People are just not buying...period. We were down in
Amish Country a few weeks ago....weather could not have been better, town was so crowded it took 10 minutes to go 2 blocks. Walking around you saw very few people carrying bags, people in stores were not buying, just looking. Of course the stores that were doing great were the quilt shops!!! It seems the economy does not affect fabric buying out there. LOL It seems people are spending money not on luxuries but necessities. If I was not a quilter and saw mug rugs and potato bags for $5.00 or $10.00 I would consider that not to be on my list of things I need. I used to own my own business doing counted cross stitch and we set up in the Malls at different shows. This was 20 years ago and it was a struggle even then, but today it is worse because people want to be paid a lot more than what some of their stuff is worth. (And Ii am not talking about quilts, but things they just add a doo dad to and call it a craft). Should we be able to charge hundreds of dollars for our quilts? Sure,..but how many would we really sell? The Amish charge that and much more for their quilts, but I keep seeing the same ones everytime I go down there, so they are not selling any more than anyone else is. Sad but true.