Painting and Pillow Fail

Let me start this post by saying I'm totally frustrated at the moment.  I mentioned before that I was going to paint my dining/sewing room before all the big furniture comes back. {btw - if anyone has a good way for me to convince hubby to scrap the dining room furniture and just make this my sewing room, I'm all ears}

Our new house is over 40 years old. The room I'm in is unfortunately paneled and painted over. We have baseboard heating. I never knew that leads to dirty walls, but it does. Kinda looks like this over time.

 And this.

And yes, the brass outlet covers are going too.

 So back to my paint job. I selected a white with gray tinge because I loved a similar color that I did in our bedroom. Unfortunately it wasn't gray tinge, it was blue. The walls looked the color of wet cement. blech.  AND - I wasn't thinking and the downstairs of our house is all done in warm peachy neutrals. It's a very open floor plan so the blue was not cutting it. I went back for decorator white and here's the process of repainting. (sorry for the blown out window, it was the only way to show the blue wall)

So that was done but the trim still needed a 2nd coat of white. And the walls might too. I can't decided if I'm fixated and just seeing the blue because I'm looking for it. Or if I can really see it. Either way, I'm so annoyed that a 2/3 day job has stretched to 5.

If you are still with me - thanks! I'm done ranting. About painting. Here's what I need help with.

I've been sneaking in work on this pillow even though the sewing room is mostly packed up and I'm totally frustrated. This pattern is from the book Dare to Be Square by Boo Davis. I love this book, it's got some great patterns in it. And I think what's happening is totally my fault but I can't figure it out!

Here's the top in question. The blocks are assembled in rows from top to bottom. My problem is that nothing is lining up. The lines of blocks with the printed fabric were 1/2 inch longer than the solid blocks that run in between it.  I can't figure out why. I re-measured. I cut another set and put them together again with the same results. But I found someone on flickr who made it and had no problems. So it must be something I'm doing. Maybe my seams aren't a perfect 1/4 inch?
I finally got frustrated and just stretched it to fit. As you can see, the results are less than stellar. Above you can see how uneven my edges are. Below is a close up of the hot mess.

It's stretched, it's puckered and it's annoying the heck out of me. It still needs a border and a backing but I'm ready to just toss it and move on.

Have you had this happen? What did you do?  Do you think it can be saved with some creative quilting? I usually don't quilt my pillow tops, but maybe some quilting and a washing will hide this? Help!