When I started quilting, I couldn't afford to go out and buy enough fabric for a quilt from a quilt shop. I think it would still probably give me a heart attack to buy $200 or $300 worth of material at once for one quilt.
I am now buying more LQS fabric, but still don't really follow patterns per se. My first 5 or 6 quilts were scrappy log cabins. I'm doing a scrappy GFG right now for my hand quilting project. It's fun just grabbing bits of fabric and sewing them together.