Freeform vs Structured

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about making my first quilt. So much that some nights, the many possible configurations, patterns and colours floating around in my head keep me awake. It's like I've started playing Tetris again - I was so addicted to the game in my 20s that I dreamt often of fitting moving tiles into the best available slot. Haha.

Do I take the traditional route of joining squares or triangles or hexagons? Rigid shapes with exacting measurements that allow no leeway for fuck-ups? A challenge! Woo!

Or do I go down the wacky path? With no fixed pattern drawn up and joining pieces of fabric of different shapes and sizes by "feel", freeform-ing it all the way until I hit a queen-size rectangle?

See these ass-patching that I've done on various pairs of our old shorts over the years? I've really enjoyed making the "pattern" up as I went along. So maybe the less structured and thus more forgiving (when mistakes are unintentionally made) method is the way to go for a novice? And, planning for the future, if I actually complete a quilt and have it for life, when repairs might have to be made, I can patch it Japanese boro-style without fear of wrecking the consistency in pattern because there isn't one! Haha. Yes? No? Advice? Maybe I need to sleep on it (wahahaha!) a little bit more. And then there's the colourway question to be answered! Arggghhhh!