Sewnoma

I have only played with my machine on scraps and now want to use it "for real".

I'm making a quilt for a friend's daughter; I have a set of fairy embroidery patterns that I want to put onto blocks. The designs are sort of grouped into two sizes; roughly 5x5 and roughly 3x3. (None are bigger than 5x5 - they are made for a 5x7 hoop)

I am thinking 6" and 4" finished blocks will be about right? (I have yet to figure out a design but that'll be easy once I figure out the size of my pieces! I'm also thinking I want to do the blocks on point.)

So obviously I need a piece of fabric bigger than 5x7...Is something like 8x6 big enough? Or bigger? Is it best to cut blocks first and embroider each, then trim down to size? Or for the smaller blocks in particular, if I kind of chalk-out where my blocks will be cut, is it wise to sort of "chain embroider" them first and then cut the blocks apart? Seems like that'd waste less...

I looked for tutorials this morning but I must be looking in all the wrong places; I couldn't find anything to answer these questions!