Most magazines havea a website now, so if you have the time to surf the web, that might be a better bet than buying a subscription.
I have two subscriptions -- McCalls Quilting and Quilters Home -- because I have an hour commute each way to work every day. Quilters Home was started by Mark Lapinski. It usually only has 3 quilt patterns, but he has interesting articles about lots of topics, because we quilters are usually crafters / collectors, too.