That's a very generous offer! Thanks so much! I'll keep an eye on the site and see if there is something it looks like I'd like to tackle.

Okay, here we go again. I re-did k9. I also took a photo of my fabrics so you can see that there actually is a coordinating/scrappy color way. It's all reds/corals/browns/turquoise - there are spots and bits of other shades, including a small yellow here and there. I think it will look pretty all together...hard to tell from the few blocks I've don already. The real question, before I get much further...do you think the background is good? I'd love to hear some opinions..I've been going back and forth!

I love your background, I think it sets it off perfectly.

I know what you mean though, one minute it's perfect, the next minute you wonder if something else would be just that little bit better.

I really like it, it's not a "flat" background, it's got depth . :-)

i agree with blue the background fabric is perfect for the collection you have.

BTW - that is one beautiful collection of fabrics

I like it a lot. I would do a few more and line them up and take another look. Awesome job!

thanks for the input. Hey, another question. If you peer into my photo, you can see I have some sort of white/offwhite with other colors...do you think I always need to include my standard background in each block, or can I get away with one of those? I know I can do whatever I want, but at the same time, don't want a block to look like a sore thumb because it's missing the continuity of that background fabric...

If it was me. If I wanted to use other fabrics ther I wouldn't do just a few. They would probably stand out. I would do a bunch of them. When I get around to mine it will be all scrappy. Including the background. I hope to do the one all out of the scrap bin so the background will be anything I can find in there.

I would stick with the same background, unless you're going to do a lot in different background colours. Think of a cream crazy patch quilt, a whole lot of different creams look good, all the same with just one or two different would look odd.

I guess what I'm trying to say is keep it balanced, either all the same, or lots of different backgrounds, not just one or two.

i think you can use many background fabrics as long as they have a similar tone/value to them.

i have different background fabric in all of the 4 blocks i posted. if you click on download and zoom in you'll notice each one is different.

the overall theme is indigo but if you look each one has a slightly different pattern.

i have about 8 different japanese indigo patterns to choose from and i have about 30 blocks done - its not distracting at all that they vary from each other.

i guess you could say i'm doing a scrappy quilt except its all the same tone of red, indigo, and white that it doesn't really read to the viewer as scrappy.

No, these are very distinct fabrics...I'll try to find a good fit for them but won't stress...there's plenty of the other colors to use.