One thing to think about is that you can visually change the color of a fabric with the choice of thread you use for quilting it. Is it possible to use the less white, but better quality, one and then use your thread choice to unify the color of that one with the white in the rest of the quilt when you quilt it?

Rob

After it's quilted and you're using it, the color difference won't be noticeable (I'm thinking). So I'd just leave it, finish it, and move on.

Thanks everyone for all your advice. Opinions seem pretty 50/50 so I am happy now to muse over my decision and know that either option has its merits. I am at work for the next 4 days so, as suggested will lay a strip of the white on top of one of the cream-ish columns and leave it for me to glance at over the next few days before deciding. Thanks again.

I specified in a group project that I wanted "crisp white" and of course, there were some off-whites in the mix. I ended up using them in a random layout. On the top alone it really bothered me but after the quilting it didn't. (I used a variegated thread across all blocks.)

You can also lay it out as is and take a picture. Seeing it that way has a different effect.

Without knowing what the pattern is - Is it possible to rearrange the whites so that the whites/creams are spread thru-out the quilt equally, giving it a balanced look?

Personally, I am anal and I would have to fix it - and if I really really didn't like the creamish fabric, that means switching it out. Otherwise, I would regret it.

sigh....Good luck!!

thanks, Rob--my thoughts exactly

Well it hasn't even been a day but after leaving the "whiter" white on the quilt top wouldn't you know it but by the end of today it is actually looking just as cream as the other!!! How crazy is that?! So, as suggested, and thanks very much for pointing this out to me..I have spent the afternoon considering how best to detract the eye from the glaring "ick" as best I can. I think I will quilt it quite densely in length-wise rows to help accentuate the column effect and give the eye an uninterrrupted fluid run from top to bottom. I'm thinking I might use an 80wt thread seeing I'm quilting so densely and will outline the HST first to stabilise them. Thanks again everyone..most appreciated. Hmmmmm, variegated thread or cream...hmmmmm

If it's going to bug you every time you use it, by all means change it. No sense in constantly reminding yourself of what you woulda, coulda, shoulda!

can u take a picture?

Oh those whites, I've been there done that too. What I try to do is put the first whites in some sort of pattern. Maybe only the center columns, since you've mentioned they are in columns. Then the new whites in the outer columns, even if it means not using all the first white columns. Form a pattern. Then as the quilt ages, whether the first whites change or the second whites change, it will look intentional. It will also look like you are very clever in placement. If it makes you wince, there is something your eye is seeing and will always see. Someone else will never see it.