The Future of Quilting, Part 2.5

After I posted Part 2, Abby Glassenberg of While She Naps followed up on the impending closure of Quilters Newsletter. In particular, she presented more information on how advertising supports the production of magazines. For most magazines, ads pay for a much greater portion than subscriptions.

However, print ads are expensive, and it can be hard for advertisers to justify given the benefit. One example given in Abby’s post was of a quilt shop spending thousands of dollars for ads that attracted six new customers. In comments, a similar example was given. Internet ads are less expensive and more flexible.

I no longer subscribe to any quilting magazines. When I did, I often spent as much time looking at the ads as at the articles. They provided much inspiration for quilt styles, color combinations, and block settings. I still receive a couple of catalogs and find the same thing. I don’t order from these catalogs, so I expect the day will come that they will cease, too.

There are a couple of quilting/crafting magazines that are not supported with advertising. UPPERCASE is one. Its subscription price is for four issues a year and costs $80 CAD, or approximately $61 US. That’s pretty pricey. In general I’d rather spend 60 bucks on quilting books that I choose individually than on an unknown combination of information on quilting and other crafts.

Now it’s time for more questions for you. What media do you prefer for providing information on your craft, and why? Do you use those media primarily for inspiration or instruction or patterns, or for something else? How much money do you spend yearly for new books, magazines, online subscriptions or classes? Do you think of classes (online or in person) as a separate category of learning, somehow different from the others? Any clue how much time you spend in a week searching online for these types of information or inspiration? How about time reading blogs about your craft?

And what about advertising? How do you feel about advertising in paper magazines as compared to ads online? Do you use many sites that are heavily ad-sponsored, or do you avoid them? What about Facebook pages that are sponsored pages? How many email notifications do you receive from vendors about specials or sales they are running? Do you buy based on them?

If you’re interested in reading my two earlier posts on the future of quilting, you can find them here and here.

 

 

 

The Future of Quilting, Part 2

I’m overwhelmed by what wonderful comments were contributed to my Part 1 post. Based on those responses, quilting is alive and well, at least with those who read here. (If you’d like to chime in, please do. I think we’ve all had fun reading these.) 

Quilting is a living craft, with a long history dating to ancient Egypt, and a long future stretching out far beyond our imagination. Like many crafts, especially those primarily engaged for self-expression, quilting’s popularity ebbs and flows. Influences include other parts of popular culture, resources available (including time,) and alternative means of self-expression. Only after printed fabric became readily and economically available in the early 1800s did quilting blossom as a pastime in the US. Prior to that, it was a rich woman’s hobby to create decorative objects, not primarily a means to create warm bed coverings, or to use up scraps.

Quilting’s current popularity has been, on average, growing since the 1970s. The ’60s ecology movement and the US bicentennial in 1976 helped spur interest that had waned throughout the middle of the century. From double-knits (who quilted with these?) to cotton-poly blends to twee calicoes to today’s wide variety of colors and prints, the options expanded. In 1979 the first rotary cutter was introduced, and gradually acceptance was granted for machine stitching, and even machine-quilting!

Today we live in a sweet spot for quilting. What other options could there be for cutting or stitching or quilting than those already available? These tasks can be done by machine or by hand, with sophisticated tools or those used for centuries. Either way, it is still a matter of layering three materials and stitching through them. What new could be done to attract more to the hobby?

in the last post I mentioned a couple of events that set me thinking about this subject. The first was the announcement last week of the demise of Quilters Newsletter. It will cease publication after the October issue. The magazine, around for 47 years, was a big part of the bicentennial revival of quilting. QN is known for its wide-ranging look at the quilting field, including interviews and reviews, information on shows, reader submissions, historical features, and patterns. I list patterns last because it is not a pattern magazine, unlike most others out there. In fact, it is the third magazine to shutter recently that didn’t focus on patterns. (There may be more — list them if you think of others.) The Quilt Life, featuring Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, ceased publication in 2014. Quilter’s Home, published by the same company as Quilters Newsletter, ended in 2011.

When Quilter’s Home announced its closure, the editor’s blog said, “Effective with the August/September issue, Quilter’s Home will cease publication. Why? It seems more of you are turning to the web for quilting lifestyle information rather than the newsstand.” The internet killed the magazine.

The cause of Quilters Newsletter‘s closure wasn’t announced, though it apparently was accompanied by a series of layoffs by the parent company. In her post about it, Abby Glassenberg of While She Naps added more in comments:

In talking with several magazine publishers this week I’ve come to learn that it often isn’t subscriptions that keep a magazine afloat, it’s advertisers. It seems that the big companies that used to pay for print ads in sewing magazines (the sewing machine companies, fabric, thread, and notions companies) are now allocating their ad dollars differently (paying for Facebook ads, paying for Google search) and are reaching their audience directly through social media. Without their ad dollars it’s very difficult for magazines to stay afloat.

It might be that the future of publishing and the future of quilting are unrelated, but I don’t think so. Magazine publishers depend on advertisers; advertisers must find the viewers/readers/clicks where they can, and apparently it isn’t on the printed page. Or if it is, it must be on the pages of pattern magazines, which seem created simply to sell us lines of fabric.

What do we, as quilters, want from quilting periodicals? And why do we want it? Do you want your quilting magazines on paper or online, or both? Do you want to find both articles and patterns? Do you want articles focused on technique, or on personalities within the industry, or on industry trends, or on … what? Please feel free to comment below.

The other event that spurred my questions about the future of quilting was my local 4-H county fair. (4-H is a US organization for kids. It is delivered by university extension services to every county and parish in the country.) On Sunday I volunteered to judge this year’s quilt projects for my local guild. Though the fair has separate judging, my guild also reviews the entries and provides a prize for each of the three age groups. It is intended as motivation to continue in the craft. This was my fourth time judging and had the fewest entries by far. The intermediate age group (I think 7th – 9th grade) had only one entry, while the junior and senior categories had four each.

Who teaches kids to quilt? And how can we get more of them excited about trying? Are there ways to engage young adults?

I do not worry about quilting’s death. Barring catastrophe (widespread cotton blight, world war, worldwide economic depression…) I believe quilting will continue. As noted above, the popularity will ebb and flow over time for numerous reasons. But the craft and the industry continue to change through time. Individually most of us have little to no impact on either. Collectively there may be more impact. It might be fun to take a look at trends in quilting next…

What do you think about the health of quilting as a craft, and as an industry? I’d love to hear your comments below. 

The Future of Quilting, Part 1

Some recent events have me wondering about the future of quilting. I’ll get to those in the next post.

First I want to ask some questions: will you still be quilting in five years? Do you see your involvement as temporary, or as a permanent part of your life, until you’re truly unable to continue? And if you expect to still be quilting, how do you think your quilting life might change? Will the type of project change, perhaps from large quilts to smaller ones? From “traditional” to “modern” or “art”? Will your purchases change, to much less fabric or books or notions? Or perhaps to more? Or to more quilting services like someone to longarm for you? Or will you buy a dye cutter to reduce stress on arthritic parts?

Another question: do you actively help new quilters learn the craft? Do you teach, or donate fabric to 4H groups, or participate in other nurturing activities? Is that something you would do if presented with the opportunity?

Another: are there areas of quilting you’d like to learn? Are you interested in becoming an appraiser, or learning and/or teaching quilting history? Or are there particular skills you long to try?

One more: do you think that most “new” quilters (those who’ve been quilting less than five years, or have made fewer than five quilts) will still be quilting five years from now? Why or why not?

I’ll start, but please join in with comments. Don’t hesitate to respond to others’ comments, as well.

I expect I’ll still be quilting in five years. Truly I have no idea how many quilts I’ve made in the last decade, but surely it is well over 100. Likely it’s more than twice that, especially if you include all the quilts I’ve helped with but wasn’t the sole maker. So from the standpoint of production, I’m in this. It’s part of my life. On the other hand, it’s possible for me to imagine not quilting anymore. In particular, it’s imaginable that I stop quilting my own projects and pay someone else to longarm quilt for me.

I prefer making big quilts, or at least biggish. But we’ve discussed the issue of having a “market” or audience for our work, and mine is pretty depleted. It might be time to shift to smaller items. Though as I’ve said to someone else, my heart would die if I had to make coasters and pot holders. I did have a lot of fun making my Iowa In My Mind quilt. Perhaps other types of art or story quilts are in my future.

My purchases over the last couple of years have changed some. I am not a big fabric buyer. I never buy all new for a specific quilt, and I almost never buy even partially new before starting a specific quilt.  I prefer to work from stash, but that means having things that are interesting and useful. Recently the ratio of “interesting” to “useful” has increased. Even so, I fill in with tone-on-tones or blenders regularly.

I’ve kicked around the idea of becoming an appraiser, but in truth I don’t want to work that hard anymore. Between my college degrees and professional certification, I’ve taken all the tests I ever want to take. I do enjoy teaching and want to continue to find opportunities to do so.

As for newer quilters, most of the younger modern quilters probably won’t be quilting five years from now. There will be a core of those who’ve found their niche, but the rest will fall away with the busyness of their lives and other interests. Even so, the richness and enthusiasm they’ve added will help to enliven the craft for years to come.

Now it’s your turn. Thoughts to share?