YES -- I also learned machine quilting from Harriet. She was a fantastic teacher, and I loved her accent. She didn't wash fabrics—she WORSHED them. Her accent was great!!
I find the modern history of quilting fascinating, and I have a few more pictures to share today. It needs to be documented somewhere, and I feel that posting it here is a start.
Let's look at some quilting styles. Who remembers the sampler quilt? Well, it's still a popular way to learn different techniques, but it was HUGE back in the day. And don't you love those colors? The one with the circles is kind of unique.
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| Sampler quilts |
If you think English Paper Piecing is new or was invented by certain modern quilters, think again. This technique has been around for a long time. It was "invented" in England in the 1770s. The technique's popularity has come and gone, but it's become increasingly popular today. What was old is new again!!
One of the most popular patterns of the English Paper Piecing method was Grandmother's Flower Garden. The size of the hexagons may have been different, but the pattern was widespread.
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| Grandmother's Flower Garden |
Here's an Amish Wagon Wheel done with the hexagons.
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| Amish Wagon Wheel |
There's that Dresden Plate, which has also been around for a long time. And there's another version of English Paper Piecing with basket blocks.
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| Another version of English Paper Piecing |
Many old patterns in these magazines were in black and white and printed on newsprint.
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| Magazine photos in black and white |
There's one of my favorite prints—at least when I started to quilt—a border print made very famous by Jinny Beyer. Yep—another very famous and innovative quilter, who is retired now. I don't think this is one of Jinny's prints, but she designed many of them.
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| Border prints |
OK -- so what about quilted clothing? Yep -- it was huge, and Fairfield hosted a fashion show at the big show in Houston, and The Hobby Horse used to host a fashion show in the Toronto area as well. That was coming to an end about the time I started to quilt, although I remember that M was supposed to be a model for a jacket or a pair of overalls, and she was sick in the car on the way to the show. All was good, but yep -- I'd forgotten about that incident!
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| Quilted fashion |
Pictorial quilts have changed a lot as well. Look at the simplicity of some of the creations.
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| Simplistic pictorial quilt |
Here's another very simplistic one with dinosaurs. While I truly appreciate all the complexity of the new styles, sometimes simple is good!! Today's pictorial quilts have definitely artistically upped the game.
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| Simple pictorial quilts |
What about the colors? Remember the color cheddar --- this was a huge color combo.
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| The cheddar era |
And then, let's remember the country/floral look.
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| Country floral look |
Of course, scrap quilts were all the rage and still are today. But here's a scrappy bargello that reminds me of the Bonnie Hunter scrappy bargello. Yep—nothing is new!!!
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| Scrappy bargello |
And what about the modern quilts? Modern quilts are NOT new. This one is very modern looking, yet it was published in 1982!!!!! Yes—believe it or not!
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| MODERN quilt from 1982 |
In the accompanying article, they even mention the word MODERN. Technically, modern quilting didn't become a thing until 1998, when Martha Stewart had Denyse Schmidt on her show.
So you see what I mean? Centuries of OLD and 50 years of NEW history have brought the industry to where it is today.
How does one even document it and ensure that every event is mentioned?
I had fun reviewing those five magazines, and I have more to share! Perhaps I'll get ambitious and write it out so it can be preserved because I think it's important that people today realize that they didn't invent quilting. They didn't invent the techniques or the tools—they have been around for eons. The way we interpret the images onto cloth has certainly changed, but you can't change the history!!!
Have a super day!!!
Ciao!!!!
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