If I am making a quilt to give to someone I don't know, I start with the fabric, usually from my stash. Never use patterns (except ones I make, as for a landscape quilt, or the dragon I'm doing now). I start most of my quilts by thinking about the person to whom it will go. I buy fabric because I really like it, because it makes me think of someone for whom a quilt is due, because I need it (as in little boy fabric with neat pictures for a new baby), or because it will be good to fill out a quilt I've begun. Right now I am amassing fabrics for a wedding quilt which will be, somehow, an ocean scene. I always start with my stash because these are fabrics that I really like (well, a few because they were on sale and are tones I "know" I will use). Yes, I do have a lot of smaller pieces in my stash because I overbuy (to be sure I have enough) but as time goes by they tend to get used. I have to bring myself to do a scrap quilt!