Thought some of you who helped advise me so many months ago might appreciate seeing I'm making SOME progress on this beast of a project. I keep setting it aside because I remain unhappy with it. Mostly with the quality of my work. I still don't know if I'm going to send this to its intended recipient.
I am following Sharon Shamber's basting technique found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwNylePFAA
I made the boards; they're VERY helpful. But here's a photo, with my quilt inspector inspecting the basting.