This is the location for quilts on the Ralph Lauren website. They are not as impressively laid out as in the store as there were some displayed on beds with wonderful choices for sheets. You know display work. It is fantastic when some one really cares.
http://www.ralphlauren.com/family/in...ewall&view=all

Within 35 miles of me are 4 quilt shops (one is new). Within 60 miles are 6. I don't think it's dying. We also have 2 shops that sell sewing machines and longarms. We also have a Hancocks and a Joanns. I think the only place quilting/sewing is dying out is at Walmart. All the shows that pop up on different channels that are dedicated to sewing, all the quilt fabric stores online.......naw, I think it's a booming business!

Wow! I just can't imagine that many options being so close! That's great!

Here, in the middle of the country, we gain quilt members, in our guild, almost every month. We have two neat quilt shops and both give classes for every level of student and the classes are always full. Lots of young moms are taking up quilting. We have a daytime and an evening guild so the younger people can still share what they are doing. Lots of these bring their quilting to work and stitch on breaks and lunch hours. Someone sees what they are doing and they are teaching others on their breaks.

Forgot, just read somewhere that quilting was a 3.8 billion dollar business. Might have been in a quilt magazine? Just call it a senior moment. grin

Quilting like any other art has recycle periods. Years ago, beads were the thing and people got tired of them. Now they're back. My mother used to say about clothing designs, "Wait 20 years and it will be back."

Our guild has 186 members. It started with 25 in 1984.

There are 21.3 million quilters in the USA, and it is a 3.58 billion dollar industry.

IMHO it is a resurgent art. 30 years ago when I first quilted, no one was doing it. Now I seem to meet quilters around every corner. And if they don't quilt, they know someone who does.

I think it is actually growing in popularity! All the classes that I attend are filled with people from about 30's and up...lots of the younger set. So..thats good news, right??!

It will never die and it can be revived. Swedish Weaving and Huck Embroidery that was so popular in the 30's and 40's has had a rebirth and quilting can do the same. Teach your daughters and granddaughters.

Go to the web site for Quilts Inc. The Houston organization that does the Fall Quilt Festival.
Search for the survey done every two years. You will see the status of quilting.

A dying art ?? Don't think so !!
I've been quilting for 20+ years and I see more people quilting than ever before - the economy doesn't seem to be hurting the quilting business ! There are Quilt shows all over the USA and overseas, there are more quilt shops, websites, fabrics, books & patterns coming out all the time ...
The largest Quilt show in the US is held here in Houston each year. The International Quilt Festival is in its 35th Year here - it averages more than 50,000 people in just 4 days of show. It's the Mecca for Quilters ! If you've never been, you need to come !!
Quilting is a $3-4 BILLION dollar industry (annual) - definitely NOT a dying art or craft :)

And much more expensive!! :thumbdown:

And much more expensive!! :thumbdown:

I don't think quilting will ever die. It touches our souls to make them, and/or receive them. But it is getting more expensive all the time. China makes the bulk of the fabric we use. (We lost quite a few containers of fabric to Katrina, when the containers were swept off the docks.) But it does takes my breath away to see the prices of fabrics in the quilt stores...$10, $12 a yard...and how many yards go into a quilt? Yikes! I'm making more scrap quilts, and really, I'm enjoying it more!

Lets compare it with embroidery, people will do it by machine, in the stores everything you buy is done my machine, but the people that spend time doing it by hand is a real artist because she can master to a fine tune the basics. If you have a passion for something , you try to master your art.

I think handquilting is almost a dying art...recently my 25 yr old great is showing interest and doing very well.. my daughter and gd have showed a little interest but my gs ha showed more tha them !!!!!

Well the avg age may be 62 (I'm 51!) but we middle-age to older ladies sure aren't sitting in the old rocking chair ... My granny quilted until she was 88. Many of us still work AND quilt - and now we have the MOST MONEY TO SPEND !!! We've raised our kids, sent them to college, paid for weddings and NOW we spend on OUR quilting !! :wink:

OOPS MY GREAT NIECE!!!

The high school here in Maine require all students make pillow cases and a quilt.

I have done a quilt here and there for 44 years.
I don't know if it was more common or not but I do have quilts my great grand Mother made out of necessity. she and made soap and took in laundry.

Also looking at her quilts and knowing that my great Grandfather used to dissaper to Canada

I believe some of her quilts were done for the underground Rail Road.I think maybe my Great Grandfather may have aided in there transfer.

I don't think it is dying. I think it is harder today because in most families both parents have to work so there is not as much time for the creative pleasure of quilting. Most seem to have to wait for retirement to really spend the amount of time that quilting demands. I hope those who can will teach and inspire others especially the younger ones to quilt.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and quilting is going strong and getting stronger here. We have 500 members in our local guild. And lots of quilting and fabric stores to support our habit.

I, personally don't feel as if quilting is a dying art. I do see it being made very easy for beginners and see so many tools that I never would know could be invented when my friend and I would be using card board to makes patterns and then every week,

I'm sorry. I just can't get the thoughts and the words out anymore. Thank you for letting me hang in You have been just great to me. I have had to dump those messages]there with all of you and try again. But it doesn't work all the time. I so enjoyed each and every one of you and the patterns that you all shared with me. E thank you
beollls

Gosh from the number of people on this board, who would think it?

Have you been to Paducah in the last few years? It is crammed with quilters. I really don't think it is dying art. I do however think more folks are machine quilting as they are just too busy. But I think quilting is around to stay. Also maybe some of us should make sure that the younger generation gets interested

Goodness me, I sure hope quilting is not a dying art. I've got enough fabric, notions and machines to start my own small shop ..... as apparently many, many others on this board do also. I am also a member on the Janome 6500/6600 & 7700 Yahoo Groups and that is another completely different set of quilters. And then, there is the Viking Designer SE group and the HQ16 group; all different quilters! That's just 3 or 4 machines; think of all the other brands out there with their own boards for quilters. And like someone else mentioned - $3 billion a year industry; hardly dying. And Paducah or Houston or West Palm Beach .... holy cow, there are MAJOR quilt shows everywhere and I go to as many as I possibly can and take classes whenever and wherever something is offered that I think I will use. If anything, quilting is a GROWING cottage industry that's taking the world by a storm and I'm so glad to be a part of it. The members on this board are the best of them all!!! Thank you to all who share your knowledge with the rest of us.

Josi in Florida

Quilting, like knitting and crocheting, etc., seem to go in cycles. However, with the economy in the basement, I think you will see an even greater resurgence in quilting. People who can't go out to eat, to movies, or to plays, will choose quilting, perhaps, to feed their imagination and creative spirits. AND that's what makes me so mad at Walmart. We need those fabric centers now more than ever, but they are gone forever, I am afraid.

Quilting, like knitting and crocheting, etc., seem to go in cycles. However, with the economy in the basement, I think you will see an even greater resurgence in quilting. People who can't go out to eat, to movies, or to plays, will choose quilting, perhaps, to feed their imagination and creative spirits. AND that's what makes me so mad at Walmart. We need those fabric centers now more than ever, but they are gone forever, I am afraid.

Once would have answer yes, but think there has been a "rebirth" of interest and growing participants! My DH thinks I'm a dinosaur bc I am the only person he knows that sews/quilts. I work PT in a quilt shop, and he has come in on occasion and had lunch with me, always comments on how busy the store is and what a wide variety of age groups that come through! I think "project runway" has done a great service to regrow some interest in sewing and design. Quilting I believe has had a slow steady growth over the last 20-25 yr. I think that like many things there have been many things to change and adapt to make it easier, more affordable, and I believe the adaptive process has kept it alive. People willing to share it, have kept the momentum going.

In no way is it a dying art. All you have to do is search blogs about quilting and you will find more than you could ever read in a life time. Check out Modern Quilting Guilds, search for quilting forums, the list goes on and on and on. So, the answer from me is NO is not dying it's GROWING.

From what I have seen, read and hear about, quilting has been steadily increasing in popularity since the early 80's. Not only is it a fabulous hobby to get into but it is a very lucrative business for the fabric manufactures', etc., it's a booming business!

I don't think it is dying at all. I think the focus is shifting in some areas to more modern and artsy quilts for the younger generation. But also there is the traditional and I see more quilters everyday joining in. Just came from the NW quilt show in Portland, OR and from what I saw, it is far from duying!

I don't think its a dying art. Look how many quilters there are everywhere world wide. Not dying in Pa..

Boomers are currently being forced, by the economy, to take early retirement at lower rates just to survive! When Walmart quits selling fabric, I hope someone will pick up the slack, or when my stash is gone, I am done quilting. I used to be able to buy fabric at Sprouse-Reitz stores, then Payless, now Walmart. I am beginning to think that quilting, and home sewing in general, is going to become the playground of only the 'well to do'. Now I'm depressed. :thumbdown:

Personally I think there has been a resurgence in quilting over the last number of years and seems to be growing interest all the time.

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

I think that quilting is alive and growing in areas where empty nesters are settling or there is an increase in the retiree population. I have always loved working with fabric and when I went from "the salon" to a yarn mill, I was drawn to quilting as a creative outlet. The fabrics available now are just so beautiful, I would have to have them in the house even if I didn't quilt. Am I a fabriholic? Ya think?

I agree about the cycles -- just look at the styles in clothing. The seventies look seems to be all the rage today. And at 70, that style just doesn't DO for me.

:lol:

Looking back at the different crafts, etc. I dove into -- first, of course it was making all of my clothing, and then the girls', then it was decoupage lessons, macrame lessons, oil painting, smocking, heirloom sewing, cake decorating, quilting. Aahh, at last quilting! Oh, and scrapbooking, quilting...........

I did the newsletter for my quilt guild last year & found the following information on quilting. In 2000 Quilter's Newletter had a survey of 2500 quilters in U.S.

They found Total U.S. Quilting Industry Value
• $118.02 average annual household expenditure, a 17.3% increase over 1997
• $1,836,456,111 total annual U.S. quilting expenditure ($1.836 Billion dollars)
• Value of U.S. quilting industry has increased 51.6% since 1997**

I don't know if there is a more recent survey, but I am sure expenditures are down because of the economy

In my area you cannot spit without hitting a quilter , weaver, spinner,knitter or crocheter. We have so many little quilting groups that meet in private homes or at the schools or Fair Grounds. Hundreds of quilters in classes. Our LQS has some kind of class going all the time. And don't forget the quilting cruises. On my bucket list to do. MNM