So many questions and they have so many different answers! Basically, a crazy quilt is aptly named - breaks most of the rules. Because it can use such a variety of completely different types of fabric, using a foundation piece solves many of the problems that come up. Making smaller blocks makes it so much easier to work with. One of the easiest ways is to make them on muslin and do your decorative stitches on each block. Then, after you have put all the blocks together, you can do a basic quilting. I did a simple stitch 1" on each side of the 8" finished block seams. I found that with all the seams and the muslin , I did not want a heavy batting, I used a good quality cotton for the backing and it is plenty warm (and still fairly heavy). One thing I did that I rarely do is that I did prewash everything because of the variety of fabrics used. I wanted to include some unusual fabrics so I made a few rounds of the second hand shops and found some items of velvets, wools and laces to cut up. Most of the decorative stitches I did on the machine and a couple areas I did larger hand embroidered stitches to really show up. But, the point is that each block/piece will tell you what it needs to set it off. Just plan on it being a project that will take a very long time because you set it to the side and just work on it between other projects. Or it can get very overwhelming.