I must admit it was an eye opener to me the first time I saw a commercial quilt pattern to discover it was merely directions. After years of sewing clothing either with bought pattern pieces or my own drafted paper patterns I sure miss paper groceries bags as I used these for patterns and I still have some of them.
I think directions that are sold as patterns are highly over priced. I have only bought one pattern - for the Bow Tucks Bag.
Have to admit I do have a lot of quilt magazines most of which I hardly ever look at these days. Wish I'd had a computer when I started quilting. With all the free patterns available I could have saved a small fortune but I would only have spent it on fabric and I have soooooo much now.