I've loved reading all these memories, too.
My own earliest memories of "quilts" was sitting at my grandma's feet playing in her basket of little fabric squares while she sewed them together into rows. They were tiny squares--must have been postage-stamp. She cut up every piece of old clothing into scraps for quilting. I don't remember any actual quilts she made, although I do remember she had one on her bed for the winter. I would spend time at her house during summer vacation,and I was always amazed at all the "old-time" things she did. Her tiny house sat on an acre of fruit trees, and she canned like mad. I've never come across any as good as my grandma's canned peaches!
She also sewed everything she wore. She was so talented that she could go to a store, look at a dress, go home, make a pattern, and duplicate it exactly. She was a no-nonsense woman of Scots-Irish descent who had raised two boys pretty much on her own and didn't really have that much patience for teaching. That is unfortunate because I wish I had had the sense to "pester" her to teach me her skills before she passed in the mid-70s. I don't know what happened to any finished quilts of UFO that she had because her other son (my father's brother) swept in when she passed and took most of her things out of state with him.
I did inherit her 1923 Singer, once a treadle but my step-uncle put a motor on it for her when she tired of pumping. That machine, which my DH keeps bugging me to "get rid of" because with my cheap-o Kenmore I obviously don't "need it," is quite a bulldog--I sewed over several layers of denim with it, no problem. Used to be quite a chore to get to the end of a garment and have to turn the whole thing around to backstitch--it only went forward!
Thanks for sparking these memories.