abbieb

I have about a million questions for you wise ones before I undertake my next project. It is actually a UFO of my mom's (she's a cross-stitcher, not a quilter) that I offered to hand quilt. Here are a few pics:

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I don't have any of the original instructions, so I'm pretty clueless. Will the blue lines wash out? If so, should I wait to try to wash the orange spots off until after it's quilted? What's the best way to get rid of them?

Do you think the blocks are meant to be separated by sashing? I really don't want to cut it up. Will it look ok as all one piece?

I think I would like to use white flannel as the batting and a more colorful, matching flannel for the backing. Is there any reason this would be a problem? Is flannel difficult to hand quilt? Can I use cheap Joann's flannel on the inside and nice LQS flannel on the outside? Would it be a problem to wash and dry (shrink) the flannel before quilting but not the top?

I'm planning to follow the quilting designs as marked (a square around the embroidery and then hearts outside of that), but do you think that's sufficient? I don't want to quilt over the embroidered parts but they are fairly large, so I want them to be secure. The embroidery is 11.5x8 inches and the entire top is about 35x40.

Thanks in advance for all your help!