Trouble with color values

I have so much trouble with color values. My eyes just do not want to see it. So I cheat and use the black and white setting on my camera.

In the above image, I think the yellow goes well with the green behind it, the peach to the left, and the cream in the farthest left column. 

 However, when using the black and white setting on the camera, notice how the center yellow fabric doesn't really stand out when compared to those same colors. I haven't moved any of the fabric. The black and white setting shows the color value and that is what I often forget about when I make my quilts, the value of color. 

 Here is my current project. It is a scrappy quilt and I like how these blocks turned out. Notice the star formed in the center of the images by the borders? The values help the colors to create impact with the design. 

Here is an image where I forgot about values. I thought the greens and blues were pretty together and I still like them together, but the stars are not visible in the borders because I forgot about the values. The bottom block has the same patterns as the ones above it. It isn't just the colors that impact the stars, but the value. 

I'm not sure how I'm going to fix the value problem. I already made over 20 blocks of my quilt. Hopefully, I can arrange the blocks in a way that reduces the impact of my mistake. 

My Bulging Square Pattern on Graph Paper

I was asked to share the pattern for the bulging checkerboard. I did not make this as a tutorial. These are my scribblings from my project. If any are interested, I hope you can make sense out of my chaos. I did combine the smaller blocks to make 12 1/2 inch blocks before putting those together into a lap quilt.

Bulging Checkerboard and Magic Square Lap Quilt

 My quilt, which was supposed to be a gift, had one side which turned out wonky. I'll make another quilt for the gift. 

 This side is the Bulging Checkerboard. The middle is supposed to appear to be bulging out even though the lines are all straight. 

 This side is the Magic Square which is supposed to look like three dimensional pyramids. This is the wonky side. I'm not sure what I did, but this side stretched and grew in parts.