Mum's Photo Quilt Started ... sort of!

I have been working on the layout and I think I have cracked it finally. I don't have EQ or anything like it for designing so I am just using Publisher and it is ok so far. It might be a little bit more complicated when it comes to working out actual sizes of all the individual pieces though.
As mentioned previously it will be like a crossword puzzle and I spent 2 hours this afternoon marking up the WOW material I will be using to embroider the letters on to (125 in all). I also cut out about 160 blue blocks for the background of the 'puzzle' and now I just have to print out the photos. These will also have a narrow black frame to make them stand out a bit more. The quilt is going to be quite a bit bigger than I had originally planned, but I figure I don't want the photos to be 'lost' by making the quilt too small.
I am thinking of sewing up a sample first with a picture, the background and some letters just to make sure the blue I have chosen is not too dark. It is an oriental print which I love so I hope it is ok and I have decided to embroider the letters in a gunmetal grey and the quilt will end up with some sort of grey/blue border I think.
I have rarely used my embroidery machine since I got it about 2 years ago so I will take it to my sewing group tomorrow night and ask for some help from the other ladies. There are at lease 4 of them that have embroidery machines and use them all the time. Because I want this quilt finished by the time Mum visits at Easter I don't want to waste too much time fiddling by myself when they can show me what to do quickly.
I would like to start the letters tomorrow night and have them all finished by Wednesday night. Then I can spend Thursday printing all my photos onto fabric. This is another thing I haven't done before so it is going to be a complete learning curve, but I am really excited to try.
Well, it is still really warm here and I think I might shock my husband and suggest we go for a walk even though it is 9.45pm. Then it will be a fairly early night for me.
Keep safe and happy quilting