By Jove, I think I've got it....

Well, I sat down (figuratively and literally) to fix the broken quilt top. And I desperately wish I'd had a flannel wall or something instead of as much carpet as I can scrounge. :-) My knees are a little sore from crawling and kneeling all over the floor. It took me about an hour or so. If I had realized how little time it was going to take, it probably would have been done before now. It's like cleaning the bathroom - it never takes as long as you think it will when you are using time as an excuse to actively avoid doing it. And you feel so much better when it's done.

Why didn't I just do it this way to begin with? It's not perfect by any means but I like it so much better. I can breathe at least and will be comfortable admitting that I made it instead of shrugging my shoulders in front of company and going, "That? Oh. Uh.... I have no idea where that came from. Let me just put that in the closet...." before gathering it franticly in my arms and running away.

Lessons learned: Not all fabrics in a stash need to be used in a single project even if that stash was collected specifically for said project. "Ooohhhh, pretty!" does not guarantee that any one fabric will go well with any other. If all-over randomness does not work, light to dark might do the trick. Even if you're heavy on the light and severely lacking in medium.

And I have no excuse not to clean the bathroom.