Image courtesy of Calico Gals Quilt Shop in Syracuse, New York.

At h+h americas 2025, Mark Hyland, CEO of HandiQuilter, presented a summary of the results of the 2025 Quilter’s Survey. (See 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024 results.) This is a large study of consumer behavior and sentiment in the quilting industry, data that is otherwise very hard to access. Major funding for the survey was provided by Handi Quilter.

Data for the survey was collected in February 2025 (before the tariff announcements). Over 1.8 million quilters were invited to participate via email through five partner brands: Tula Pink, AccuQuilt, Golden Peak Media’s Quilting Daily, Superior Threads, Connecting Threads, American Quilter’s Society, Handi Quilter, and Pro Stitcher. Study design partners included EY Parthenon and Emperitas. Like in years past, the average time to complete the entire survey was just over an hour.

Over 30,000 responses were recorded (about 7,000 fewer than last year), providing nearly 100 million data points. 97% of responses were from North America (95% from the US and 5% from Canada), plus 3% from other countries. As in prior years, no demographic data based on race or ethnicity was shared.

The average quilter

According to the survey data, the average quilter is female and in her 60s. She’s retired and in a household with an income of greater than $75K (up from last year when the annual household income was $70K). She describes herself as comfortable with technology. The average quilter has 10 years of quilt-making under her belt and spends six hours a week working on quilts. She starts 11 projects a year, finishing 9. Most of these finishes are small projects, such as lap-sized quilts, and are in the traditional style. She owns four different sewing machines.

A softening market

The quilting market appears to be softening somewhat. Last year’s survey estimated that the 2025 annualized revenue of the quilting industry would be $4.958 billion. This year’s results, however, fell short of that estimate at $4.5 billion. Still, this is up significantly from 2000 when it was just $1.8 billion, 2010 when it was $3.6 billion, and 2020 when it was $4.2 billion, although the rate of growth appears to be slowing.

The industry now has 9-11 million active consumers, a number that’s stayed consistent over the past 10 years. This year, 18% of respondents indicated they are new to quilting, up from 11% last year.

Shopping and education

Like last year, quilters are looking for free video content for inspiration and education, without YouTube being the platform of choice. The average quilter describes herself as at an intermediate skill level.

Increasing costs due to inflation are causing quilters to use their stash more rather than acquiring new fabric.

When it comes to choosing where to shop, availability and fabric assortment as well as quality all rank higher than price. 64% of quilters prefer to buy quilting supplies at their local shop, up 3% from last year, while 13% prefer to buy online. For fabric and thread, 51% of quilters prefer to shop locally, while 22% prefer to shop online.

Quilters primarily purchase both fabric and supplies from local quilt shops. Overall, shopping locally is steadily increasing.

At Craft Industry Alliance, we collect all available consumer research studies on the crafts industry. Members, access them right here.