Good for you Candi - I love to see people trying something here that that they wouldn't have ever considered on their own. It happened with the DJ quilt, and though some are still struggling to finish because life got in the way, they don't seemed to have got discouraged.
I hope the same will happen with this quilt, don't forget it still hasn't officially started, so we will soon be having more blocks being posted, and I am sooooo looking forward to that.
Your blocks look lovely, and not a boo boo in site. I use a similar method to you for my circles, but in their case, I just gather them, rather than clip. Then I iron them to set the gathers, before allowing them to cool, and then stitching on. I rarely get problems with them doing them that way.