My first quilt I received was 16 squares made of my wool and polyester and silky type dresses and coats for my doll. Made with love by my grandma, who showed me how to cut and sew and tie a quilt. Still have it, although it is shredded from all the washing.
The first one I made was while I was in high school. It is a one quilt block quilt called "Flaming Star" (sort of like the center of a Lone Star) that I found in a 1955 Quilt magazine at the Library. The magazine was doing a review of all known quilt block patterns at that time, so I took a photocopy of the blocks (the magazine was over 20 years old at the time and there were not the quilt block reference books there are at this time).
The pattern was a one inch square photo of what the quilt block looked like. I took the photo, blew it up 100x to turn the block into a 100" square quilt. All the pieces were cut by hand without a template (since it was back in the day when there were no rotary cutters). I just used my math skills to figure out the correct angles. Purchased WAY too much material when I tried to figure out what I would need to make the quilt. Sewed the all solids cotton/poly blend material with old 100% cotton thread. Used an old polyester king size blanket for my batting, and tied it every 15" or so with the help of my grandma (same one who gave me the doll quilt).
Still have it and use it, but it's heavier than ***@! Of course, when I went to start using it, the seams immediately started popping because the thread was old and there was no support from any quilting, so I started to try to use invisible stitches in matching embroidery thread to fix it, which didn't work! The stitches showed horribly. The quilt material is in excellent condition, except for the seams connecting over half of the pieces. Because my grandma passed away many years ago, I've been reluctant to tear it apart and do it right.