Rona,
don’t be discouraged, you have great ideas in the works.
I like the left side of the narrow horizontal band, where you have the yellow and grey-blue stitching – why not adding that to the other sections of the band, too?
The same thing with the black and grey-blue stitching in the lower middle band. Adding black increases contrast and reduces “blandness”.
I definitely think you need to add small circles or half-circles to the left side, otherwise the current band flows around there without being attached to “anything”.

I hope you don’t mind these suggestions, as I understood that you want feedback, to continue your WIP.