Im Stuck

Frustration, frustration, frustration.....I'm working on a quilt top for my uncle who was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Budget forced me to shop from my stash which is made more difficult when trying to make a "manly" quilt.

Two nights ago I made it this far before needing to sleep.  This is pretty much all of the blocks except for the top, title block.....

I was happy with it when I went to bed but when I looked at it yesterday morning I was unhappy with the uneven layout of the "two strip blocks".  If only the quilt was going to have more blocks to make it wider and allow the blocks to be more symmetrical....but this was it....per the instruction diagram that came with the word panel.

Then I moved blocks around to make it look even in my eyes....plus I finished the top title block/row and added that to the design wall....

I know I'm crazy but the top row looked smooshed together in relation to the rest of the rows beneath.....like a head attached to a body with no neck to balance it out.

So I pulled out a light strip to see if it looked better....

Then I switched the light strip to a dark brown.....

At this point I'm really confused and frustrated.  It shouldn't be this difficult! Hahaha

I THINK I like the dark strip of fabric best.  I need to keep looking at it for a little while.  Of course to add to my dilemma, I realize that I don't have enough of the fabrics used so far to do what I had thought about doing to enlarge the quilt.  It truly needs to be larger than it would finish at this point (only 42 x 56).

Any suggestions?

As I ponder this problem, I'm hoping to start loading my friend Marianne's Easy Street quilt on my longarm frame.

Stay warm and keep sewing!