Birthday Block Quilt

I have set aside the paper piecing of the castle quilt for awhile to work on the Birthday Block Quilt Guild Quilt.  I'm not really liking this one so much.  I don't like all of these blocks, but feel obligated to use them.  It was a headache to "edit" these blocks to get them all to 10 1/2".  Some of these blocks I like a LOT, and I appreciate the efforts of the ladies who made them, but I don't feel the look of the quilt is as unified as I would have liked.  I have the top finished, minus the borders.  Maybe when I get the border on it'll "feel" better to me.  I'm going to use that black focus fabric as the border.  Here it is: