go to http://www.quilts.com/home/index.php and read the study. It will give good information about the economy of quilting.

Good luck on your presentation! I belong to Toastmasters at my company, and when I made one speech about my other hobby (mosaics), I actually couldn't keep it to the time limit! I even had an entire 'nuther 7 minutes speech on JUST adhesives! Have fun!

dont forget to mention the charity quilts that bring so much joy to the recipients. quilts are emotional to both the maker and the receiver.

What abput talking about putting a Quilting LAbel on the back which can include your name, city, year and can also include the recipents name and teh name of the pattern and pattern author. This is where we find out how old some quilts are--if they have a lable on the back.

Lots of good ideas here. Could you wear a quilted jacket or vest? It is seriously hard to do justice to the subject without pictures. Maybe you could give a handout with websites for those who wanted to look up more info.
Oh I just found this:
http://www.straw.com/quilting/articles/clipart.html

they didn't say anything about visual aids, like showing a quilt you have made. you could bring it and talk about it and the process you followed from start to finish, like choosing the pattern, for what reason you made it, choosing colors ... all the way to the binding (and hanging for shows). enjoy the process.

I did a presentation a few years ago on the history of Sunbonnet Sue for our local guild. My research led me to a book talking about women's history and art in the expression of the times - most interesting if not controversial. Quilting is/was an expression of a woman's life. Just a thought.............................

I love all the ideas - mine are more to the presentation itself. I found myself in your boat back when. I learned I had to practice my remarks until they were all second nature, trying hard to leave out the "ums". Also, when I looked at my power point I found myself reading the slides! Bad habit, the audience could read. So, maybe just bullet points that you put up and then face the audience and expand on them? The more you practice it out loud, the better it will become. The other thing I found that helped me was to encourage questions anywhere along the presentation, if your instructor will allow. Somehow that opened new avenues to talk about, without resorting to reading the slides. And it engages people. Good luck and let us know how great it turned out!!!