Two years ago, I wrote an article for Blanket Statements, newsletter of the American Quilt Study Group. In some ways, it was a shout out to future generations. It documented a moment in time when we began to see things change. I was never sure if anyone actually read the article, but it seems relevant today. So, here it is!
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Collecting Polyester Quilts
By Bill Volckening
Quilts of the 1970s are beginning to surface, and many of
them
are made with polyester double
knit materials. Polyester is often
unfavorably viewed—scratchy, cheap, and the fabric of outdated garments such as
leisure suits. However, the domestically made quilts are strangely appealing.
They are innovative, extremely vibrant, and they represent an important period
in American quiltmaking.
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Figure 1: Nine Patch, unknown maker, c. 1970,
Found in Washington state, 84 x 74 inches.
All photos by Bill Volckening.
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Interest in quilts made between
1950 and 2000 recently
spiked when San Francisco collector and author Roderick Kiracofe published
his
book Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar,
1950-2000. Several objects made with polyester appear in the book, including an
orange and blue Nine Patch variation from the Volckening Collection. (1) (See
Figure 1)
The quilt came from an eBay seller in Washington state and
includes cotton blends and polyester;
it is backed with a blue and
white
striped bed sheet, tied, and finished with a wide blue binding. Amelia Peck,
curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art commented on it in her essay “In
Dialogue with an Anonymous Quilt.” (2)
“I love this quilt because it reminds me of my childhood,”
said Peck. “It’s as simple as that. I’m sure I had a blouse made
of that orange
and blue fabric printed with hexagons when
I was in the fifth grade. The whole
quilt, its color palette and psychedelically distorted nine patch blocks, looks
very ‘Mod’ to me—the height of fashion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That
was the era when I first became aware of style and fashion. I would have loved
this quilt then and I still love it now.” (3)
The polyester formula originated in the writings of Wallace
Carothers of DuPont, who is also credited with the invention of nylon in 1935.
Carothers worked with a team of chemists around 1930, experimenting with the
earliest form of polyester. (4)
At the time, DuPont chose to concentrate on Nylon research.
By 1945, British chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries patented
Terelene polyester, known in the U.S. as Dacron. DuPont purchased the U.S.
rights for further development, and later opened plants in Delaware and North
Carolina to produce Dacron. (5)
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Figure 2: Tile Block Quilt, unknown maker, c. 1975,
Louisiana, 120 x 112 inches.
This monumental scale
quilt is made of brightly colored polyesters.
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In 1951, DuPont showed a suit made of Dacron to
a group of
reporters in New York. The suit was worn
for more than two months without
being pressed. It was dunked in a swimming pool, machine-washed and
surprisingly was still wearable. (6) The fabric was wrinkle resistant and did not
stretch or pucker when washed. Dacron was touted as a wonder fiber. (7)
Polyester double knit garments were available by 1960, and
solution dyed fabrics, also known as dope dyed or spun dyed fabrics, were
introduced to polyester production in 1962. (8)
In the solution dyeing process,
the pigment becomes part of the fiber and the resulting fabric has excellent
colorfastness.
By the 1970s, the popularity of polyester double knit
garments began to decline as cottons were becoming more widely available.
Quilting cottons were still scarce, and calico print fabrics used for making
clothing started to appear in quilts. However, the growing interest in
quiltmaking inspired people to make quilts out of what was available— polyester
double knit. Those who wore polyester double knit say it was scratchy, hot in
the summer but not warm in the winter, and it held stains. (9)
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Figure 3: Crazy Block Quilt, unknown maker, inscribed
“Aunt Beula, Dora, Margie,” c. 1975, Idaho, 95 x 76
inches.
This quilt is made of polyester fabrics using
mostly raw-edge
appliqué on cloth foundation.
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Despite knowing how colorfast polyester fabrics are, it is
still surprising to see the high level of saturation in the quilts. An
excellent example is a monumental Tile Block quilt from Louisiana. (See Figure
2) It is made of many solid color fabrics, some with textured surfaces, and the
patches are stitched together with black rickrack. The piece is 120 inches by
112 inches, and is exceptionally vibrant. One of the other characteristics of
polyester double knit fabric is its resistance to unraveling. A large Crazy
Block quilt from Idaho is made mostly with raw-edge applique. (See Figure 3)
The patches are outlined with hand stitching, which is mostly decorative.
Sales records maintained by the Volckening Collection from
2010 to 2014 indicate many polyester quilts were available for less than fifty
dollars, primarily through eBay, Etsy and local vendors. A masterpiece Hexagon
Diamonds quilt found at a thrift store in Oregon was purchased for thirty-five
dollars. A thirteen- star American Flag quilt from Florida with a prairie point
edge finish, made of cotton and polyester blended fabrics, cost less than ten
dollars. The shipping was more expensive than the quilt.
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Figure 4: Double Wedding Ring Quilt, unknown maker, polyester,
c. 1970, Altadena, CA, 90 x 90 inches.
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By 2013, several great quilts appeared in the 250-dollar range,
but by the end of the year, there were not as many vintage polyester quilts
available. It is not clear if the market slowed because of sellers realizing
there
was a surge in sales, if the available quilts were snapped
up, or other
reasons; around
the same time more than one reputable quilt dealer started
offering polyester quilts. In 2014, an outstanding quilt came to the collection
from California quilt dealers Julie Silber and Jean Demeter of The Quilt
Complex. (10)
The incredibly vibrant Double
Wedding Ring quilt is
mostly
polyester double knit with a few
wool patches. (See Figure 4)
The wool,
a bright red fabric,
deteriorated in places and is
being replaced with
vintage
polyester double knit fabric purchased through eBay. According to
Silber, the quilt came from an African-American estate in Altadena, California,
but no additional information was available. A sibling Double Wedding Ring
quilt, also sold through The Quilt Complex, is part of the collection of
Roderick Kiracofe. (11
)
One of the intriguing characteristics of the polyester
Double Wedding Ring in the Volckening Collection is the inclusion of DayGlo
fabric; a fluorescent, greenish-yellow, tennis ball color in the upper
right-hand corner block. History from the DayGlo Color Corporation explains the
origins and development of the intense, glowing colors.
In the 1930s, Bob and
Joe Switzer, sons of a
California
pharmacist, began experimentation with colors that would glow under
ultraviolet
or black light. By 1940, they were working on new colors
that
glowed in daylight. During the World War II era, DayGlo had military
applications, such as signaling aircraft from the ground, ocean buoys and night
missions. After the war, there were many more uses for DayGlo color.
“As the chemistry and manufacturing process improved, the
areas of application expanded,” according to the DayGlo Color Corporation
history. “Advertising, safety and promotional firms began to recognize the uniqueness of
these bright colors and specified their use.” The trademarked name DayGlo
caught on, and
in the late 1960s, the company officially changed its name from
Switzer Brothers, to DayGlo Color Corporation. (12)
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Figure 5: Hexagon Diamonds, unknown maker, c. 1970,
Oregon, 80 x 78 inches.
This quilt was plucked from a
thrift shop in Tigard, Oregon, for just 35 dollars.
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The late 1960s and early 1970s were characterized as having
“shocking color combinations, eye-jarring patterns, and large-scale motifs,”
according to Eileen Trestain in Dating Fabrics 2: A Color Guide, 1950-2000.
“Acid green, hot pink, tangerine, purple and turquoise could all be used in a
paisley or a mod flower print,” said Trestain, who called the colors bright,
clear and unmistakable. (13) (See Figure 5)
An informal survey of quilt makers of various age groups
indicates the Baby Boomers and earlier generations who wore polyester garments
generally were less likely to embrace the quilts than
quilters from Generation
X and later. Award winning New York-based quiltmaker Victoria Findlay Wolfe has
a deep appreciation for polyester quilts. Growing up in Minnesota, she slept
under polyester quilts her grandmother made.
“They were warm and we grew up in a house with just a wood-
burning stove,” said Findlay Wolfe in a 2013 interview in Generation Q
Magazine. (14) “So you appreciated how warm Grandma’s quilts kept you on a cold
winter night.” Findlay Wolfe, a superstar in the modern quilting world,
received Best of Show at QuiltCon 2013 for “Double Edged Love,” a playful,
deconstructed Double Wedding Ring quilt. The magazine dubbed her one of the
“Double-Knit Twins,” along with the author of this article, for collecting the
quilts nobody else wanted. (15)
Polyester quilts of the middle to late twentieth century are
unappreciated and undervalued, but they occupy a very important space in
American quiltmaking tradition. There was a sharp increase in quiltmaking in
the 1970s, influenced by the Bicentennial among other events. Synthetic fibers
were new, but these modern materials were the most widely available. Quilt
makers continued to show ingenuity, creating beautiful, enduring objects. They
had fun, loved what they did, and it shows.
Endnotes
1 Roderick Kiracofe, Unconventional & Unexpected:
American Quilts Below the Radar, 1950-2000 (New York: Stewart, Tabori and
Chang, 2014), 168-169.
2 Kiracofe, Unconventional & Unexpected, 38-44.
3 Kiracofe, Unconventional & Unexpected, 44.
4 Matthew E. Hermes, Enough for One Lifetime:
Wallace Carothers, Inventor of Nylon, ( Washington, D.C.:
Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1996), 103- 134.
5 DuPont, DuPont Heritage Timeline, www.dupont. com,
November 2, 2014.
6 Diane Sustendal, “Men’s Style; Wash It, Wear It,”
New York Times, April 28, 1985.
7 Sue Gardner, “Buying for the Home” Chicago Tribune,
May 28, 1951.
8 Eileen Trestain, Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1950-
2000 (Paducah, K Y: American Quilter’s Society, 2005) 46.
9 Personal interview of Madge Ziegler by Bill Volckening,
“Quilting in the 1970s: When Bed Quilts Became Works of Art” American Quilter,
May 2013.
10 Auction and sales records maintained by the Volckening
Collection, Portland, Oregon, 2010- 2014.
11 Auction and sales records maintained by the Volckening
Collection, Portland, Oregon, 2010- 2014.
12 DayGlo Color Corporation, www.dayglo.com, February 12,
2015.
13 Trestain, Dating Fabrics, A Color Guide 1950-2000, 46.
14 Tracy Mooney, “ The Double-Knit Twins: Collecting the
Quilts Nobody Else Wants,” Generation Q Magazine, no. 5 (June-July 2013): 59.
15 Ibid.
