these are great suggestions. I have one of the bella bella books on order. (I also have an Italian friend for whom I want to make a quilt based on Italian tile designs, which prompted the purchase of the bella bella book, but thanks... I'll consider it for this project as well.)
The other thing that occurred to me was to make a quilt based on the design of a rug. I attach a few images I found that might be "quilt-convertable". AND this also made me think that a OBW might actually work out as an interior section of the quilt with some sort of lovely border around....
(Isn't Google Great?)
-- Jillaine
P.S. on the sensitivity issue: yes, I'm very aware of this need. The purchaser of this quilt, though, would be an upper middle class white Quaker living in a well-off county in Maryland. ;-)