OH DEAR...WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

After having the nerve to share the drama I was having with my troublesome quilt, you dear readers came up with so many good suggestions.  Thank you for taking the time and brain power to connect.

Carole of "My Carolina Home", a talented blogger who freely shares so many clever quilt techniques, not to mention all things "Carolina", suggested replacing my original lower left block with a darker one to help balance the two large blocks. Seen in this photo. Good grief, I can't believe I didn't think of it....brilliant...thank you Carole!!   I didn't go quite as dark as the other two because it seemed to create a bulls eye.  Hard to believe given the impact of the other two blocks, but that's the way I read it.

 I had already decided to add black circles to the corner squares...a motif found in so many Japanese designs.  It helped to add more black, plus it set off the outline of the two rectangles by its omission.

It still needed additional color balance and I thought that could be accomplished by adding a dark border.  Oh dear....now the rectangle on the lower right looks very odd.  Perhaps I should have left well enough alone!

My now - 10:30 PM decision (way past my bedtime mind you) was not well thought out and I could kick myself for not waiting till the next day.  I opened seams and added 4 more corner squares in the center of the rectangles.  Already regretting that rash move I went to bed....again wayyyy past my bedtime about midnight.

Overnight the quilt didn't miraculously fix itself.  But after giving it murderous looks in the morning, I folded back about half of the width of the border and it looked better.  I may decrease it even more.  But first I have to applique all those circles...yuck...however that will give me time to think this through before I again jump the gun and sandwiching the piece too soon.

Say tuned....

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, and Sarah's Whoop whoop Friday.