"Dedicated Quilters"

Recently I added a trip to the INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL in Houston to my bucket list. No, it’s not skydiving out of a plane, or climbing Mt. Everest, or hiking to the South Pole, but for the "Dedicated Quilter" it’s like trekking to the Holy Land for Christians or Mecca for Muslims.  You really want to make the trip at least once in your life...before you die.

I’m not exactly sure why I’m drawn to IQF.  It’s huge, the largest show of its kind anywhere.  I can barely manage the AQS show Grand Rapids.  But we all know…..size matters.  I’d like to see all the quilters gathered under one roof, those of us that make up the annual $3.76 billion dollar industry.  I also love stats, and understanding what this means to the quilting and related industry fascinates me from a sales, marketing, and design perspective. What makes quilters tick, and what makes them buy the things they do?  Delving into the statistics and understanding the crowd taps into my left brain tendencies, methodical, detailed oriented and very analytical.  This left brain stuff messes with my right brain creative, spontaneous and subjective nature. Too much some time…..but that’s another post perhaps.

Coinciding with IQF the QUILTING IN AMERICA SURVEY 2014 was released. This is the 7^th since 1994, completed every 4 years.  Making up this dollar amount is 16 million active quilters in this country, or 1 in every 20 Americans quilt.  I confirmed this stat last Sunday in church, looking around the sanctuary and knowing who quilts.  For the record, the service hadn’t started so I was paying attention.

So who are these DQ's?  The survey reveals “Dedicated Quilters”:

·        Represent 12.2% of all quilting households

·        Account for 60.4% of the total industry expenditures

·        Spend more than $500 a year on related purchases (sewing machines, fabric, notions, tools, patterns, books, computer programs, threads, battings, classes etc…according to the survey the number is more like $3,296 average a year.....holy cow!) 

·        Are female

·        Are about 64

·        See our fiber art obsession as an essential part of our life, not a hobby.

·        Express our creativity thru textiles arts.

·        Reflect what is going on our lives and how we deal with it. 

·        Have quilted for 20.3 years

·        Are 81.3% are traditionalist, 38% embrace art quilting and 35% enjoy the modern styles

·        Are well educated (79% attended college)

·        Have a household income in excess of $100,000

·        Have (on average) $13,000 of tools and supplies and $6000 in a fabric stash

·        Have a dedicated studio or sewing room

Wow.  Where do you fit?  This information helps our local shops determine what they will offer us, along with their understanding of their local demographic and customer buying habits.  Fascinating, isn’t it?!?!