If you can believe it, the talent is actually blood, sweat, and tears. Lot and lots of tears.
I was always jealous of people who could draw or paint because I could do neither. Still can't. I couldn't even color inside the lines...as an adult.
Over the years I tried all kinds of artistic and crafty endeavors, usually sucking at most of them. Then about 10 years ago I forced myself to learn to sew properly (I failed that portion of home ec in school) and making quilts just spoke to me.
My first quilts were quite the eye sore, but they are warm and useful. The rest has just been practice, practice, practice.