I go with what catches my eye and also if making for someone in particular, such as a teenage artsy granddaughter, something that would definitely catch her eye. GD is graduating this summer. She's not into reds, orange or yellow. Not into the cutesy country quilts but still loves the scrappys. They give her ideas for her different designs. i'm leaning toward some optical illusion designs. I found a material that looks like a mixture of oil and water. Like after a rain and the sun is out when you see the oil and rain trying to mix in a puddle but doesn't . It's a real pretty print. Has purple, green, blue, and kind of a magenta with a very, very fine thread of yellow that looks like a metallic gold. Found it at JoAnn's. I picked other fabrics that I thought would compliment that. For a strong contrast, I found a white print that also had a light blue and green. We'll see. It probably won't be finished for her graduation but she will get shortly after.