HI-- the first link is my quilt! I'm flattered. Thanks for linking to it!! This floral quick quarter quilt was made for an auction!
I used to work at QIAD, for almost 6 years. I have made many of these quilts and two of the quilts I have made with this pattern are in Eleanor's book, Quick Trips!!
this one is in the book:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7230833...7608109553870/
Anyway, this pattern is actually easy to make and soo sooo fun. Whenever I have made this pattern, first thing I do is I cut at least one of the strips needed for the size you are making, of each color of fabric you intend to use. Then lay out all these strips to see which placement looks the best.
You usually would want to have equal amounts of "lights" "mediums" and "darks." You don't want all lights then mediums then darks. It is better to mix up the lights, mediums and darks so that the darks are spread evenly throughout the quilt top.
Progression of colors isn't as important as the fact that whatever strips touch each other go well with each other; ex: fab 1 fab2 and fab3 go well together and look good next to one another; then fab2 fab3 fab4 go together, etc.
If there are one or two fabrics that you would like to see repeat the most, then you would want to place it (them) between the 9th and the 12th strips.
Remember that the last fabric will touch the first fabric so they also need to go together.
Have fun with it and remember that it needs to look the best to you. Hope my suggestions help you.
Feel free to post here or PM me any further questions and I will see if I can help.