Love your story and your quilt!! Here is mine-
my momma has always sewn. She made all of our clothes and I vividly remember my daddy buying her a brand new singer when I was 11. At the time, it was cutting edge all of $597 and it was a family decision.
Anyway, hanging out with momma, I played with her treadle machine, and eventually began sewing. Momma even created a brand new 4h club that focused on-you guessed it-sewing!
During the same time, I would spend a week with my grandmother who was from Mexico. She had created a Sunbonnet Sue in faded colors (flour sacks and calicos) with pale pink borders and binding. I would sit with her and watch her braid her long floor length braids every night, and when I would trace my fingers over the small hand stiches, she would tell me what ranch or part of Mexico she had been in. I just thought it was magical. Amazingly my mother never really quilted, but when I was grown and married, I purchased a $99 machine which I still use, and self taught myself. It is only this year that I have actually begun organizing myself to actually learn pattern names, methods, etc. I am a former teacher, and every year would have a unit on math and wlting and would make big squared blocks, but nothing very fancy. Since then, I have made quilts for my daughter, granddaughters, special friends, and so on. I love making memoreis for them, and myself as well.