Irishrose, first off what a lovely granddaughter and lovely quilt!
For your background issues, it all depends on how many blocks you have made and how many more you want. I'd suggest doing an outer row all around (which turns out to be about the same number of blocks as in the inside) with the matching ones inside, and the completely opposite around the edges. You might even want to make it a totally different color like a light blue so it's sure to be noticed. You can checkerboard the pieces as well, or make them into columns with a couple of rows of the alternate fabric.
On my recent purple project I ran out of the background I was using in my border blocks because of bad cuts from when I bought it. Isn't it amazing how they can cut it one angle on one side and the opposite angle on the other side... I was one 2.5" WoF short! I used a very similar style of print but the white on white is quite a bit brighter. Although I only needed two blocks, I made the four corner blocks all the same and am happy that I didn't buy a bigger piece so they would all be consistent but used up my scraps.
Edit/PS: Continuing work on the Wonky Bright project. Finished the second set of 70 3-patch units. Today I have to cut again for the last set. I am getting quite a bit free-er as I go along and I'm using up the bag of scraps like crazy but I have a nice bundle of stuff for my crumb quilter. I'm going to keep with the right angles and no skewed ones while sewing.
Last edited by Iceblossom; 05-23-2019 at 06:46 AM.