).
However, I have committed to the dark green background, mostly because my husband liked it the best and I have to get going. I think the ideal background fabric would have been some sort of medium brown with a bit of blue in it, but there wasn't any of that in the stash.
I can still change my mind but I've already cut the dark green so it is unlikely... but it has happened before.
I'm cutting down the subsets, will have to count to see how many I will have and what will be left. Most of them will have two sets of blocks, the very large floral and the trees with the bunnies will just have one set each.
This top is what I call a "direct lift" of this pattern,
https://www.apqshop.com/Two-of-Kind-p/qgr-00240.htm
Obviously my fabric choice is going to give a different look than the batik option! I'm more inspired by the 30s option. If I had more time, I do a color gradation going from light to dark, but that would require 9 different coordinated fabrics per row for six rows. It would also be fun to play with light/dark, the way it is designed it depends more on color contrast than value contrast.
There was a recent thread here by one of the members about how much more yardage would be needed to expand the size of the quilt top. In trying to figure that out, I drew out my interpretation of the pattern. My block sizing is different, the finished size/number of rows is different. And most importantly for me anyway, is the way I have designed the construction (apparently significantly different than the pattern) it will be very fast and easy to put together.
Thanks everyone for the input. As always in this sort of thing, the recipient will appreciate whatever it is I do. Goal is to have the top completed by Sunday evening, quilted by the end of next week. My next problem will be deciding the backing! My original bright and healing print doesn't go with these, but I have things that do, or could, or at least are large enough to use! My friend is also a bit of a quilter, not full-bore like me but she can appreciate using stash -- especially since she has recently seen how much stash I have. She would be disappointed in me if I bought anything for this project. Hubby is going to his mini-family reunion this weekend and I will be on my own with no distractions other than the pets
