Flowing like a river.........the new zigzag quilt-top

Well........it was MEANT to flow like a river.  There seems to be a boulder or two standing in the middle of the stream !

I love the look of stained glass here when it was hanging in the window partially pieced.

Here it is hanging above the couch, which already sports a zigzag (better known as ripple) afghan on the bottom portion.  The afghan was purchased at a yard sale.  I thought that it would be fun to add the zigzag quilt across the back top of the couch.

In this photo, I'm pointing out the fabrics that I had the most trouble placing.  I wanted a good smooth flow from light to dark through the middle of the quilt, but the color changes between greens, blue-greens, and blues was very difficult.  I settled on what I thought was a good value flow, ignoring the color, but I now see that the two blues stick out.   I tried placing them after the blue-greens, but when placed next to the blues down there, they wanted to appear purply.   Of course, when I tried to move them into the purple section, they appeared to be BLUE.

So, this is it.  The band of turquoise/blue-greens is a bit overwhelming compared to the other color bands, but in person, it's lively and pretty.  Overall, I'm pleased with the top, and may just want to hand-quilt this one.   I'm undecided on that yet.  I dread cutting off the points, but I'll probably draw a straight line around the top first, stay-stitch along it, and THEN trim the points.  If I had a little wavy stitch on any of my sewing machines, I would machine-quilt it like this quilt on Flickr  .......it's AWESOME !

By the way, I basically used this method of cutting and assembly, but with 2 1/2 inch strips, thereby subcutting to 4 1/4 inch squares.

Connecting Threads has offered to send a replacement set of strips, but I don't want them to bother.  There were 3 strips that were really badly cut, but I made them work, so I'm just happy to hear them say that this is not their normal quality, but just a quirk.  Be aware, though, if you have trouble with yours, that they will make it right.

And is it just me, or does fabric ravel more than it used to ?  That's probably a quality issue too, I guess, but wow, some of the fabrics I've worked with in the last year........including some that were quite expensive.........have been a real mess of threads after the normal amount of handling necessary to piece a top !

EDIT:  Connecting Threads has sent me a replacement set of strips without even waiting on my response to their email.......very good customer service !