Isn’t contemporary a relative term?

Having described the standard explanation of the evolution of traditional quilt making into art quilts and the concept of quilts as art, I personally feel it is very important also to keep in mind that the past 35 years of innovation is not really a “new” thing. If one studies the well documented history of the north American quilt tradition, (Canada was not at all different from young America) a definite pattern of risk taking, experimenting with new materials, techniques and styles repeatedly and consistently  demonstrates that each quilting generation has also wanted to make a statement to set themselves apart from what everyone else was doing. I’m sure it was often quite a challenge to alter basic traditions when one considers how women were restricted socially and economically in the 18th,19th even 20th centuries. While trends such as Baltimore Album quilts, Civil War quilts, crazy quilts, “color fads” such as combining acid orange and puce sometimes came and went in a decade or two. Imagine suggesting machine quilting a utilitarian quilt on an early treadle sewing machine. Someone had to have been the first brave soul. Then as now, necessity and short supplies very often catapult a quilt designer into having  to get creative. Yes, each generation of our American quilting forebears were innovators. Men and women alike were prolific designers. They dared to use imaginative names to announce their work special and different.