I think it's a "new craze" because now quilting is considered an art form by museums and art galleries. In the past, quilting was looked upon as something our grandmothers did and it was strictly a domestic thing. In the past decade, there have been plenty of documentaries, videos (i.e. DVDs) for both information and instruction, and lots more media coverage, including magazines devoted to quilting, but also magazines that celebrate sewing and quilting arts and competitions. Advances in technology have also spurred the interest of the non-quilters, as well as intense interest from other countries, such as Japan and France. There are also a lot of quilting organizations, both here and abroad, that simply did not exist 20 years ago.
Yes, people have quilted for well over a hundred years, but the turn it's taken in the past 20 years is something different altogether.