Playing With the Nine-Patch

I wanted to use a simple traditional block in my Western Front quilt - the colours weren't so important, as I will be 'embellishing' after doing the quilting. But I wanted something more than the 9-patch.

This doesn't look very exciting does it? - and I haven't a lot of room to make an impact.
So I added a narrow border of stripes:

Then cut it into 4 (that's what you do as a patchworker, right?):

Then played around with the arrangement:

option #1

option #2

option #3

option #4

option #5

option #6 - my choice

Then I stitched the blocks on-point so they look like this:

A simple 9-patch, plus a narrow border, cut it up and look at the options!
Fun!