That is a beautiful mug!! Sharing your distress, sending a bigggg hug to a fellow quilter : )
As for the busy....yes the blocks end up super busy. I would suggest a very "solid or reads as solid" sashing to calm things down. For my money even the dark background you have up is too busy and adds more visual confusion.
You could also consider alternating the house blocks with blocks that a complementary ie. what our guild did was a block lotto where you make one house block and one tree block. Putting them together breaks up the repetition and busy-ness in a pleasant way.
Your alternate blocks could also be a simple traditional block in reads as solids...ie a simple nine patch, wonky star. Nothing too complex.
Last edited by WesternWilson; 03-18-2025 at 09:56 AM.