I made my Dad and Stepmom a beautiful quilt for Christmas. I took some fabric that had 6" squares of birds in a repeating pattern (Christmasy birds like cardinals) very ornate looking fabric with metallic gold swirlies and all. Anyway I backed it with a green Christmas stripe fabric, I FMQ'd each and every box of birds and it looked just like I had set each one when I was done. They probably had no idea. I loved it, if I had more fabric I would have made one for myself.
Panels are awesome. I use them alot when I'm not in the mood for messing with stuff.