My niece (6 years old) bought some fabric she loved when she was at a fabric store with my sister, who does not sew, and sent it to me to make into a quilt for her.

I'm trying but I'm having some issues, I am quite a new quilter so everything is an experiment for me, and I feel stuck.

One issue is the tropical floral fabric she chose for the backing is LOUD, and hard to match. I'm having trouble even looking at it let alone using it.

Another issue, is that the rainbow dresden's I had a blast making for the top are suddenly striking me as more masculine. And my first attempt at sashing went kinda south.

Ideas? Advice? A gun so I can take this quilt out back and shoot it?

I think it's pretty. If she picked out the material I bet she will like it.

HMMM, did you try different sashing, maybe something big and bold, with the colors in your plates, and adding cornerstones???

or maybe frame each block in a different color, then sew them together, this would make a double sash. can you lay them out like that and try it, I think it might work

As for the backing, I am assuming that you are trying to match the pattern for a seam, how about a solid strip, or pieced strip dividing the 2 pieces instead of matching, sometimes pieced backings can be quite nice.

Are any of the motifs on the backing small enough to applique on top of the centers in the circles? That would tie the back and front together. I actually like the colors, but would like the red sashing rather than the green.

The print for the backing is actually quite large, the biggest flowers are bigger than my hand, fingers extended.

I like the idea about double sashing, and I think I will do away with the green. The backing is actually one piece and is backing sized for a twin, and this is gonna be slightly smaller so, if i can manage it, it will be whole.

How many colors do you have to use for sashing??

You could do frame around each, 1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow, even throw in your stripey one, Then lay them out alternatly, for the double sash, just try not to have 2 the same against each other

How many blocks altogether for your quilt???

I would probably use the same color for sashing for the whole quilt. Maybe the pink since it is for a girl and then use the green for cornerstones. Who cares what the backing fabric is. She picked it out so she will love it!

Love the backing fabric!
My thought for the sashing would be to pick one of the colors (probably a narrow strip of the green) to frame each block and a second (a wider strip of the pink) to insert between as actual sashing.
If you decide to use cornerstones, I think the stripe might work well, but I'm thinking you might just want to leave it as the continuous strip of pink between the green frames.

I would go with a pink sashing..it will set it off and pull from the pink in the blades...crafty_linda_b

i think the floral backing is PERFECT! busy is good for kids quilts!
as for the plates- they (could) be considered usable for male or female...but they are not really masculine looking- they are very nice and the colors work with the back.
if you want to make it more feminine you could try a final border with the brighter fusha color from the backing- but really it does not look masculine to me- and if you quilt it with flowers & butterflies it will really look 'girly'
very nice===and isn't it great how kids will push us out side our comfort zone?