Sunday, April 14, 2013

Double Knit Quilts That Never Die

 Continuing on from yesterday's post
 with a few 
Double Knit Quilts
being shown from the collection of
Gail Van Horsen
at the Art of Quilting show
at the Gilbert Museum is
Star Dahlia
C. 1970's
 Gail wrote
"I have to imagine that this huge quilt 
was made from scraps of 
double knit pantsuits."
 Kind of gives a new meaning
to Scrap Quilts, doesn't it?
 In reading some of the information 
provided by the show,
I learned that 
polyester Double knits
are considered the 
"Iron Fabric of the 1970's"
Meaning this fabric will
 "never fade
and 
never die".
I shudder to think that eons from now when
our cotton fabric quilts have crumbled to dust,
and the double knits remain,
historians just might assume
this is what quilting was all about?
 Even though Gail admits that
Double Knits provide kind of a love/ hate response,
they are a part of our history
and worthy of documentation.
 I have to admit
that I like some of the colors and patterns.
It just must be a texture thing for me,
which follows the same issue
of why some of us would not 
try certain foods as we were growing up.
 Gail provides a more positive approach.
She wrote 
"The Star Dahlia can be tricky at best,
but when made from stretchy knits---
what an accomplishment it is!"
 Hand Pieced and Hand Quilted
 One Patch Coverlet
completed C. 1970's
 "2.5-inch squares, all hand sewn, 
with hand embroidery over every seam."
Which prompted me to ponder 
where the maker 
might have found 
so many varieties of Double Knits?
Future Historians just might
assume we all 
wore Leisure Suits, too.

8 comments:

Lynette said...

Wow - I just love the flowers she made with it. Gotta admit - cotton fabrics would never make such neat petal puffing!

Abby and Stephanie said...

I have some vintage cotton quilt blocks like those flowers. Pretty block. Let's just hope the polyester era never comes back in vogue!

Laura in IA said...

That blue and white checked Dahlia seems to have shadowy faces in it. What do you think?

Nanette Merrill said...

I love that donkey!

fiberchick said...

Am still traumatized by the poly pants we wore in my 70's childhood. Having said that, the dahlia quilt is pretty neat and so are the prints.

maybeth said...

Hola es muy lindo tu blog lo consegui buscando este modelo de block no lo he conseguido en la web y necesito esa tecnica de como armarlo pues necesito restaurar una colcha de mi suegra y no he podido por la falta de este te lo agradeceria enormemenmte ojala puedas enviarme un tutorial mi correo es myrose25@gmail.com mi nombre es maybeth y te escribo desde venezuela

maybeth said...

Hola es muy lindo tu blog lo consegui buscando este modelo de block no lo he conseguido en la web y necesito esa tecnica de como armarlo pues necesito restaurar una colcha de mi suegra y no he podido por la falta de este te lo agradeceria enormemenmte ojala puedas enviarme un tutorial mi correo es myrose25@gmail.com mi nombre es maybeth y te escribo desde venezuela

maybeth said...

Hello, your blog is very nice I got it looking this model block I did not succeed on the web and need that technique and build it as I need to restore a quilt from my mother and I could not for the lack of this enormemenmte hopefully I can appreciate send me a tutorial my email is myrose25@gmail.com my name is Maybeth and I'm writing from Venezuela