Making a Quilt Step 1

I thought I'd go through for you how I make quilts.  I'm getting ready to make a quilt so...now is a good time to walk through the process.  Someone I know is having a baby and has asked for a quilt.  Since she is getting the sex of the baby, that means the quilt can be more tailored to a boy or a girl.  If not, I would stick with general baby colors and themes.  I was hoping she'd have a boy, so I could use baby dinosaurs. She's having a girl.  So no baby dinosaurs.

I've asked her if she has a theme for the nursery yet.  Bright green and purple.
So.  What I'm looking at now is girl appropriate fabrics that have green and purple in them.  I don't tend to go for baby fabrics, like bottles and nappies.  I still have my first quilt.  I slept with it until I was uhm. er.  well. uhm. Anyway.  la la la  I'm looking for a fabric that would be appropriate up until about age 5.

In terms of quilt size, I'm thinking a large lap size.  Midway between crib and twin.

Now I need to determine a pattern.  I prefer to choose the pattern and the fabric simultaneously if I don't have one in mind.  I tend to believe that some fabric lends itself to certain patterns over others.  A fabric that has big prints on it needs big blocks.  Then sometimes I have a pattern and am looking for fabrics to fit the pattern.

Right now I'm searching through fabric websites.  I'm trying to decide if I want there to be animals or dots or stars or what have you.