I have a very dear friend who found out last week her husband has cancer. He beat colon cancer a few years back but now it is in his liver, which they figure came from the original cancer. He will be going through chemo to shrink the softball size tumor so it can be removed surgically. If all goes well, the doctor said he has another good 10-15 years at least. They have a horse farm and I wanted to make a lap quilt for him to use while going through treatments etc.
I found this horse panel on ebay and fell in love with it. Very realistic to me. My problem is trying to decide what pattern to do around the main panel to enlarge it. The main panel is 25 1/2"x 18 1/2" Then I thought I would take the smaller picture's which are 6"x6", frame them out for the 4 corners. I will have 2 small picture's left so I will either frame them to put down the sides or leave them out.
Should I do a D9P, D4P, 4 patch,9 patch totally different pattern than these make it bigger? I think you get the idea. Any help, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Now let's see if I can get these picture's loaded. This is a first for me on this site.
Thank you all in advance.

I show a Fons and Porter show where they used a panel and made window frames around the smaller photos. I hope you find something that you like. It is a beautiful. I will pray for your friends quick recovery. :)

If you're putting a boarder around each picture I think 9 Patch blocks might be a good way to fill in to make the quilt larger. May in Jersey

I love the panelo you chose. D9P would be really nice using some of the colors in the horse pictures. It's a very thoughtful thing to do. Best of luck to your friend. I'll keep him in my prayers.

Small pics in center of each longer side of the quilt, as well as in the corners. I think I would choose fabrics with clouds, grass, and woodgrain for the additional blocks.

Boy are you all fast with responses. :) I actually got this in the mail about 2 hours ago and haven't cut it apart yet. I bought 2 of these panels with the thought of making my friend one also but of course more feminine.
I have not actually met this person face to face, but the way we met- she is a chemo angel. When my sister was diagnoised with breast cancer in 2003 I put in for a chemo angel for her. Janet is that angel. She has met my sister and my parents when she was in Fl where my parents lived before they passed in 2009. My sister was there for a visit at that time from GA. Janet and I will get together one day, we just keep missing each other in Fl. She started out as my sisters angel but she has been my "Angel" since day 1.

I dont know how much this will help but here is what I did in a similar situation:

This is a very pretty quilt!!
And I was thinking of a simular pattern/design for the horses.
Good luck

:D

Just a couple of suggestions since this will be used for chemo/hospital visits. Make sure there is a label with his name on it, incase it gets into the hospital laundry. And dont make it too big, or too heavy. After my surgeries it was uncomfortable to have anything heavy on my incision, and it was difficult for me to pull the heavier quilts on me. Thanks for making this quilt for him, I am sure he will love it.

Here's links to some panel quilts I found using the search function (just put in the word 'panel') Hope these give you some ideas.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-95047-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-84237-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-38713-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-98005-1.htm