Love reading this thread. I've learned most of what I know about quilting from this board.
I've been sewing since I was about 10 years old. At high school age, I made clothes for myself, my dolls, my sisters, and my sisters' friends.
I wanted to crochet that beautiful doily. It said, "Not for beginners." I got it done.
I wanted to learn to tat. I learned it from the book, and have made hundreds of snowflakes.
When I married, I got the wooden bushel basket full of the scraps from my past sewing. While milking cows, I would think about that pile of scraps, trying to figure out how to put them together into a quilt. After a few weeks of thinking about it, I started sewing them together. Just sew two together, add another, add another, etc. I ended up with an elephant. But I finished it. I didn't know you need to make blocks out of those scraps and sew them together. I had just one big piece. And every seam was sewn over with a decorative stitch in black. That was about 1970.
I've learned a lot since then! ! ! !