Thanks for the kind words everyone.
Yes, QE, done before Thanksgiving! And such big squares to work with!
Anael, as I said, the backing held me up. I had a couple more 9P's but ran out of the white fabric (all the same throughout the quilt) and I was just anal enough not to know what to do. When I pulled it out to get it done, it dawned on me that I could "float" the ends of the strip with backing fabric---duh..took me 4 years to figure it out.
ManiacQ2, my 5 yo GD is getting this for Christmas. I have enough of the floral fabric to make a pillowcase. I was wondering how to make it special and voila why not a strip of 9P's across the bottom. Now to see if I have any of the similar fabrics to make a couple more. As QE mentioned this is not my normal color selection.