I took (some of) your advice :)

I ended up going with the pearl lavender background fabric.

It desperately needs to be ironed!

I do like the color...so thanks for your input.

I ended up using my machine to stitch applique them directly to the fabric.  It's about the size of a lap quilt.  I'm thinking of actually hand quilting this one since it's not too big...

These are really fun to make, though very time consuming.  I'm thinking that they would be striking as pillows and so satisfying to finish!