I made a mostly-plaid quilt for my husband's grandfather, and I just sort of made it up as I went. I made the center medallion and then just pieced rows around it, each one different depending on what I felt like doing. I didn't worry about grain so much, and a lot of the patches aren't exactly on the grain.
There are four paper-pieced plane blocks at the corners of one of the rows, which I made to commemorate his time in the Air Force in WWII.
He really enjoyed the quilt, and I was happy with how it turned out, too.