Emma's Quilt update

So, in the end I decided that the magentas were too busy and not matching enough with the front of the quilt. There is so much going on in all the lovely blocks in the front that I didn't want to take away from it. I'm sure Emma has years of magenta sewing requests ahead of her, so I'm not too worried. Instead, I opted for using big cuts of three fabrics:

The green is my favorite print from the Lantern Bloom collection, and this is the only metre I have. The purple is by one of my favorite designers, Tina Givens, and I can't remember the name of the collection. I actually ordered this piece to make a purple, tuquoise and green picnic quilt, but I loved this fabric so much I opted to keep it instead. The pink butterflies are from MoMo's Wonderland. I have a few half yard cream cuts, and this is one of my favorites. Anyway, it is still bright and colourful, but it works better.

I had a few thoughts about quilting this. First I thought I was going to follow some of the squares in each block, but so many of them are wonky (at my request) or pieced out of lots of lovely little bits, that I decided against it. Then I was going to machine quilt it in straight, narrow lines, but again, I didn't want to take away from what's already there. So I've opted to hand quilt it -- my second attempt ever. I tried it for part of this quilt way back in my early quilting days, but it took a long time to hand quilt around all those fish, so I haven't tried again since.
I chose this nice, bright blue thread. This colour looks great on Emma, and it really pops against the oranges and pinks in this quilt, which I think is fun. So far the hand quilting is half-done. I'm quilting this to Victorian-themed movies. Last night was Alice in Wonderland, tonight (or possibly tomorrow night) is The Young Victoria.

Speaking of which, why is Victorian England so cool all of a sudden? Not only those two movies, but also Sherlock Holmes this year in the movies, plus Steampunks, and all those ruffles and high necklines drifting around . . . I wonder what is resonating with people about Victorian England? A return to propriety? A fun era to make films about subverting authority and structure? Cool fingerless gloves? The last era where men looked really dapper? A flowering of arts and technology? Is Victorian England pre- or post-industrial (I can't remember)? What do you think?