And yet another piece of advice - do try a D9P - the results are awesome and you only need 1 background color, 2 in either the same color family or contrasting and one that should pop off the quilt (the center 9 patch square). It an easy quilt to make, looks a lot harder than it is and will quickly teach you about strip piecing, bookmarking and matching seams and cutting accurately. Becasue it goes together fast, you also get some quick gratification.
As far as color goes, I pick one fabric I like and then pick a color from it to use as my 'inspiration'. I pick the remainder of the colors I need based off that inspiration color - ones that either go with it or contrast it.