US quilting trends sound warning for Australian industry

In what may be a portent for the future of the Australian quilting industry, latest US research shows that quilting is slowing and is increasingly reliant on a dimishing number of active or dedicated quilters .  The average spend per household has risen 36%, but the total number of quilters has fallen almost to 1994 levels, according to the 2014 Quilting in America report conducted by TNS Global Inc and DP Research Solutions. The percentage of beginning quilters has risen slightly from 7-9% since the 2010 report, but the average age of this group remains close to that of intermediate and advanced quilters.  Dedicated quilters have doubled during the past four years compared to the 2006-10 period, but this means the industry is increasingly dependent on a diminishing number of active quilters as total numbers have shrunk by nearly half since the peak of 2006.  The dedicated group which comprises 12.2% of all quilting households and accounts for 60.4% of expenditure, has been quilting for 20 years, whereas the beginning group has been quilting for around seven years.  These figures are roughly similar to our survey work of KoolKat Quilting customers and the Southern Cross Commercial Quilters Yahoo group, namely that the industry is not recruiting sufficient numbers of active quilters to replace its ageing demographic.  Increasing use of the internet and on-line purchasing is also evident in the 2014 report compared to the previous 2010 report.  The reports may be seen at the bottom of our About Us page