Sew Many Quilts, a quilt shop in Covington, VA, has been chosen as one of the 10 featured shops across the United States for the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Quilt Sampler magazine, published by Better Homes and Gardens.
Quilt Sampler, published twice a year, has been profiling North America’s top quilt shops for the past 22 years.
Quilt shops submit a detailed application on their history, business promotions, charitable work, teaching schedules and design philosophies. A panel of quilt experts led by Linda Augsburg, editorial content chief of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, narrows down the applications to 10 featured shops for each issue.
Competition to be included in Quilt Sampler is keen. Nearly 3,000 quilt shops are eligible to apply for this year’s honor. Sew Many Quilts, and the other nine shops chosen were photographed and interviewed by a team from Quilt Sampler, and a multi-page profile of the shop will appear in the issue, which will be available on newsstands on May 16. Employees of each quilt shop also design an original quilt for the magazine, and the full-sized pattern for the quilt appears in the issue of Quilt Sampler.
Quilt Sampler has proven to be a huge success, and early, out-of-print issues are collector’s items. Chosen shops are inundated with visitors and requests for the shop’s quilt patterns and fabrics. Quilters are known to try and visit all the shops in each issue, getting the signature of each shop owner in their copy of the issue.
The art of quilting has changed dramatically since the days of quilting bees in church basements, with quilting enjoying a major renaissance across the country. A Quilting Consumer Insights study, completed in 2011 by American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, reports that the U.S. quilting market is comprised of 4.2 million avid quilters. Further research shows that readers of American Patchwork & Quilting spend an average of $1,165 per year on quilting supplies and complete nearly 11 projects per year. This group is overwhelmingly female, well educated, affluent, and have been quilting for almost eight years.
