No you are not bitting off more than you can chew. As to panto like designs. The stencil manufacturers have plastic stencils in the continuous line panto type that can be continued for the design. Search their web sites. They probably will be in a category for "background continuous line" designs. Using these with the Miracle Chalk pounce type marking makes it a breeze to mark and then quilt. You only need to mark a bit at the time.