Need Your Improvement Ideas/Suggestions On This One!
 

OK friends, I need your help! I saw the MSQ tutorial where Jenny used the 3 Dudes jelly roll pattern to make a quick quilt: easy pattern using 2 1/2" strips sewn in 4 strip sets, crosscut in 8 1/2" squares. Then one square is laid horizontal, another placed on top laid vertically, sew 1/4" around all four sides then cut a diagonal "X" corner to corner. When cut, you get 4 cute blocks with half the strips going vertical and half horizontal. When she placed the blocks together, she got a nice secondary pattern with a diamond pattern in every 4-block larger square.
Well, I did all that, but it didn't come out as I expected: the secondary diamond pattern seems to be totally lost and it just looks all 'jumbled' to me! While this quilt is for charity and 'just OK' to me, I would like to make it again and have it look better.
I used 8 different fabrics, and just randomly sewed the 4-strip sets together. So is that my problem--should I have made all the strip sets the same or just 2 variations? Or is it my fabric selections--are they too bright or busy? Is the mix of solids and prints the problem? Or is it that my color values are all about the same--not enough light/dark variance? I would really like your suggestions on how to make my next one look better so that the secondary pattern will show up. This shouldn't be that hard, but I am baffled on this one! Thanks for your thoughts!!
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I would guess that if the outer 2 fabrics were darks and the inner 2 fabrics were lights on each strip set then the secondary pattern would be more visible. Or vice versa, put the lights on the outside and dark on the inside.

Wow this is a hard one to answer. I like the solids. I think some of the busys are too close together washing out the design, example the 2nd row from the bottom 6th one in from left along with 3rd row from the bottom 6th and 7th block in from the left meeting with the 4th row from the bottom 7 th block in from left cause that whole section of blocks to blend in too much loosing the design (my opinion). I like the fabric. It is not too bright or busy. I just think the placement needs a little bit more focus.

How about putting your strips together arranged in sequence from light to dark value,so you have contrast? It would look great if you had gradations in the same color family?

I like the way it came out, but maybe more contrast between the colors.

I like it! Maybe if you lighten up some of the brights...like the yellow, orange or blue?

I think you made a very happy quilt, and the colors are well distributed. If you want the secondary pattern to be more pronounced, I think it may be that many of the values of the fabrics you selected were too similar. I also did my strip sets dark to light and there was more of a range in values.

I like the idea of doing dark to light. When you did yours, did you use various fabrics but always dark to light?

I've done a couple. Of course, I can't find pictures of the one I want. I always used just 8 fabrics, arranged in 2 sets of 4 for all the strip sets, and arranged them light to dark. Here's a link to a small one where I actually arranged the blocks by color:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t204023.html

Rob at ManSewing just came out with a tutorial on this quilt pattern. He used the same color order for his light, medium, and dark. You might want to look at his utube offering and see if that is closer to what you are imagining.