It depends on the fabric, I have a tiny little black moo... on white I've used as a black/white and as a lined fabric.
I have good success thinking in terms of a crossword puzzle -- that black with the colors as 9-patches and sashing.
One of my regular donation blankets is an alphabet quilt. I start out with a 8" (finished) square of fabric for each letter -- so A is for Apple, B is for Bear, etc. When I quilt it together, I have outlines of each letter so there is a big A, B, quilted into the fabric. If you set them 5 x 6 for 30 squares, that means you need a placer for each corner. I'm always looking for alphabet fabric sorts of things for the borders. The quilt below was a lap quilt for a friend who was retiring from teaching, much of that as an English teacher so I had books and story time.