A couple of months ago we had a lecturer at our Guild who talked about the history of quilting. Of course, being me, I don't remember details like where it started, but it seems the first inroads towards quilting was mending, patching torn garments. People being people (women being women) some one decided that if it had to be patched it should/could be done in an in-you-face pretty way. It probably didn't take long before patches took over. Think how many blankets would be made if you could only use one fabric, and how many could be made if you could use several fabrics in one blanket. There have been a lot written about this subject, and I suspect you could google "history of quilting" and find out a lot.