marking whole-cloth quilt

I am almost half way finished with marking all the 12" blocks for a whole cloth quilt! I love traditional whole cloth work, but portability is a major issue, too, so I'm making it in blocks which I will connect with 1" sashing when they are finished. (I actually got all the blocks and batting cut several weeks ago, but wouldn't get out the stencils and begin marking until the last quilt was finished and on the bed in the guest room.) For this quilt the blocks are the traditional white, but the stitching itself will be in a dark blue, and the sashing in a deep cranberry. All the stitch patterns will be different, so there will be 40 different blocks. I admit to being a complete heretic as to marking the blocks -- I use a plain old No. 2 pencil! I find that if I mark lightly the pencil washes out, and I slip large squares of waxed paper between the blocks as they sit in piles to be stitched, so the pencil doesn't smear or disappear. As soon as the marking is finished I'll begin basting, with basting running about every 1" to 2" around and across the face of each block, and then a line of basting about 1/3" from the edge all the way around in stitches about 1/4", which keeps everything in place nicely for stitching and protects the edges. Another bit of heresy is that I don't use a frame or a hoop at all, but I don't like messing with them and get excellent results anyway. This quilt is the 4th in a group of twin bed size whole cloth quilts I am making, and will be the last if a niece and her husband have decided their family is now complete -- I want each great niece and great nephew to have a quilt someday. Each quilt is the same in that each has white blocks stitched in colored thread and sashed with another color, and each has all different blocks so there are no repeats within any quilt -- although there are probably some repeats from one quilt to another. The colors for the stitching and the sashing are all different, too. As to which child gets which quilt, that is something they can decide among themselves someday. In the meantime, I have the finished quilts, along with lots of other quilts, all spread out one on top of the other on a bed in the large quest room, and the entire pile covered with a quilt that serves as a bedspread, which keeps them all clean and fold-free.