Project 9 - Interlacing Circles - Fabric Selection

This project has cause me quite a bit of confusion - not with the pattern, but with fabric selection. Here is Carrie's version

The top is made up of nine patch blocks and rail strip sets using 4 fabrics.  I made a mock up of this pattern a while back.. remember?   I wanted to use an Art Nouveau floral fabric I had, and then just selected colours I thought would go nicely with it. At this point I was happy, I just needed to purchase the matching fabric for the floral - a purple/green leaves print.  Also while shopping, I selected a dark purple to use instead of the mauve.

I put my selections together and bundled them off to a Quilter's Guild meeting I was attending to get an opinion, as I wasn't quite sure about my choices (hey, it was my first meeting, I had to take something!).  Their advice was that while the colours were ok, the values were out of balance.  I had 3 darks and 1 medium, which wouldn't do at all!  They suggested a mauve instead of the deep purple.  Damm???

I dutifully resurrected my mauve fabric.  Now I had 5 fabrics and was at a loss on which one to lose.  I sought out the advice of the  experienced and talented ladies of the Craft Forum.  These are the 5 fabrics........

The fourm ladies were very helpful (as always) and by an overwhelming majority, suggested I drop the leaves print.

Choosing fabric is hard!

Then the subject of values came up again - which seemed to point to the dark purple being dumped.  One very helpful member (thank you so much Robynne) even went to the trouble to make mock-ups using the photo I posted.  You can see them here......... http://forum.craftmagazines.com.au/showthread.php?t=4768

I decided, after much dithering, to dump the yellow in favour of a cream print.  Now I had 2 prints and 2 plains, like Harriet's version.  I also had 2 dark values, 1 medium and 1 light, a much better balance.  I'd use the yellow for the border.

So I cut and sew some strips and I'm not liking what I'm seeing.  It all looks a bit blah - where's the zing?  And where is my beloved Art Nouveau quilt top gone?

Finally, I decided to sacrifice the fabric I'd already cut and go with my gut instincts - going back to almost what I had in the first place - Floral/Yellow/Purple/Mauve.  Check it out.

Compare colours - cream or yellow?

All of this fluffing about has taught me a valuable lesson - learn the rules thoroughly, promptly forget them, then go with what you like.  Eventually, with a bit of experience and experimentation, it should all come together.

I've finished the piecing and hopefully will post a pic of the assembled top soon.

Cheers