Ada Shiela

Well, Hobo, I'd like to say "on your bike" with all those ideas LOL No offence meant but that is an old English expression for "on your way", "go away", sod off" etc. Much as I love the technology, robotics etc are fascinating, but give me Jigsaw puzzles, Lego and patchwork quilting and machine embroidery - when our hands and joints begin to fail us we need some machines to help us continue with our favourite hobbies. If all these modern ideas come to fruition, we won't need to use our brains at all, just write or type a word and see what appears on screen! Doesn't sound like much fun to me!

CookyIN

I think what's ahead is even more leisure time with far less day-to-day drudgery. As today, some will use their time constructively and some won't. I think the far more critical unknown going forward will be how humans socialize as they become more insulated within their homes. I think it's highly possible that in my lifetime we'll see the end of brick-and-mortar public schools as we know them. Think about the socialization implications of that.

wesing

The things that automation can never replace are heart, art, and doing a project for someone because they mean something to you. We do our art because we enjoy the process of creating, not because we want zero waste or perfectly joined patchwork. Then when we're finished we give the project away (usually) so that person has an idea that they mean something to us.

My nephew can go to Wal-Mart today and buy a blanket, but if it tears, he will throw it away. If it fades, he'll throw it away. If it tatters on the edges, he'll throw it away. But the quilt that his aunt and uncle made for him will never get thrown away. It has literally traveled the world with him. He leaves clothes at home when he travels so he'll have enough room to take his quilt. When he's sick, he wants the quilt on him. When he's enjoying a lazy Saturday at home, he drags it around the house with him. He will never get that attached to a computer-created blanket.

While I appreciate automation and the convenience it provides in a lot of areas of our lives, it cannot touch art. And as long as there are humans, there will be art.

Quilt on!

Darren

Onebyone

I know my young granddaugher when she gets old will say My grandmother quilted. She used a machine that cut the fabric into the pieces she wanted. Her machine cut the thread for her and threaded the needle. She had special rulers and had lot of shortcuts to making a complicated pattern easy. The basic quilting methods will always be available in the future to those that are interested in using them, just like basic bread making and canning methods are available to us now.

Geri B

The lack of socialization is already evident in our young people with their virtual games.........it also infringes on their moral state........shooting an avatar or a person...no difference......no feelings.......

With all the now technology we are supposed to have freed up time and lessened day to day drudgery, but it seems now we have less time than previously...at least we perceive that..... Oh well I'll bet this same discussion has gone on I the past too.....watched downton abbey this weekend and one of the dilemmas was to bring a wireless into the house!

NikkiLu

Our daughter lives in Paducah and my husband and I go there every April to go to Quilt Week/Quilt Show. The first year that she lived there, my husband did not want to go with us to the Quilt show/shopping, etc. so he stayed at her house and had a miserable time, could not operate their "fancy" TV - had nothing to do, etc. - so the next year, I paid his way into the Quilt show and then he was our "holder" whenever we bought something, or had a bolt of material to take to the cutting table, etc. He actually had a good time - being around hundreds of women!!! I asked him later what he thought the average age of the quilters was and he said "70" and that they were all from Iowa. Yes, most of the ladies had on name tags with their city/state on it but I was quite certain that they were not all from Iowa. So, I asked him about that - he said that the ladies were all "corn fed" - meaning that they were "plump". You see, we live on a farm and feed our cows corn to get them fat enough to take to market. So, they were about 70 and a bit chubby. Fast forward to this past April and I asked him again what he thought the average age was and he said it was "much younger" as a lot of the women had tie-dyed hair with fushia, parrot green or blue, had piercings and had tattoos. So, a much younger bunch have taken up quilting with new, fresh ideas!!!!!

Onebyone

My granddaughter asked me why most of the women at a quilt show dressed slouchy and wore ugly shoes. That got me to thinking about the impression I was giving as the average quilter to other non quilters especially the young.

Bicycle Hobo

Thank you all for contributing to this particular topic of supreme interest (IMHO) to us all, no matter where you are in life. I was off for a couple of months not only wondering where the Quilting (and general Sewing) world is headed to, but completing my dream quilt's first sample. Both seem to be successful in their own ways.

The future-and present-of quilting will continue to make itself known in a number of important ways.

• One way it will stay is firmly remaining in the home (a form of cottage industry of sorts) as the death spiral of industrial sewing of high speed fashion cycles and yes even quilt making from the lesser developing nations for mass purchasing and consuming all their sewing products currently mega dumping on the developed nation's shipping ports. In this important way you the reader and supporter of this and similar publications will rise above all this mishmash of fiber pap currently being sold most everywhere it seems.
• Plus less dependence from being too far swayed by the latest gimmicky notions or tools that may or may not be helpful in creating your own dream projects.

Now I will unveil my own dream quilt first step in the form of a sample (about 40 inches square) and give all of you a glimpse of what is the future of quilting-simply being what you make of it. I present my first Ragged Radiant Lone Star Quilt (photographed in a local mattress store on a queen size bed for better lighting than found in my own home). I freely admit that I still have some bugs to work out in the design, but I feel confident enough to go ahead and make a twin size quilt using this same pattern and techniques:

Bicycle Hobo

One more quick observation that I wish to point out here. There will be rocks to step over for even the 21st Century Quilter. This magazine is about the close and it's former editor made an important comment about the true & hidden state of both public and private education (any age, not just traditional school age range) that not only the US, but the other developed countries seem to brought to themselves over the last 40-50 years:

"......Quilty is just a magazine in a sea of magazines. Except that it isn’t. Before Quilty, there was never a magazine devoted entirely to the beginner quilter. It was my vision that this absolutely had to exist if we (quilters and the quilt industry) wanted to bridge a strange, frightening gap that is occurring for the first time in American history — namely, that we have a culture that still values quilts and we have great numbers of people who want to make them, but we have now and will have forever more a culture that does not teach sewing. We are a service industry. We are not manufacturers. For all intents and purposes, manufacturing and fabrication in America is over. We’re not going to start sewing our own clothes again and that means there aren’t sewing machines in the home........"-http://blog.maryfons.com/2015/01/mag...uilty-closing/

No matter what age you started (or will start) to sew-much less quilt-as well. This is the single most important roadblock to still overcome, no matter who you are. Not so much how high tech your chosen gadgetry is, or fancy notions/fabric, the right quilting guild membership or chosen quilt shop, even cold hard cash could buy.

These are truly interesting times for us all alike, both quilter & non-quilter.

Geri B

Bicycle Hobo.....your dream quilt is very different....could not really see it in the picture you presented.

Your comments were so obtuse, in my opinion, that they are very irrelevant and just theoretical and academic and really mean nothing........your reference to Mary Fons comments about her magazine Quilty ceasing publication is just another example of something not making enough money to sustain itself having to shut down........reasons for that situation are decided in boardrooms.......
As for me, I will quilt today, tomorrow, and as long as I enjoy doing it...when it no longer excites, satisfies me, I will find something else to satisfy that yearning.........jmho