I remember when my sister spilled finger nail polish on my mother's new quilt from J.C.Penney. It was a green satin. Now I had already watched my grandmother make a couple. I so wanted to help but was discouraged. Anyway a lady mom knew was an avid quilter. Since the bedspread/JCP quilt was quilted she asked the lady if there was any way she could repair it. Luckily the spread/quilt came with pillow shams that tucked in like an envelope. She used those tucks to repair Mom's quilt. I was sent down with money to pay her. She charged Mom $2.00 at the time but Mom insisted she take $5. I got to see this woman's house. I was in awe of this woman. Every where there was a quilt. She showed me her stash of pieces to be done. She pieced on her sewing machines then handquilted. You could not tell where she did the repair on that quilt. She showed me how to piece by hand since I wasn't allowed to use my mother's. Mom just felt she didn't have time to teach. I used to go to the lady a couple times a week until she became very ill. I missed her terribly. I would help her with cleaning just for a couple tips on different blocks. I cried when she passed.

I have a quilt my grandmother made in the late 50's or early 60's. It was tied AND machine quilted.

I have said for years "if our great-great-grandmothers had had sewing machines, they would have used them too."
One of the changes I have noticed in quilting over the years have to do with the magazines. Back in the day, magazines were about the block and the quilters. Now it seems they are about the fabric line. The designs aren't new just made up using a certain fabric line.

I am a fairly new quilter and I buy vintage quilts, quilt tops and magazines. I think one of the things I noticed, other than the rotary cutters and mats, are what KwiltyKahy said about the magazines. Everything in them is about the fabric lines. In the old magazines, which I adore, they give you directions about making more blocks and quilts than what you see today. When I started quilting, I heard much about a quilt isn't a quilt unless it's hand made. Such rubbish !!! I look at the long arm quilting on some quilts and they are absolutely unbelievable. No hand quilting can ever accomplish what some of the long arm quilters can do. My opinion exactly.

My biggest change that I have seen over the years of course are rotary cutters & all of these helpful rulers & gadgets we all have now. Also I used to save my cereal & cracker boxes to make templates for different projects. Also the internet. What did we do before the internet? lol It has opened up so much information on tips, techniques & ideas. Another really big deal to me was finding this board. I never knew another quilter. Nobody in my family ever quilted so when I started quilting I got a lot of my information from library books. (My paternal grandma sewed but never quilted) I took Home-Ec in 7th grade & always loved to sew. Things have really changed since then. lol

My sister says when she took her first quilting class the instructor told the class to use quality muslin or any white fabric for the backing. She tells me to this day that my use of printed fabrics on the back is not acceptable. I tell her she is behind the times and it is very acceptable besides when you are making a quilt it is your quilt and you can do it anyway you want to.

Probably back then the only fabric with wide yardage was muslin and/or sheeting. Today you can point out all the wide prints at a local LQS.

I agree with popover I started in late 70's and the first juryed show I went to had a tied quilt for their raffle quilt. In the 70's quilts were either tied or hand quilted I made many quilts both ways my husband use to help me trace and cut out pieces and there was a lot of group sewing in those days after that show I decided I wanted to make quilts for show and I learned so much more back then than they learn now as I was able to take any pattern and draft it to the size I wanted but now this is done on the computer I did accomplish my show quilts as I ended up with one in Paducha in 1998 and 2 were published in magazines and it usually took 2 years to make a quilt like that now everything is in a hurry and I call it micro wave quilting Yes what changes even quilt shows are so different I do not go Once it was go to see how people could put a certain pattern together now it is to see what a computer can to

The first couple quilts I made were in the 70's, and they were sheets sandwiched with thick wool batt and tied with yarn. I made one for us as a newly married couple and one for my in-laws. That was the kind my grandma made. Afterall she lived in Wisconsin. In the mid-80's my parents retired to NC, in the same town Georgia Bonesteel's husband's hardware store, housed her shop. I bought several patterns but never made them. In 1986 I took a quilting class in my home town at the HS. It was a QAYG but each block was hand quilted. Got all the blocks done and two quilted, but decided hand quilting was NOT for me. Finally made a few wall hangings for my Mom and did hand quilt those but it took forever. When I found out I could FMQ on a sewing machine, there was no turning back.
I agree, the rotary cutter revolutionized quilting for me and a lot of others.

I'm just a young whippersnapper on this thread ;) but since I've been sewing/quilting the internet has really taken off and the world is so much smaller now!! I ordered fabric from Japan took about five minutes online and texted with the seller (who's in South Korea) for over an hour about our families and our quilting projects. Two weeks later my fabric arrived and last month I sent her pics of the finished project. Can't imagine that happening back when I started, would've been much harder. My mother is a hand quilter but it's because she preferred it to the machine. She's never been one for "rules" with her art and I'm proud to say I learned from her that hobby police are lame. :)