Hello, Q-Bies:
Generation Q has reached another milestone. But we need your help to march past it.
We know your time is precious and if you’re not learning or being entertained, what’s the point? (Believe us, we feel the same way!) However, we’re hoping you’ll suspend this thought for about 20 minutes and add your thoughts to a survey that we hope will begin to tell the tale of the modern quilter/sewist through numbers.
Several things have happened over the last couple of years that led us to this survey. About two years ago, the Modern Quilt Guild became a reality when the first guild started up in Los Angeles (and with several others birthing simultaneously around the country). The national organization of the Modern Quilt Guild was created at the same time to serve its member guilds and anyone interested in starting a chapter.
Now, modern quilters and quilts had been thriving online through blogs, Flickr and social media sites for several years by that time, but this big step on the evolutionary stitching trail marked the point where like-minded creatives demanded facetime. Since then we’ve seen the happy creation of almost 120 chapter guilds around the world.
This is just part of the story, however. Many of the more popular bloggers among this group of quilters and sewists have gone on to design fabric lines, patterns and have written books featuring their quilts and projects. They are lecturing and teaching at guilds and shows. Their work is published in magazines. And all of this is bringing modern quilters to the forefront of our already healthy quilting industry.
When we attended Spring Market 2011 in Salt Lake City in May, we could see the influence the modern quilt movement was having on the quilt industry at large. We are veterans of several years of Quilt Markets and for the first time, we were seeing a huge push forward into the modern arena. Here’s some of what we saw:
- Modern fabric designs featured by some of the most traditional fabric companies;
- Educational lectures about what modern quilting is and how to capitalize on it (remember Quilt Market is geared first and foremost to quilt shop owners);
- Pattern designers featuring distinctly identifiable modern and contemporary designs;
- A surge in non-quilt sewing patterns (another distinction of modern quilters is that they tend to like sewing many other things besides quilts);
- The prominence of those fabric companies that already have a strong modern/contemporary line-up (FreeSpirit, Moda, Michael Miller Fabrics and Robert Kaufman fabrics are just a few); and
- The easy-to-spot presence of younger than typical Market attendees, whether shop owners, designers or employees of companies with booths
In short, it seemed as if every third thing we saw or heard included the word “modern.”
It got us thinking about that often-cited statistic from the Quilting in America Survey, last conducted in 2010, about the average age of today’s quilter being 62 years. The QIA Survey has been conducted every few years for more than a decade and the information contained therein has a powerful affect on the entire industry. From notions manufacturers to publishers, fabric companies and sewing machine makers, most well established quilter-dependent businesses use the survey to guide business decisions.
We decided our demographic–the modern and contemporary quilter—was likely not included in this grand head-count of the q-universe, and we could do something about that. We don’t want to compete with the QIA Survey, which does an excellent job of cataloguing the overall trends in our industry. But we do feel a more specific survey is needed to take note of the anecdotal changes we’re seeing in our industry. That’s where you all come in.
By standing up and being counted, you get to tell the companies serving you what you like most about your sewing addiction and how you want to spend your time and money. Instead of letting the industry define you, you’ll define yourself with the result being more choices in your quilting and sewing life.
We tried to keep it short. We’ve focused our questions on the key components of our quilting/sewing life. We’ll distribute the survey through various channels over a period of three months and we’re asking that you freely post the link on your blogs and pass it around to your friends and groups who might want to have a quick say about their sewing lives. When we’ve gathered enough responses and compiled the data, we’ll freely share the high points. Although individually, we are members of our local Modern Quilt Guild chapters, we are NOT affiliated with the Modern Quilt Guild at large, but we certainly hope to garner support from any interested chapters, because we know this information can help them as well.
And yes, the survey can help us to build readership and advertising support and enable us to move closer to a digital and print format for Generation Q Magazine.
At the end of the survey, we’re asking for your email addresses and basic identification information. We’d love to have you be one of our GenQ Test Drivers. Test Drivers are the people we sometimes reach out to for answers to poll questions, opinions on products and techniques, announcements and just general at-large editorial needs. We pinky-promise with both hands that we will never ever sell this info. We’ll happily remove you from the master email list we’re putting together at any time. But we think you’ll have fun with us and hope you’ll play with us.
Oh, and there’s a giveaway. (It wouldn’t be a real GenQ project without some stitchy graft passing over a few hands, now would it?) We’ll choose one random winner each week from the survey response list to receive some fun, fab prize from the overflowing GenQ treasure chest which includes books, fabric, tools and maybe a firstborn child or two, depending on their behavior that week. We’ll keep you posted on everything. Tune in every Sunday, beginning Sept. 18, to see who the lucky stitcher is. And remember, you can’t win if you don’t dish.
Click here to go to the Generation Q Survey.
Meanwhile, thank you for being part of our community, and for helping us all stand up and be counted.
Jake, Melissa, Megan and Scott.
COMMENT #1
I tried to do the survey but am having trouble with question 14. On the first try I entered 90 in one category, and 10 in the other for 100 percent, but it said it had to have a “sum”. So then I put 120 in one category and 30 in the other and it gave me the same message. Then I tried 90% and 10%, and $120 and $30, and then %90 and %10 and 120$ and 30$ and it didn’t like any of those choices.
What am I doing wrong?
COMMENT #
Hi KIt: I’m waiting for Megan to surface and we’ll figure it out. Is it OK to let you know when it’s all better so you can go back to it?-Jake
COMMENT #
Kit, what browser and operating system do you use?
COMMENT #2
Your survey wants information I can’t leave in a manner that makes any sense to me (I’m older than dirt, so that may be the reason). I got to page 3, but it won’t accept my answers. Or is it just that I don’t spend enough to matter?
COMMENT #
What? You’re not spending enough? Anything is enough. If you’re really not spending money on your quilting monthly, just put in $1 and move on. See if that works.
COMMENT #
Could you tell me what browser you are using and what operating system? I am not finding the same problems when I test the survey, so knowing that may help me diagnose the problem.
COMMENT #3
Just wanted to let you know there are a few tiny issues with the survey. There’s a question with a space for “other” but no radio button to go with it, and a few of these really should have a “not applicable” option. (Sorry I don’t have question numbers to give you, it occurred to me to report it only after finishing the survey.)
I appreciate the chance to be counted!
COMMENT #
Thanks Kate. I’ll look it over. Do you remember what the questions asked that you were having trouble with?
COMMENT #4
I’ll spread the word!
COMMENT #5
It’s not working for me.
COMMENT #
Hi Robin: We’re finding that some of the Internet browsers may be causing trouble with the answers. Can you tell us what’s not working exactly and we’ll try to help?
COMMENT #6
I hate that I had to check the “30-34” age block. Le sigh!
COMMENT #
You’re not really going there Lisa, are you? You could be tarred and threaded for a comment like that around here. 🙂
COMMENT #
Tarred and threaded. MUST file that away in a mental folder somewhere!
I’m new to the 30s club so it was a little weird for me. If I tell you I feel like I’m 70 but act like I’m 5, will that make it all better?!
COMMENT #7
It all worked fine for me.
Just one thing: When asking about “How much did you spend on quilting in the past 12 months”, I wanted to type something like X$ – Y$ (I added numbers there of course, but I don’t want to share this here), and well, the survey did not let me, so I ended up counting bills together to get as close as possible… I don’t know if many quilters will know exactly how much they spend, so it could be an option to allow a “range” (I hope this is the correct word to describe what I want to say).
Oh, and one more thing for the records: I used Google Chrome, Version 14.0.835.202, and everything worked just fine.
Greetings from Germany 🙂
COMMENT #8
Hi there Jake
Just wondering if there were any results from your survey? I am doing market research to start my own home based business (long arm quilting) and I sure could use some stats for my business plan – any chance you can help?
Many thanks
Mary-Ann