I, too, remember seeing a ruffled patch in a quilt just a few days ago, but can't remember where.
So I'll try to tell you what seemed to stick in my mind.
Make a 9-patch, but cut the center square an inch wider. (If you cut eight squares 4 X 4, cut the center square 4 X 5.) Ruffle the two longer sides of the rectangle and finish the 9-patch with the ruffled square in the center.
Hope you can make sense of this. I was quite fascinated by that, and hope you can figure it out.