Jenel....now this is just my opinion...first if youve never appliqued before why would you want to start with a project thats going to be so awkward for you?......applique is very time consuming if you do it by hand.....if you machine applique this might work out for you but.....why would you want to do this to a comforter thats 15 yrs old?
If anything why dont you cut it up into sections and maybe make a small quilt/comforter top for a crib maybe or just to practice learning to do applique do some small/mini quilts with it until you become comfortable with applique...again this is just my opinion......I hope I didnt offend you in anyway....but applique can be so much fun but when you get into something large its tricky.....Good luck with whatever you choose to do......Trish