My maternal grandmother was a quilter, both because it was her creative outlet (I believe) and because, with eight children in the house, she needed the quilts! I'm sure her mother also made quilts and I know that other women in her family -- her aunts and nieces -- sewed and made quilts. One of my mother's cousins made a quilt for my first born which I still have. My own mother worked all her life and didn't sew at all, though she did make one quilt as a girl, because it was expected, I think, and which I now have and treasure. I seem to have inherited the domestic skills that skipped my mother, who, in a different era and with different opportunities, would have been a professional career woman. As it was, she just "had a job" for forty years! She took great pleasure in my interest in sewing and I know she would have loved my becoming a quiltmaker.
My paternal grandmother sewed beautifully -- was very talented -- and so I assume she made quilts, too, as most women of her generation did, but if so, she apparently took no pride in it -- I never saw a quilt she made -- and stopped as soon as she could afford to buy blankets. Born and raised in the country, she definitely preferred city life and store bought things! Her daughter (my aunt) was also a skilled seamstress and made many household items -- I remember curtains she made for my grandmother that looked professionally done -- but I don't think she made quilts....probably for the same reason -- she preferred blankets. In those early days, home made quilts indicated a family was too poor to buy blankets and many women hoped to avoid that stigma, I think.
Interesting question - thanks for posting it!