America's Quilt Revival & Bicentennial Quilts: 1960s & 1970s

We tend to think that America's 200th birthday in 1976 as the beginning of the latest handmade quilt revival and it is true that enthusiasm for making handmade quilts for the bicentennial did give it a great boost. But the seeds of this renewed interest in handmade quilting started earlier.

In the April, 1961 edition of "Women's Day" magazine we find a preview of what was to come. Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, wrote an article titled "Patchwork", handmade patchwork quilts.

The romantic bit of history in her article included the same misconceptions found in books on handmade quilting written during the Colonial Revival of the 1920s and 30s. The American Quilt Study Group would not begin serious research on handmade quilting history until 1980 so Rose Wilder Lane wrote what was thought to be true at the time.

The article pictured beautiful handmade quilts from museums along with several individual blocks. These pictures surely inspired many women to try their hand at quilting. The patterns and instructions could be ordered through the magazine.

Just a few years later the back-to-nature movement inspired people to explore crafts from earlier times in history including handmade patchwork quilts. Hippies and communes may have led the way in this movement but others were influenced to try their hand at crafts.

A 1970 pattern book titled "Modern Patchwork" included patterns for patchwork clothing as well as handmade quilts.

Then Came the Quilt Exhibit at the Whitney Museum

Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof began collecting handmade quilts at the end of the 1960s. Instead of looking only for fine museum quality handmade quilts, they chose handmade quilts they found to be of the "greatest visual interest and impact".  In 1971 they were able to display the most fascinating of their quilts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York city.

This was no easy task, they had proposed a far different exhibit than art museums were accustomed to presenting. Quilting was generally thought of as a craft, not art. But the exhibition turned out to be a huge hit and was promoted enthusiastically both by both publications and word of mouth. As a result the exhibit eventually traveled not only across the United States but to many other countries as well.

When the Bicentennial celebration occurred in 1976 quilts made in honor of the occasion were popular along with parades and ceremonies that included burying time capsules.

Quilt historian, Eleanor Levie, relates, "Almost every handmade quilt historian, and certainly every one who started quilting in the early to mid-1970s, can attest to the influence America's 200th birthday had on handmade quilting. As a celebration of our history, this event grounded everyone in the values of root and traditions". 

The 1960s showed a gradual increase in women wanting to learn to quilt and by the 1970s a few quilt guilds had formed. Popular women's magazines began to include more articles about quilt projects. Interest in handmade quilts was on the rise.

Quilters used the fabric at hand which was often double knit. Double knits went out of vogue for clothing during the 1970s but they were used to make quilts for a while after. We often make fun of double knits today. This stretchy fabric was difficult to piece so simple patterns were usually used. The resulting handmade quilts were extremely heavy but we do have to admit they were colorful and they never wore out.

Of course everyone wasn't content to quilt with double knits. Quilters wanted to make quilts like those made in the past and they knew cotton fabric was ideal for this. The problem was that the only cotton commonly available was in a blend with polyester. Serious quilters searched high and low to find what they called 'real cotton'.  Some 100% cotton fabric could be found, but not easily. Meanwhile quilters put pressure on the fabric industry to produce more all cotton fabric.

The wonderful quilter's tools we enjoy today like cutting mats and rotary cutters weren't generally available until the 1980s. Quilt pattern templates were made with cardboard or sandpaper instead of plastic and the fabric pieces had to be cut out with scissors. Some quilters pieced by machine but others preferred hand piecing. Applique and quilting were usually done by hand. Handmade quilting methods were still much like those of the past.

But all that would soon change. New tools and methods as well as plentiful quilter's fabric would make a huge difference. Quilter's during the 60s and 70s would have been amazed to see the changes in quilting today.