Welcome from the left coast of Seattle!
I don't do handwork myself, no patience and bad vision combine to thwart me. One of the ladies I used to know did a lot of redwork and I learned quite a bit from her.
I have a 1970s set of cross-stitched blocks that I picked up at the thrift store for next to nothing waiting to be turned into a quilt. They are a blocky large design of what I would call a tulip star, blocks finish maybe 16". Mostly variegated earth tones. I have some fabric from the 70s I'll be using as sashing along with some modern red.
I'm rather concerned about the quality of the stamped fabric and was going to to most of the quilting down before I attach the blocks to the batting, basically a quilt as you go method to help reinforce and stabilize the rather flimsy fabric -- do you have any suggestions for me?