Talked to my son to see if he remembered what we ended up doing with this quilt...turns out we did a little of both.
The original pattern is from a book by Billie Lauder called "One More Loop with Billie, Another Look at Bargello Quilts". I used the pattern for her Basic Seven Fabric Quilt. She gives additional fabric info if you want a longer quilt and mine ended up using 11 fabrics. We also wanted a wider quilt so I reversed the pattern to get the double point in the middle.
Her instructions, measurements, and techniques are precise and pretty easy to follow. I didn't find any discrepancies with the pattern and it was much easier to do than had thought a bargello would be.