The path toward creating a $5 billion market might be more colorful and cozy that you think. Quilting, according to an annual survey by Premier Needle Arts, can be big business.
In Augusta, that market is growing, made clear by the re-opening of Country Barn Quilt Co. in Martinez.
Country Barn, at 3905 Roberts Rd., is the Augusta area’s third sewing-related store. Atlanta and Augusta Sewing Center, 3230 Washington Rd., Augusta, and Jeff’s Sewing and Vacuum Center, 3833 Washington Rd., Augusta, both sell and service sewing machines, which can cost more than $15,000. But the only shop sustaining itself with fabric sales alone is Country Barn.
That’s no small feat, according to Abby Glassenberg, co-founder of the Craft Industry Alliance, which supports creative entrepreneurs.
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Quality keeps local sewing shops thriving
“Margins on fabric are low and you can’t win on inventory anymore,” Glassenberg said. E-commerce retailers can offer every shade of red and every pattern created by famous designers.
To compete, Glassenberg explained that brick and mortar fabric stores instead offer something else: quality and designer fabric.
“Local quilt shops sell premium quilting cotton," she said.
Quilters, she said, prefer to see and feel the fabric for themselves.
"[Making a quilt is] a labor intensive hobby and not cheap, so once you’ve graduated past your first quilt or two, you want it to last,“ she said.
That means fabric that won’t bleed in wash, fade in sun or become threadbare easily. What's needed is heartier material that often can’t be purchased at a big box retailer.
Building a sewing community a key factor
Community is the other key factor and that’s what drove Sandra Daniel to purchase Country Barn last year after the original owner moved away.
“This was my go-to spot for myself. Quilting was my hobby. One day the owner pulled me aside and said now she's closing. I cried," she said. "I went home, and I cried some more and told my husband all about it. He was like, ‘Well, let's do it.’ And I was like, 'What?'”
They re-opened the store in August 2023, adding a “Hubby’s Corner” with recliners and a TV for non-quilters to relax in while their significant others shopped and sewed.
Behind the retail space is a bright room with 12 sewing tables, music and coffee. It's a space quilters can work alongside one another as often and as long as they want. Daniel described it as a “third space.”
“It's where you go if you're not home (or) you're not at church. This is your go-to place for [those] here in our community − Martinez, Grovetown and Augusta. We even have people coming from Aiken, South Carolina,” she said.