Are you going to use sashing between the blocks? Sometimes, when I do something like this with sashing, I match the color of the sashing to do the applique. I have also heard to use the background color (in this case - white) as the applique color. I have not done that so can't say what it will look like. Do you have any extra you can experiment with?
It's going to be a darling quilt and I know some little guy will love it!