Thanks for the kind words SusieQOH. Those darn funky little monkeys/loosie goosies! I think most of us need kind words on those.
Most of the disappointment with the pink is having seen them red and glorious and popping with color and contrast. If they had already been in the bag that way, I'd have used them. In Clue 2? the one with the neutral/red rectangles I had some I wasn't happy with because I felt they were too pale but I had made too many and so was going to sort in some of the brighter combinations. Depending on how they are used, I might reconsider that stand and it may be a good thing to have some of the paler pinks in that series.
So here's what I did last night and what I'll be putting together today. Hubby has bowling league on Mondays and sometimes I come along for the ride and the fun and work on something behind the action. The guys are really sweet and come and chat and look at what I'm doing. Last night I was drawing the lines on the reds and I randomized them, lol the pinks aren't even what is bothering me today but again I'm telling myself it's all going to be fine.
So the pinks are grouped together in sets and many of them have 3 or more repetitions, but what I've done is just randomly sorted them out. Since I rarely had more than 3 of any type, I started with three columns and just put the squares there and then stacked them up.
The blues on the other hand, I am keeping in their cut sets and/or putting some of the individuals in with similar pieces. So I know if I have 3 blues in a row, for example, each of those same fabrics will be paired with a different red for maximum variation. Other people (and on other projects) maybe I wouldn't care but I feel I'm having enough repetitions with the groups that I otherwise I want more random. Again, on another project maybe I wouldn't care/want enough. Most of what I complain about is stuff I am doing to myself. I really am a lot more compulsive and uptight but I'm trying to get free-er.
Have to say again that my "Blues" are really Darks and Mediums and have been all along. They are blue, purple, green and everything in-between and combined. Despite the pictures, there are, however no blacks or solids!
What I do isn't exactly the same, but Karla Alexander gives a remarkably good way to deal with fabric combinations in her Stack the Deck series. Highly recommend them. There are the fast crazy quilt template sets now, Karla was one of the people who developed the technique and teaches how to do them without templates.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...tack_the_Deck_
The second picture is a before/after of some of the pieces. What I had left of the red splotchy one was basically white with a few red splotches. Now it's pink with red splotches and was very usable, what's shown is actually two different over-dyes. The darker piece was the original piece which had light background dyed once. The top piece is actually mostly light background and dyed twice, and is the "back" of the piece dyed once, it was almost all white when it started. The golden yellow... well it's more orange with stains but it mixes in.