My mother made our clothes, but did not have time for quilting. I don't know about the ancestors. I do remember some templates and a small collection of cut-out fabric pieces we used to play with in the attic. I'm sure my mother told me who cut them out, but I have forgotten. She did encourage my sister and me to use the templates and cut out some more and she would show us how to sew them together, but that seemed like so terribly much work.
Fast forward several decades and here I am a quilter. Thank goodness for rotary cutters. I never would be doing this if we had to use those old templates for everything.