Dying Art or Cognitive Distortion?

I visited the Quiltopia quilt show in Salem, OR last year with a non-quilting friend.  She said "Oh, it's so sad that this is a dying art!".  Queried I: "What makes you think it's dying?", and she responded by pointing out the aging demographic she saw... that most of the people at the show were middle-aged to elderly.  She worried that they would age and die, and thus would perish quilting!  But, I countered, the middle-aged-to-elderly demographic is constantly renewed, as people age into it! 

She might be the last quilter! Mennonite Board of Missions. Photographs. Illinois, Eureka, 1961-63. IV-10-7.2 Box 3 Folder 70. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.

Maybe quilting is a hobby people tend to take up in their middle years, as they settle into homes that have room for all the stuff, and as they age out of caring about fashion and clothes-sewing.  Plus, a lot of young people exhibit their quilts on blogs and message boards (looking at you, r/quilting!) and Facebook, rather than in shows. 

I wonder by what rubric we could actually evaluate whether an art is "dying"? 

The answers to an old AskReddit question "What's a 'dying art' these days?" followed an amusing pattern:

PERSON A: __________________ is a dying art!  No-one does it anymore! 
PERSON B: I do it. 
PERSONS C, D, E, F, etc: What are you talking about?!  Lots of people do it!  You must just be looking in the wrong places.  Here are examples...
PERSON A (again): Those examples don't count because they don't look like the old traditional way. 

Read through the thread to see what I mean.  Dry stone walls are a dying art -- NOT IN NORTHUMBRIA!  Stone-carving is dying art -- LOOK AT THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO!  And of course, my favorite: Quilting is a dying art -- no it's not; lots of hipsters quilt -- HIPSTERS DON'T COUNT BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT GRANDMA!

Just once, I'd like to see Person A come back and say "My God, you're right!  How marvelous!  Thank you for showing me this art is still alive and kicking."  But no-one is more certain than a pessimist. 

NO-ONE does English Paper Piecing anymore! Mennonite Board of Missions. Photographs. Illinois, Eureka, 1961-63. IV-10-7.2 Box 3 Folder 70. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.

I used to work at a fabric store, and at least once a week someone would come in and tell me they were looking for a certain kind of fabric that "they just don't make any more"!  I'd show them the table full of that fabric, and they'd finger it while telling me that this stuff simply couldn't be found, no indeed, "they" just don't make it anymore, and "you can't get it for love nor money" and it's "impossible".  Then they'd buy some and walk out the door saying it didn't exist.  I had people tell me, straight-faced, that nylon tricot wasn't made anymore, that speaker cloth was impossible to find, French terry was unobtainable, and old fashioned rubber-backed diapering flannel had gone the way of the dinosaur... as they purchased those things! 

One woman, memorably, told me "they" don't make slips anymore, so she had to make her own.  Then she pulled her slip out from under her skirt, and laid it, crumpled and warm, on the counter to ask me to measure it so she could buy the right amount of fabric.  Meanwhile, I was wearing (and keeping it under my skirt, thank you very much!) a slip from Target. 

Another argument I have heard is that modern quilting isn't "real" quilting because it's done on machines, or using specially made cottons instead of re-purposed clothing rags or flour sacks.  To some, "make do and mend" is essential to the spirit of a quilt.  I disagree.  People back then made quilts with the tools they had, and so do we.  We just have more tools.  They made quilts from what was suitable for quilting, and so do we.  It just happens that modern clothes have too much knit and spandex to be suitable, so we have to buy fabric.

A steel homage to pioneer quilters. Clackamas Town Center Transit Center, Oregon. Photo by TriMet, used under CC BY-SA 2.0.

It is always hard to recognize an era when you're in it.  Only with the passing of time can we look back and say "Oh, that was Eighties hair!" or "It's mid-Century Modern design."  Same goes for quilting.  All the quilts we make now that so offend traditionalists ("Alas!  The death of true quilting!") will someday be seen for a movement or style that characterizes our age.  Just as I can look at a Dresden plate made from small pastel floral motifs and quilted with Baptist fans and say "1930's, and here's why", future quilt historians will look at today's quilts and say "Oh, see how these are made with co-ordinating fabrics all of the same quality?  This tells you the fabric was purchased from one of the specialty quilting cotton makers, like Moda, possibly as a pre-cut 'jelly roll' or 'layer cake'.  Notice the machine stitching?  Many 21st Century makers had home sewing machines.  These colors were popular in such-and-such years.  Neutral or non-gender-coded colors were popular for baby quilts because of the social movements of the time..."  And so on. 

Just because quilting has a venerable history doesn't mean it's fading into in the past.  We are part of its history.