I grew up with a seamstress for a mother who made all our clothes and bought fabric because it was pretty not necessarily with a planned pattern. She was self taught because my GM didn't allow the daughters to cut the fabric because "they might mess it up and there was no $$ to buy more". I never knew till I was an adult that my GM quilted and that my mother knew how...she never made a quilt while I was growing up.
I learned about quilting from history classes in school and wanted to make a "pretty one" not one of just squares...my first attempt was the Hexagonal Wreath appliquéd quilt.... Never have finished that quilt...