This is Mostly Our Fault

Made it back from the family beach trip in one piece…it was nice, it was fun, and it was hot.  It’s nice to be back home with Sam (who now refuses to let me out of his sight) and back in my quilt studio.

However, I am a little … emotionally wrought at the moment.  I stayed off social media for a great deal of the time while at Ocean Isle, so when I checked my personal Facebook page I was surprised (also read upset, alarmed, angry) to find out that City Quilter in New York City is closing in October.

Oh. My.

If 2016 goes down as anything in the quilting world, it’s going to be the Year of the Major Changes.  Let me recap…

1.     The National Quilt  Association closed.  This was the granddaddy on the quilting block – the organization that begat AQS, the National Teacher Certification Program, and the National Judges Certification Program.

2.    Quilters Newsletter, the granddaddy of quilt publications, will cease publication in October (October is looking like a lonely, lonely month already).

3.    The International Machine Quilters Association, which has been around for 20 years, is shuttering.

4.    The Applique Society came very, very close to disbanding and has only survived by going completely electronic and changing membership due dates. 

5.    City Quilter in New York City – a major shopping destination for quilters both in person and on line – is closing.

6.    Hancock Fabrics closed all of their stores.

7.    And finally AQS announced this week that they will no longer publish books.

Wake me up when this nightmare is over.

I’m a quilter as well as an owner of a non-quilting related business.  Seriously – demolition and environmental services are about as far away from quilting as you can get, unless you count the fact that my paycheck allows me to foster my obsession, habit, hobby.  I’ve read more than my fair share of contracts and seen equally as many P&L statements.  Let me let you in on a little secret:  These shop owners, boards, and publishers?  They may love quilting and quilters, but they’re a business.  Even the nonprofit organizations such as NQA and TAS have to keep the bills paid and the “doors” open for their members.  The bottom line is the bottom line no matter what, and when that bottom line bleeds red for  several fiscal quarters, changes have to be made and sometimes those changes are painful. 

Normally at this point, the optimist in me would like to issue a Pollyannaish statement, such as “Embrace change” or “No pain, no gain,” but I’m also a realist and at this point I’d like to place blame squarely where the blame belongs:

You and me.

Now before you stomp away in a huff, hear me out.  Remember, I have a long history of quilting and work part-time at a local quilt shop.  I’ve been on all sides of the sewing machine except quilt store owner.  Let’s begin to deconstruct what is happening in our quilting world, step by step.

First let’s deal with our shopping habits.  The average age of the average quilter is now 55 and this is one area I’m happy to be below average.   The average female quilter is now at a point in her life where her kids are pretty much grown and flown the nest or she is at least very close to this point.  The house is paid for or paid down to the point that she’s comfortable in the balance due.  For the most part, college tuition is a thing of the past and she has more disposable income to spend in her quilting.  So it’s not that the money isn’t there to pay dues to organizations such as NQA, AQS, or TAS, it’s that either A:  She doesn’t see the benefit of these organizations or B: She doesn’t like the way they’re run.

Let’s take A first.  If you don’t see the benefit of these organizations, quite frankly, you need glasses.  NQA offered judging and teaching certifications, grants, quilt shows, and a wonderful publication.  If you didn’t see these as benefits, then honestly, I’m really not quite sure what you’re looking for.  The same goes for AQS, who also offers all types of on-line deals for their members as well as iquilt.  TAS offers a terrific bi-monthly newsletter with patterns and interviews with quilt artists as well as a very active Facebook page that you can only join in on if you’re a member.  There’s also an annual meeting that is tons of fun. 

“Oh, I can get all that at my local guild,” you say.

Really?  You can network with quilters from all over the world at your local guild?  Seriously?

I thought so.

Now let’s look at B – She doesn’t like the way these organizations are operated.  If the quilting business is a privately held for profit business like AQS, then I’m sorry.  The president, etc., is going to run the business in such a way as to produce a profit.  So since we’re here, let’s look at the reason why AQS is probably not going to publish books any longer.

In short, print is dead.  And a large part of me hates that.  As a committed bookworm, I have always loved books and have a huge (by my standards) library.  However, for Christmas several years ago, the husband gave me a Nook.  At first I was actually offended.  Somehow holding an electronic device and reading from a screen did not hold the same appeal as a book with paper pages I could actually turn. 

Then I realized that I could store hundreds of books on this thing and not have to take a separate bag for my reading material when I was on the road.  It would fit snugly in my purse.  I went from offended to deliriously happy in the span of minutes. Now I have the Nook, a Kindle, and an Ipad.  All of them have not only the Kindle app on them (as well as my cell phone), but they also all have the Audible app, too, so I can listen to books as I drive or while I’m working in my quilt studio.

I realize that quilting books are a little different because lots of them contain templates or applique patterns to be used for the quilt.  With many of the quilting e-books, these are usually held in a separate file that you print from your home computer.  This does entail making sure that you’re printing the correct size, but it can be done.  And guess what?  You are the one that carries the cost of the printing, not the publishing company.   E-books can be produced at a fraction of the cost of traditional publishing; and they’re available instantly on download (no postage for you or the publishing company and instant gratification).

The downside to this is the authors we know and love make even less of a profit with e-books than traditional books.  And many of these e-books have to be self-published.  No doubt this will mean fewer books on the market for us quilters.  But while we’re here, let’s consider this:  How many of us are actually buying any kind of books if we can find it on YouTube as a video or a free article found on a Google search?

Ah.  Told you so.  See?  We are to blame for a lot of this.

Staying with AQS here, if you are a member and you aren’t happy, let them know.  They want to make a profit and that profit depends on you, the consumer—their member.  Let them know what you don’t like.  If they want to stay in business and enough people complain and threaten to take their dollars elsewhere, they will work to may you a contented member again.  Be nice, but let them know.  They won’t realize you’re unhappy if you don’t speak up.

If the quilting business is a nonprofit organization, such as TAS, and you don’t like the way things are organized or run, let them know, too.  But please be aware that organizations like the NQA, TAS, and IMQA (and your local quilt guild) are operated by volunteers.  Volunteers who give up their stitching time to help create wonderful associations you can join and receive education and patterns and other free stuff. If you don’t like the way these are run then volunteer your time to make them better.  And this includes your local guild.  If you’re not willing to work to make the organization better, then you have no room to complain. 

Still with me?  Good.

Now let’s talk fabric and thread and notions. 

Like I stated earlier, I work part-time in my local quilt shop, Dragonfly.  This shop is much more to my little group of quilting friends than simply the LQS.  It’s a place where we gather on Tuesday night to sit and sew and share burdens and joys.  It’s a place where I learn new techniques.  It’s a place where I learn to be a better quilter because these ladies I quilt with?  They are good.  Really good.  It makes me strive to always do my best.  I want this shop to stay open forever and if the owners ever decide to sell, I hope they offer it to me first.  I want to continue this quilting karma.

However, since I work there, I also pay close attention to the shopping habits of my customers.  You know what really, really makes me mad?  Walmart shopping mentality.

Let me explain.  I spend hours helping customers sometimes.  I will help them dissect a pattern and graph it out.  I will lug down bolts and bolts of fabric for them and help them with a color palate.  They will like it and ask if they can take a picture of the material to reference.  Being the willing person that I am, I tell them yes.  Then I ask them how much can I cut for them.

Only to have them tell me, they’re taking their cell phone picture and going to Walmart (who has no salesperson that is going to do for them what I just did), and finding the fabric. 

Hell. Hath. No. Fury. Like. I. Feel. At. That. Moment.

Not only did I not make the sale, but now I have to put all that fabric up for nothing. 

Not to mention the times that I catch customers trying to sneak and take pictures of patterns so they can make the quilt at home without paying for the pattern.  Or the times a customer will tell me they can get the fabric/pattern/notion/book on-line at a better price than we have at the store.

Let me insert here that yes, I do my fair share of on-line shopping.  Many local quilt stores also have the on-line sales, too.  Yes, please use those.  But if you’re exclusively purchasing these items from large dealers such as Amazon, Fabric.com, Thousands of Bolts,  etc., then frankly be prepared to kiss your local quilt store goodbye.  We can’t compete.  We have to make a profit in order to keep the lights on and the doors open.

And while we’re at this point, let’s talk about what this does to the pattern designer or book author if you incorrectly “share” their work.  If you correctly share their work – that is loan the actual pattern, book, etc., to another person, then that’s fine.  However if you scan and send it via email or make copies to give out (unless expressly given permission to do so), you’ve shortchanged this designer/author out of their paycheck.  These folks work on royalties and advances.  Advances are paid by publishing companies (either electronic or traditional) to the designers or authors to allow them to concentrate on their work and not have to worry about paying their bills.  Royalties are the percentage of sales of their pattern/book.  So while making or scanning copies for your friends is a nice thing to do for them, you’re hurting someone else.  And if the hurt hits the designers’ and authors’ pockets deeply enough, then even their love of quilting isn’t enough to keep them producing what we love.

Think about that.

And while I may have ruffled your feathers at this point, let me fluff them a little more by asking you to cut into your own stitching time and teach a child to sew.  

Let’s do some math at this point.  If the average age of the average female quilter is 55, and the average age most women begin to quilt now is 32, then what is happening between the ages of four (the age you can begin to teach a child to sew) and 31 as far as quilting goes?

Not a whole lot. 

Home Economics/Family Life or whatever the current trendy term is for sewing and cooking class is no longer a required course for any of our children – male or female.  In fact, most schools no longer offer it because they need the classroom space for other core subjects.  Insurance carriers have a hard time understanding why they should insure schools that put kids in front of hot stoves or machines with needles.  And God forbid our children have access to sharp scissors, much less rotary cutters.  So we are facing a current generation that has grown up and the one that is now growing up without the most basic sewing skills of even sewing on a button. 

If you’ve done the math, then that’s 28 years that is void of all most any type of sewing instruction.  That’s 28 years’ worth of dollars that could be spent supporting the quilting industry.  That’s 28 years that could be spent passing down our beloved art to the next generation. 

So we need to do ourselves a favor and teach children to sew.  They can learn as young as age four and I know some 8 year-olds that are perfectly capable of making a quilt.  I fear we’re going to shoot ourselves in the foot as far as the quilting art goes if we seriously don’t consider the implications of not reaching out to children and young adults and introducing them to this art.  It may not yield immediate results, but the seed of curiosity has been planted.  Who knows what it could lead to?

So where does the blame for all of these changes belong?  Yes, some of it is mismanagement (such as Hancock’s).  Some of the change is simply the result of advancing technology that not only lowers cost, but also alters the way we’re used to doing things (think of when the rotary cutter took over templates and scissors).  But a large part of the blame should rest on you and me and our shopping and quilting habits.  I’ve said it hundreds of times before and it needs to be said again:  Support your local quilt shop.  

Let me add to this:

Support your local quilt guild.

Support national and international quilt organizations.

Support those mom and pop quilt shops with web pages by shopping them after your local quilt shop.

Support our quilt authors and designers.

Teach a child/teen/young adult to sew.

There.  I know I may have upset some of you, but this needed to be said.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam