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America’s greatest hits – quilting edition – Part IV

July 2026

Covering Quilts

America’s greatest hits – quilting edition – Part IV

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by Sandra Starley

 

The Fourth of July 2026 is the perfect time to review the rich heritage of American quilting. I hope you enjoy this overview and start your own tour of American quilts using the topics shared below.

1970 -1990: A Groovy Fabric Celebration – Bicentennial Quilts, Quilt Guilds, Quilt Shows, and More

There was something celebratory in the air, and almost everyone caught it. It was a combination of patriotism, a return to the land and arts and crafts, along with free time to sew and create. Think red, white, and blue and all things stars and stripes. Most towns joined forces to construct Bicentennial quilts: historical documents in fabric. These often portrayed 200 years of local history. It is delightful to find that 50 years later, these quilts are being admired once again.

Bicentennial quiltmaking jumpstarted an interest in quilting and quilt history. This led to many great improvements in quilting, especially the rise of the quilt guild, people who met together to share their love of quilts. Utah established the oldest statewide quilt guild in 1977 to “preserve the art of quilt making, teach quilting skills, and document Utah’s rich quilt heritage.” Just a few years later, the American Quilt Study Group started (1980), along with State Quilt Documentation Projects. This time is also critical to the huge quilting industry we have today, including the large Quilt Show with classes and vendors, begun with the International Quilt Festival (1975, Houston, Texas).

In the mid 1980s, Olfa’s development of the rotary cutter (1979) completely revolutionized fabric cutting and the entire quilting business, leading to many quick quilting techniques. Quilting programs started on television, and magazines and books and patterns were quickly becoming available. Most quilts were traditional and were still sewn and quilted by hand, but machine piecing was gaining ground. Machine quilting, once thought of as “cheating,” turned a corner in 1989, when Caryl Fallert was awarded best in show at the AQS Paducah show. It was a very controversial award and set the scene for today’s massive machine quilting phenomenon.

 

 

 

Home of the Brave, Sampler, 42” x 42”, 2002, Sandra Starley. (Image courtesy of the author)

 

1990 to 2026: The Millenium and Beyond

In the late 1980s, art quilters formally created their own group, and other specialty groups followed. Machines and myriad tools made quilting faster. In response, the quilting industry started to produce more fabrics, including precut fabrics like charm squares, 10-inch squares, and fat quarters. The vast variety of fabrics led to scrappy quilts culminating in the revival of Charm Quilts made to celebrate the Millenium, Y2K. Many featured 2,000 different fabrics to commemorate the new year. Quilters were sharing and swapping fabrics online with active internet quilt guilds. Quilters embraced the Inter-net to share quilting.

Numerous quilters purchased long-arm quilting machines to create their own quilts and to create home businesses, too. Machine quilting, no longer second best, became accepted in the quilt show world and began to dominate the winner’s circle. There has been a return to slow stitching and hand work, but machine work is the norm now. The modern quilt movement is one of the major trends of the early 2000s, and Quilt Con, sponsored by the Modern Quilt Guild, is a must-attend event.

Quilting continues to grow and change to this day, and there is always something new to learn. I hope you are inspired by commemorative quilters of the past to make your own piece of history, an America 250 quilt to celebrate this major milestone.

 

Sandra Starley is nationally certified quilt appraiser, quilt historian, and avid antique quilt collector. She travels throughout the U.S. presenting talks on antique quilt history, fabric dating classes and trunk shows as well as quilting classes. Learn more at utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com. Send your comments and quilt questions to SandraStarley@outlook.com