I've been making barn quilts now for about two and half years, and in all that time the patterns used have been common patterns used in quilting.  The Lemoyne Star, Mariner's Compass, Christmas Star and Double Aster come to mind.  A co-worker of mine saw some of my barn quilts and wanted me to make a 1' x 1' barn quilt for her son for his birthday.  He is half Puerto Rican and half Irish!  She wanted something that would reflect his two nationalities.  What to come up with?  At first I thought that I would have a shamrock as the background, with the Puerto Rican flag set inside it.  I rejected that idea.  Then I thought that the flag covering the entire board and placing the shamrock inside the flag might work out.  I didn't like the idea of distorting the flag to fit the board.

I then came up with the idea of painting the flag, with the board hanging 'on point' and replacing the star from the flag with the shamrock.  This is the result of that.

She loved it!!  The process of placing the star with the shamrock was simple.  Before I applying the blue to the flag, I placed my painter's tape over that spot, while it was covered with the primer/sealer.  I then printed out a line drawing of a shamrock from my computer, cut it out and placed the shamrock over the tape.  With an exacto knife I traced around the shamrock, removed the cut out edges of the tape and what was left was the image of the shamrock.  I proceed to apply the blue paint over the area.  I then removed that tape and the image of the shamrock was left.  I then, free-hand painted the shamrock in two shades of green.
I think I've created a theme.  Another co-worker of mine, who also is Puerto Rican, has a son who half British!!!!!!!  I'm working on an idea for that at the moment.  I'll keep you posted!!