The quilting industry today as compared to the mid 80's-early 90's
 

Are there some statistics anywhere telling us the state of the quilting industry today (in the US) compared to then?

I'm not as interested in millions/billions? of dollars, because of inflation, but it would be interesting to compare yardage sold in say, 1986 and 2010, or any other relevant types of information such as an estimated number of quilters in the US. Saying it was a $5 billion dollar industry then and a $35 billion (just making up those numbers) now isn't really what I'm looking for due to inflation.

But I'd love info on things like the big quilt shows--Attendance, numbers of vendors, etc. Is attendance up? Are there more vendors, etc.

I know when I was much younger, there was a LQS in our home town in FL. I hardly ever went in there. They closed down. For a while there was no LQS, just Walmart. Then Walmart closed out their fabrics and now there is a LQS again.

No statistics but I remember reading (somewhere) that quilting peaked in the mid to late '90s. Don't know where you would find statistics you are looking for.

I think the quilt industry has grown larger as more baby boomers are retiring with more disposable income then the past generation. New sewing machines costing thousands of dollars are being bought, and many are buying long arms that are made for the home quilter now. Quilt cruises are fully booked as soon as they are announced. New threads to use on the machines are available. New notions and tools are available to make quilting easier. I am glad I am a quilter today and I sure would like to see the quilting in the future.

Episode 8 of "Why Quilts Matter" discusses quilting as an industry in the U.S. and also the current "culture" of quilting today. This series has run on our PBS station a couple of times, and I would recommend it all.

Here is the link to a synopsis of Episode 8:
http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welco...-and-counting/

It was the invention/introduction of the rotary cutter that changed and rejuvenated the craft/art in 1979. I am sure the International Quilt show has some info on their web site. I know they do survey's and circulate the findings to quilt shops. Age groups spending , shows attendance etc.
This link has some interesting info

http://www.quilts.com/announcements/...0_OneSheet.pdf

The "trade magazines" that the retailers subscribe to often has stats about the industry. Not sure what questions you want addressed and how you would interpret the info.

Sandy

Thanks. Guess I'd like to read through a couple of those trade magazines -

And thanks to the others for the links!

I wasn't sure if the industry peaked int he 90's or if it is still growing--not in numbers - inflation alone may take care of a stagnant industry and make it look like it is growing, but in things like numbers of machines sold, numbers of yardage sold, attendance at the big venues, etc.

Thanks! Very interesting.

Here are links to the trade magazines
https://www.americanquiltretailer.co...zine/subscribe

https://www.fabshopnet.com/magazine_subscription.asp