Selecting fabrics for LE and a completed heart circle

Usually selecting fabrics for a project is my favorite part of appliqué. I select a pile that seems to go together, picking out many more than I will need, and then delight in picking out just the right fabric for each element. I rarely second guess myself and find this part of a project just so fun.

So what is it about LE that is causing me so much stress?!! I am not sure if it is because I want the quilt to be just perfect, or because I want an aged look (which is not quite In my comfort zone), or because I am only able to select colors one part at a time. Whatever the reason I am struggling with this much more than normal. Not so much with the hearts. I have known from the beginning that I want this quilt to have a controlled scrappy look and that I wanted to incorporate some Dutch chintz fabrics. I used 4 fabrics in reds and pinks in the hearts and one of the reds is a chintz.



So far, so good. But here is when the trouble began. I purchased the teal chintz that is in the center and the zigzags and was so thrilled to be able to use it as I had just ordered a new sofa in teal and was sure they would look great together. I have plans to hang the finished quilt on the wall in that room as we have 20ft ceilings in the room and I think it will be a beautiful piece of art in the room. I also knew that I wanted to incorporate some lighter greenish aqua in the quilt as I just love the color and have that color in the room as well. Not as easy as I imagined. First the couch came in a tiny bit greener than I remembered and now I really need to add that aqua to help everything blend better in the room. But I do not want to compromise the quilt to just fit into a space, so I am trying to get a balance. I tried several options and came up with this.



I struggled with this as I was planning to use a brighter gold inside those Oak leaf type shapes but changed that out after stitching one down. But as you see, no greenish aqua. I wanted to do the pointy shapes in that color but they looked wrong too. So after getting this far I had a rethink and went back to the stash for more ideas and cut out this version.



Aqua is added and looks good. My DH was much happier as he felt it was going too pink. But I looked back at the picture of the overall quilt in grey scale and knew the aqua was not strong enough to make these design elements stand out the way I would like. So I started taking photos against the new couch with a potential border fabric next to the zigzag. Here they are.





I have discovered that looking at things once they are posted to my blog really helps clarify things and often errors jump out so I am hoping that works this time. I have lots of time to add this aqua if I decide not to here and certainly the border fabric is not yet a lock, hey I have already changed my mind several times. I really want to make a decision soon as I think that will help everything fall into place.

I wonder, is anyone else having these sort of dilemmas?