Vuja De

1970s polyester quilt now showing in the "Off the Grid" exhibition

"Did you ever get the feeling of Vuja De?" Johnny Carson once asked. It was the opposite of Deja Vu, according to Carson; the uncanny feeling that none of it had ever happened before. I always remembered the joke, but never more than today.

1970s polyester quilt now showing in the "Off the Grid" exhibition

The quilts of the 1970s quintessentially capture my childhood. The strange thing is I didn't have handmade quilts as a child. Nobody in our family made quilts. It was 2010 when I first discovered the quilts of the 1970s, and it was like seeing long-lost friends, except we never met before.

1970s polyester quilt from the Volckening Collection

The initial sense of familiarity was with the color. These quilts had a very distinct sense of color. It was really the first generation of fade-resistant American quilts. We were seeing them exactly as their makers and owners saw them.

1970s polyester quilt from the Volckening Collection

For a brief period in time, polyester double knit was the fabric of our lives. Polyester starts as a chemical solution before it is made into a fiber. The solution dyed fabrics, also called dope dyed or spun dyed, were exceptionally colorfast because the dye was added to the chemical solution before the fiber was produced.

1970s polyester quilt from the Volckening Collection

The history of polyester offered some science behind the color, but it didn't explain the new ways quiltmakers used color. Even when a quiltmaker used a traditional design, the end result looked much different compared to earlier examples.

1970s polyester quilt from the Volckening Collection

Color evolution between WWII and the middle 1960s was influenced by a number of factors, from the development of Technicolor and DayGlo to the psychedelic experience. The evolution was seen in television and film, art and fashion, and it was present in the quilts.

1970s polyester quilt from the Volckening Collection

People look at the quilts of the 1970s and see familiar fabrics from garments of the period. They see Uncle Robert's leisure suit or Aunt Donna's mini dress. When I first started looking at the quilts of the 1970s, I saw my formative color experience captured in geometric patchwork. What a thrilling discovery it was.