Made this baby blanket as a gift for baby R. Her nursery colors are pink & brown so that's how I selected my materials. The solid (uncut) giraffe fabric is a minky material (super soft, almost fur like). It can be messy to cut and tends to move a bit, but it actually helped hide the stitches of the chenille a lot more than regular material. Especially since my "straight" lines were less than straight at times. I used a trick (found here) of using painter's tape to help guide me every 4-5 rows. I noticed when I sewed slower, my lines were straighter, sounds so obvious now, but it's true.
Here's the tutorial I used:
http://www.aestheticnest.com/2010/08/sewing-heirloom-cut-chenille-baby.html
I really want to make a zig zag quilt for my living room now.