Dear Barb, Yes, I understand about visuals, I too, find drawing a sketch or taking a picture helps me. Let me refer you to a picture under the June Doll Quilt 13, where my partner barbsbus posted a picture on July 2 of the doll quilt I sent her.
It is a disappearing 9 patch made with 4 dark, 4 light, and a common yellow center square for each of the four blocks to make the doll quilt. I just turned each fourth of each cut up block so the yellows matched into either a 2 patch or 4 patch. The neat thing about using a common center square is the outside could be any combination of fabrics and the center unifies it.
Make sense to you, if not I will try to describe it another way. Kathy in Colo