What a lovely gift.
I think you could do it as a quilt as you go. Reading her general instructions on her website, I think the intention is to fuse the blocks, then sew all of the blocks together, then make your quilt sandwich and then free motion quilt . I think that she stitches down her edges at the quilting stage instead of fuse, applique stitch and then quilt.
I have one of her patterns and I will fuse, applique stitch and then make my quilt sandwich. It will look a bit different from hers.