Sometimes the most obvious solutions escape me...and you are right, the best approach is often the direct approach.
My problem is my wanting to wrap my head about a concept as much as it is making a product and that frequently requires buying several books and possibly patterns. My reluctance is less about the money, although a consideration, and more about building that one challenging quilt, adding my personality to the end product and that being more than picking a unique pallet of fabrics and not adding a huge amount of research to a future garage sale. Another respondent here mentioned that she had a hard time expanding a bargello and thought it might be just her, but I suspect bargellos, like many quilts, have their own set of challenges and there is more to it than buying D. Lockwood's design and expanding the 45" inch square outwards. I did the medallion thing with borders galore with my Jacqueline De Jonge avatar and it worked, but I was hoping that once you start it become intuitive and I do not have to do the border approach again.