Quilting has a long and proud history, but there are many who believe we are currently living in the "Golden Age of Quilting," says Carol Armstrong, who gave a presentation on "The Evolution of the Quilting World From 1970 to 2000," as part of the Utah Quilt Guild's recent Annual Quilt Festival.

"The last quarter of the 20th century was a time of unparalleled growth, variety and excellent workmanship," she said. New tools, new ways looking at quilts as more than bed coverings, a plethora of fabrics and notions all provided more and more options for creativity.

But first, consider the 1950s. "Back then, we used to iron our sheets and pillowcases. We had to iron everything," she said. So, when polyester fabrics came along, we embraced them wholeheartedly. Why? Because we didn't have to iron!

But what happened to the quilters? "Women had always made quilts out of what was left over from clothing. That's gone on forever — back to pioneer times, back to the 1930s and the 1950s."

However, when you made a quilt out of polyester, "you couldn't press crisp, open seams. And you ended up with thick, thick corners. Fabric stretched. I've found a few tied polyester quilts, but not many."

Then came the huge celebration of the country's bicentennial, and with it, a revival of interest in traditional handicrafts, including quilting.

But because not much had gone on in the quilting world until then, "the quilting supplies of the 1970s actually compared to the quilting supplies of the 1930s," said Armstrong. "Scissors, pencils, simple rulers, needles and pins with little variety, metal thimbles, newspaper patterns. At this point, there were no quilting stores, just plain fabric stores with sewing notions."

Any patterns found for applique were drawn on a graph, she said, "and you had to enlarge or reduce them depending on the size of the graph. Quilting templates were made from shirt cardboard, cereal boxes, newspaper. Some were made from wood or tin if they needed to last through several quilts."

But all that changed as quilters saw needs and stepped up to fill them, she said. One of the first was an Iowa woman named Marti Michell. "She is known as a pioneer in the quilt-making revival. She and her husband started the company Yours Truly in 1972, which was a patchwork-kit company. At that time, there was no quilting industry."

Over the next decades, some of the significant trends and developments, said Armstrong, include the following: