Not quite green with envy

More like baffled with green.
I've gone cold then hot then cold on the whole Emerald as Pantone color of the year idea. Why do I care, you ask? Because Ali over at a.squared.w is hosting an Emerald challenge, and I mentally jumped on board during my "hot" mindset. Plus, she extended the deadline to St. Patrick's Day (both fitting because of the green and helpful for all of us last-minute quilters).

The "hot" mindset started when I saw this post by Lindsay over at Hawthorne Threads. Suddenly emerald looked cool. Add in the fact that you could use any shade of green in your project, not just emerald, and I was sold.

I wanted to create a quilt inspired by the look of crops in fields, like these photos:

When I started sewing, I just didn't like it. Long story short, I went down a few variations, and ended up with the idea for angled strips of a variety of greens alternating with solid strips. 

But now I'm cold again, trying to decide what color to use with the solid strips. 

I started with dark brown, as that's what I'd bought for my original idea. Then, thinking opposites, I pulled out the leftover orange-red from my bullseye quilt. On another trip to the quilt store, I grabbed the mottled light green, cream, and the butterscotch color. 

What do you think? Do any of these colors grab you? Other ideas? I wandered through the quilt shop, holding my pieced green strips up to every color and nothing gave me that "ah ha!" moment.

I'd love to hear your opinion!

p.s. Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.
p.p.s. Okay, so my quilt has very little emerald in it. I know.