Quilt Market Trends

Shopowners attend Quilt Market to learn about the latest trends.  They want to have the newest items in their shops.  Vendors also bring their newest designs and products.  The fabric that is showcased at Market won't be available in quilt shops until the Spring.

Each morning before the doors opened, I walked the aisles to get an overview and see the trends.  I noticed a few.  

1.  Cork - cork that can be used like leather was everywhere.  There were natural colors, colors and prints.

Cork was mainly used for accents on handbags and bags themselves.

2.  Blue & White

This is so exciting.  I love blue and white.  I have a collection of Willow Blue dishes.  My walls are painted blue.  Even my car is blue!  Blue has been on the outs for the past few years.  I'm so glad it's back.

3.  Brights

Bright, clear colors have been on the store's shelves and there is more coming.  Believe it or not, this is a Block of the Month (BOM) called Cadence Court, with instructions to create a wedge a month.  Pretty clever.  It was designed by Shayla Wolf of Sassafras Lane Designs with her fabbric line - Foundation.

4.  Clothing

There were a bunch of patterns to create clothing, plus knit fabric and double gauze.  It's interesting to see what we think of as quilting fabric appear as a shirt or skirt.Have you started making you own clothing?

Did you take a Quilting In America survey a few months back?  It showed up on many websites.  The results were presented at the beginning of Market.  

       Quilting is a $3.7 billion industry

       There are 7-10 million quilters in the US

       Each quilting household spends an average of $442 annually

       Dedicated quilters are defined as those spending more than $500 or more a year.  The demographics of the dedicated quilter is female, 63 years old, has been quilting for 19 years, is well educated (70% attended college), affluent with average household income of $95,900 and leans toward a preference of traditional quilting styles.

Not surprising, is there was almost a 40% increase in those who get information from quilting related websites, online classes and videos and participation in social media since 2014.

The good news is there is a growing group of Dedicated quilters under the age of 45.