My first quilt was a rail fence that I made in a class. It is a really simple pattern. My seams were so crooked but the quilt still went together and it looked really good when I finished. You could not tell how bad my seams were. So that would be my suggestion for a pattern As far as supplies, I taught a sewing class at a local non-profit for a while and we asked the community for donations. We got so much fabric and batting that we couldn't even use it all. We made up flyers lissting the items we were looking for and posted them whereever people would let us.
There is a site called Freecycle that is used for recycling items. You can put up things you want to donate or things that you need as well. It is organized by city. I only used it once, to donate clothes, but it was a good experience