All my quilts are given as gifts. What I do is slyly ask their favorite colors, style, etc. Then down the road I made a quilt with these specifics that way they're not the wiser as they've forgotten I even asked them months/years ago. Right now I'm working on a quilt for a couple at my congregation. I asked the hubby what his wife's favorite colors are and style. He told me browns and blues, absolutely no lime greens or florals which was a hard one as so many of our fabrics seem to have flowers on them somewhere. But I'm working on Bonnie Hunter's Smith Mountain and I made the mistake of counting how many pieces to it. I enlarged the pattern to make it 108 x 108 and rearranged some of it. Still trimming all the little sections which I hate............TRIMMING is the most boring job of making quilts in my opinion for what its worth.