John - depending on where you live I bet a quilter would love to help you out with this project - If you lived near me you could come over and I would help out. You might have already had a lot of offers... Crafty folk have big hearts ;)
If you go the paper route - contact a local newspaper and ask if they give the paper "stubs" away - it's the end bit left on their monster rolls that they usually give away for free - it's newspaper so it would tear nicely and really wide so you'd be able to piece together the size you need super fast.