Unless you really love to collect magazines or like looking at the quilt pictures in them, I have found it easier to purchase the mags that i want from the store. Most of the quilt magazines have websites often with free patterns from their magazines.
You can find so so many quilt patterns online free. If you sign up for a free newsletter from
Fave Quilts you will receive a weekly newsletter with free quilt patterns that this site has collected from many of the popular blogs such as Red Pepper Quilts, Sew Mam Sew, etc. all neatly sitting in your email inbox. American Patchwork's website is Allpeoplequilt.com which has many free quilt patterns from their magazine issues.
Tipnut.com has all sorts of free projects for you to dive into.
Since you are just starting out in this oh so expensive habit, you may want to consider just browsing the magazines on the newsstands first to see which ones interest you and perhaps save your funds for the fabric obsession you are sure to acquire. Enjoy your new crafting journey. It will be fun.
@BrendaK I had the same experience with applying for trial issues of quilt magazines to see which one I would be interested in. No subscriptions for me. If there is a quilt pattern I see online that is in an older magazine, I usually go to Ebay to see if I can purchase it.