I did a wildlife with lots of bears, deer, wolves, pine trees, ect. Found some of my designs in children colorbooks and made trip to Library as well. I used applique method with the iron on sticky stuff and then went around the designs with the machine buttonhole stitch. First time I matched thread to the item but...second time I used black, also charcoal would do nicely. I prefer the black.
The background would look well in heavy muslin but I used various cottons in shades of tans, light to medium with the darker between the blocks. I encased the blocks with brown and green. This type quilt can be whatever you imagine because you just cannot mess with Mother Nature and do it wrong.
Also I liked it so well I did 10 sweatshirts with the bear, 3 different size pinetrees and a lame gold sun. Shirts were in grey, tan, black, white but I liked the gray the best.