Presented by the Quilters Newsletter and in cooperation with the International Quilt Market and Festival, the latest"Quilting in America' survey results are in. The intent of the survey is to measure both the amount of time, and the amount of money, spent in the quilting industry in America and is compiled every three years.
I have been waiting for the latest compilation of facts, but only recently got them all typed up...forgive any typos, I tried my best! A few statistics to see just how you compare to the typical 'dedicated quilter':
Size of the US Quilting Market:
*14% (16.38 million) of U.S. households reporting quilting participation
*Total quilters in the US now exceeds 2.1 million (avg. 1.3 quilters per household)
*Quilting households spent an average of $219 in 2010 (up 27% from the last survey in 2006)
*Estimated total dollar value of the quilting industry stands at $3.58 billion
Dedicated Quilters:
*Defined as those households that spend more than $600 per year on quilting related purchases.
*6.2% are represented as being 'dedicated' quilters, yet they account for 69% of the total quilting expenditures
*In 2010, dedicated quilters report spending a total of nearly $2.5 billion
Who is your typical 'dedicated' quilter? She is:
*Female
*62 years old
*Well educated (72% attended college)
*Affluent ($91,602 household income)
*Spends an average of $2,442 on quilting annually
*Quilted for 16 years
Her Skill Level:
Beginner 7% Intermediate 53% Advanced 41%
Yrs quilted 5 13.5 20.8
Hrs/month 25 39 64
Age 61 62.2 62.2
Her Quilting Stuff:
*Has a room dedicated to sewing/quilting (85%)
*Has $8, 542 of tools and supplies
*Owns $3,677 worth of fabric
Sewing Machines:
*Owns an average of 2.7 sewing machines
*25% own more than 4 machines
*In the past 12 months, 19% purchased a new machine, spending $2,679 on the machine
Fabric:
*In the past 12 months has purchased 93.6 yards of fabric at a cost of $927.10 ($9.90 per yd.)
*Favorite patterns:
small scale florals (69%)
tone on tone neutrals (52%)
Batiks (67%)
Holiday prints (60%)
*Color schemes most purchased..
Jewel tones (56%)
Brights (52%)
Earth tones (52%)
Neutrals (49%)
Pastels (42%)
Thread:
*In the past 12 months, each spent an average of $144.10 on thread
*On average, she owns $517.80 worth of thread and has an average of 152.8 spools ($3.40 ea)
* Color schemes most purchased...
Neutrals (75%)
Earth tones (48%)
White (46%)
Jewel Tones(33%)
Books:
*Bought an average of 4.4 quilting books for last 12 months with an average price of 21.00/book
*Favorite places to buy...
Quilt Shops (50%)
Fabric Stores (30%)
Online (29%)
Mail Order (17%)
Magazines:
*Subscribe to or read an average of 4. quilting magazines
*Spend an average of 5.1 hrs reading them each month
*Primary reason for reading quilting magazines...to learn new tips and techniques, find inspiration, learn about new products
Internet:
*Majority (91%) own a personal computer
*73% regularly access the Internet
*Average 2 hrs per week on quilting websites
*52% go online 2 or more times per day
*69% visit quilting specific sites
*28% belong to Facebook
*Primary reasons for visiting quilting websites...get free quilting patterns, learn about products, shop for supplies, find block patterns, search for fabrics
Key Findings:
*Estimated value of the quilting market in America in 2010 is $3.58 billion (up 9% since 2006)
*16.38 million quilting households in the U.S.(down 14%) from 2006
*Total number of quilters in the U.S. is 21.3 million (down 23%)
*Average quilting household annual expenditure is up 27% to $219
*6.2% of quilting households are considered 'dedicated' and responsible for generating 69% of all quilt industry spending of $2.48 billion
shown above:
A chairful of quilts....out of the hundreds and hundreds my Monday quilting group has created since 2005. This group went via Interfaith Ministries to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
8 comments:
That's really interesting. I'm surprised that they didn't mention blogging, and meeting quilters from around the world.
I am sooooo not average!
me either
i'm liberated hear me roar
I think for the first time in my life I could be considered average--only just a wee bit older than the 62 years old! *grin* and poorer!
I fit some of the average, but the household income???? I don't think so! I'm retired! Oh, and the fabric, how much?? I have been quilting for a very long time. How interesting!!
interesting information Michele. I've gotten rid of all my magazine subscriptions. I'm tying to cut down on the excess household stacks. Most things I've been inspired by lately have been shown on blogs that I visit...like this one. Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I'm glad you are getting back to normal..whatever that is.
I totally agree with the lady who said she has cut back on her magazine subscriptions. So have I. Part of the reason is to reduce clutter...less is really more. The home organization and decluttering class I took at the community college really has paid off :) But another reason is that after a while all the patterns start to look the same. After quilting for 25 years, it is quite possible I have seen it all and there is nothing new under the sun. I'm noticing the patterns in magazines are just slight variations of traditional patterns and nothing I couldn't figure out on my own. Likewise, my creative inspiration is coming from fellow bloggers. America is full of amazing creative women and what I wouldn't do to have some of them sit around my kitchen table on a Friday night quilting and knitting.
And don't you just hate those publishers who feel the need to seal their magazines up in plastic. It's a magazine people, not plutonium!!!! And just not worth taking the chance that you will get it home, break into it, and there will be not one pattern in there that you would even remotely consider making. Sorry Fons Sorry Porter but it stays on the store shelf...unless of course someone who thinks like me has been there before me and ripped into the seal without setting off alarms so I can manage to take a peak at the top secrets in there.
Another reason I dump quilt magazines is when they get political or start commenting on controversial social issues or pushing an agenda. Then it's time for me to cancel my subscription. I quilt to escape the real world :) Spare me the controversy and politics and let me go to my Happy Zone please :)
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