I don't have any subscriptions. I have to confess of what I have been doing for a few years now. When I am at the line at the supermarket I pick up a magazine and look at it. If I find a pattern I like I write down the name and usually find it some place else. I then don't buy it. Very often a quilt is made with a traditional block but what makes it especial is the use of fabric, usually of certain fabric line. I do understand that the magazine wants to make money as well as the fabric designers and I don't blame them for that, but I sometimes feel abused as a consumer. Magazines are expensive for what you get, when the reality is that they don't make money out of subscriptions, but from the sale of adds.
I believe that magazines should be ran like TV. The channels that you get for free are full of commercials, because they are the ones paying the big buck. When the consumer pay to watch TV, like premium channels, the programs are commercial free. My point is, if they want me to read the adds and buy the products being pushed on me, give me the magazine for free. If you want me to pay for a subscription, give me an add free magazine.