a values quilt?

This is the wee piece of fabric that started it all.

It's an oldish Kaffe Fassett one & I have used it here & there in my quilts over the years. And now this is all I have left.. not even a complete 9" square.. but I love it!  I selected a few fabrics to go with this lovely old piece and I had a Kaffe Fassett pattern in mind, "Shadow Pinwheel". I was thinking oranges/reds/purples, going for a sort of a gypsy look, and then I threw in a few pinks, blues, a bit of green & grey from assorted fabrics in my stash. This should work I thought, anything goes!   

End result = not very inspiring!

So here I am borderline rejecting the whole idea today, and then I started to really look at the pattern!

This is definetly a quilt based on values... hence the name I guess, Shadow  pinwheel.  Of course there's the expected light/dark coupling in the pinwheel blocks (4 7/8" squares cut on the diagonal), but there was also a rather vague light diagonal line running thru' the larger 1/2 square triangle blocks.  And in some areas there's a merging of values all together, throwing in the odd "medium" fabric which I figure makes things a bit more interesting!
Most of us addicted to fabric find this style of quilt a really great way to use up "the stash". No worries about making fabrics match, I just simply needed to concentrate on thinking in lights & darks!
I began cutting out a few trial pieces, you know, just to see. I had to handle the bigger triangles carefully, as the long edges were cut on the bias & quite stretchy, ( 8 7/8" squares cut on the diagonal). I'm thinking I will piece 1/2 of the quilt & then for the other 1/2, just repeat some of the combinations so it doesn't look too chaotic & messy. So far, I think it's sort of coming together ok.

I can see how a big design wall
would be so helpful to see the overall pattern from a distance
still...
standing up on the dressing table
 and looking down onto the spare bed does the trick!
 How do others do this?