Hello everyone! There are only a few days now until our first meeting! It will be great to see all our quilting friends again, and maybe we'll see a few new faces as well. We welcome new members! Join us Tuesday evening Sept. 20 for a 7p.m. meeting. Directions are on the sidebar.
Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? What a great reason to celebrate our return to Guild activities! If you haven't done much sewing or quilting over the summer, it's time to get back to your sewing space and get busy! And remember,YOU can help make Show and Tell even better! We want to see your projects!!
I came across
this online article written by Weeks Ringle of
Modern Quilt Studio on their blog
Craft Nectar, a few weeks ago. It's an interesting and eye-opening read and something I hope all members will take the time to read through. There are indeed big changes happening in the quilting industry. Those mentioned are all in the USA, but let's face it, they affect us too. Did you know that the American Quilters Society has stopped publishing books? Quilters' Newsletter, which has been in production since 1969 has published its last print edition with the current October November issue now on newsstands. The City Quilter in Manhattan is closing, as are several other well known American shops.
The article is reprinted below with Weeks' permission, but if you click on the article link above, you can also read the very interesting comments that follow the article.
The past few years have brought tremendous changes to the world of
quilting. Shops have closed by scores. Magazines and book publishers
have shuttered or merged with other publishers. American Quilter Society
has ceased publishing books all together. City Quilter in New York is
closing. Tension has arisen at times between genres of quilters who
perceive one genre being intolerant to another.
We began teaching modern quilting in 2001. The ages of our students
ranged from twenty-somethings to retirees. Even as early as 2001 we
noticed that spending patterns were clearly divided by age. Retirees had
large stashes and both the time and money to make lots of quilts.
Younger quilters had student debt, insecure jobs and looming college and
retirement costs that prevented them from spending as much time or
money on quilting. If we had a studio sale with fabric deeply
discounted, the 50+ crowd would spend hundreds of dollars and the 30-somethings would buy 4 fat
quarters. It was a pattern we saw repeatedly. So we never drank the
Kool-Aid about modern quilters or young quilters saving our shrinking
industry. They can’t afford to.
Hiring designers based on the number of Instagram followers instead
of talent will not save our industry. Deciding which books to publish
based on the age of the author will not save our industry. Belittling
other genres of quilting will definitely not save our industry. If you
REALLY want to save our industry, here are a few things you can do:
- Buy fabric and supplies from an owner whose name you know. Buying
quilting fabric from Massdrop or Fabric.com might not seem like a big
deal but for a mom-and-pop retailer every dollar truly matters. If you buy from Massdrop, the
designer makes 15-20 cents per yard at best. If you buy directly from
the designer, they make $4-6 per yard.
- Buy books from authors directly or through local quilt shops. If you
buy a book from Amazon to save $4, the author makes $1. If you buy it
from the author, the author makes typically half of the cost of the
book, usually $10-15. If you buy it from a local quilt shop, the shop
owner makes the profit but at least it stays in the industry and they
stay in business and buy more books. It’s an enormous difference.
- Support ALL types of quilting. If you’re a modern quilter, go to an
exhibit of applique quilts at a local guild. Do a shop hop of shops you
haven’t been to. Take classes that are outside of your comfort zone. All
of this money filters down to support guilds, teachers, shops and
designers.
- Teach someone to sew or quilt. Help a teenager make a quilt for
college or for graduation. Show a boy how to make a messenger bag or a
pillow for his room.
- Understand the laws of supply and demand. With fewer shops in
business and fewer quilters, the cost of fabric has and will increase.
No one is taking advantage of you or ripping you off. It’s just the
economics of each yard costing more because fewer yards are being
produced. Ditto for the cost of magazines, especially with magazines
like ours that has no ads.
- Don’t expect everything for free. Unless you want quilting to go the
way of tatting, with very few people able to make a living teaching or
designing, don’t photocopy patterns for your friends and don’t limit
what you can learn to YouTube. I understand that each of us only has so
much money and it’s tempting to want to give away your favorite patterns
with your guild friends, but if you don’t support shops, publishers,
designers and the like, those people will have to find other ways to
make a living. The closed shops, the shuttered publishers and those who
have left the industry for greener pastures or as a result of closures are proof that it has become harder than it was 20 years ago to make a living in the quilting industry.
Most importantly, can we just band together to support all quilters?
And when I say support, I mean financially as well as sharing with
others the work you find inspiring be it at a guild meeting or through
social media. Can we decide that each quilt is made by someone who loves
quilting as much as you do? If you don’t like the way quilt
competitions are structured, suggest a new category. If you want more
books on a certain topic, email the publisher. If you want more magazine
coverage of a certain trend, let the editors know. If you want a
certain fabric your local shop doesn’t carry, ask if they would be
willing to order it. We are fortunate right now to have more work than
we can manage. However, watching businesses related to quilting close
affects all of us. Please share in the comments section anything you can
think of to support the quilting world.
