Help?

I have been working as much as I can on my daughter's quilt and not coming out like I planned. I have learned a few things, one is never use a cutting die for a rag quilt on large quilts. The size ends up less than 7" so a lot more blocks to make one. Also, I have to cut the fabric down in blocks to cut the blocks on the cutter and do that for the front and back of the quilt, so way too much cutting and steps for something that should be quick.

I was going to use light and dark denim and a mix of the reds with blue and greens, but they didn't look right to me and I like the contrast of the dark denim with the reds. I laid them out today and have enough reds and need to make 10 more denim blocks to finish the top, but I still need more on the edge for the over hang. I am thinking of doing just the dark denim but that is a lot of blocks to cut out again. What I would really like to do is strips of denim, but not sure if I can add that to the already cut rag pieces? Has anyone ever used a go die for rag quilts and added a strip border?

This is what I was doing today, laying out the pieces to see how it looked. I won the fabric and got some yards and some half yards so I can't seem to get the red blocks to look right without getting some of the same ones, too close.

So, what do you think? Any ideas of how I can make it look better? After I do the last denims, I will sew them together, and I laid them out so they over lapped, so hopefully it will be the right size, after sewing.

I laid them on my bed, which is a queen size, as hers is, but her mattresses are taller than mine.

It was hard to get a photo since I had to stand on a chair to get this, but here is a close up so you can see a better idea of the actual colors. The denim is darker, so it really looks nice with the red bandana fabric. Her birthday is next thursday so I think I might actually get it done in time.

For the stitching, I am using a variegated denim blue thread.