I agree with CRH, the next magazine COULD HAVE the ONE!!!!!!

I love QN magazine and all of the ones from Australia. I also like the new one from Ireland. I pick my own fabric out for all my quilts. But I love looking at all the art quilts and reading about how they came to be. I don't care for traditional quilts as much as art quilts so Fons and Porters is one that I don't buy or read. Or any of the Easy Quilts mags.

Sybil

I'm wanting to subscribe to a quilt magazine. I recently bought a Fons & Porter's. I really enjoyed it. In fact my son observed that "you really took a long time to read that magazine". Does anyone else enjoy this magazine?

I love F&P...one of my favorites...if I had to choose I think I use more patterns out of the "Quiltmaker" than any other magazine....I buy Au "Homemaker" at the LQS and I really like that one too...its $10 but love the reading as much as patterns

I really like magazines that have patterns too. I'll have to look for that mag the next time I'm at Barnes Noble.

I was a long time subscriber to Quilter's Newsletter going back to the first when it was all in black and white, on a mimeograph machine. I still have thosse treasured issues. When they went to slick paper and color was in heaven, so many ideas and great patterns. In the late 80's they started changing and by the 90's it was not good. I stopped my subscription then, and just buy when they have an issue that appeals to me.
On Mark Lipinski, I got one issue of his Quilter's Home, and immediately called and cancelled it. Don't care for his style at all, not enough about quilting in it for me.
I love Quiltmaker and plan to subscribe to it soon.. Will be dropping Quilt when the sub runs out and maybe Fons and Porter too...

I too have lost interest in my Quilt magazines. I found that they offered ideas and were good eye candy, but most of my quilts came from ideas and web sites recommended through this wonderful board and at no charge. THANKS EVERYONE

I used to love, love, love QN primarily for its emphasis on art quilts. I guess they can't please everyone! But I've gotten extremely bored with the magazine and its new format the last couple of years. My renewal came up a few months ago, and for the first time in 10 years, I did not renew. Now, I am inundated with reminders, special offers and persistent mail from them, which is more annoying than their magazine.

I don't care much for Mark Lipinski's magazine either. Too chatty and in your face.

I finally have come to the conclusion that I subscribe to too many magazines. My all-time high was eight or nine when I first started quilting with a vengeance. My list has dwindled down considerably. I have enough magazines and articles in my "saved" piles to last another lifetime.

I am down to only 3 quilting mags now. My favorite is Quilters Home with Mark Lipinski. It is now my all time favorite!! I love it and read it cover to cover when it arrives. I also subscribe to Fons and Porter and McCall.

It seems like the quilt magazines sort of 'morph' into their own personalities. QNM has seemed to morph into more of an art quilt mag than Quiltmaker. It seems a lot of people have canceled for that reason. I must be still lots of folks who love it, or they would listen to those who aren't happy and go back to the old format.

I canceled my 12 year subscription to QNL last year because they started letting company owners or salespeople write "quilting" articles. When I read John Flynn's article about how we quilters should be thankful to the vendors at quilt shows for all the work they do to come to the show and allow us to purchase their wares, I thought, then why don't they give their merchandise away? That article however, was topped by his article (in a quilting magazine) about FISHING!
Also the woman who writes the article about Long Arm Quilting Machines seems to mention the Statler System in every article. Wonder who she works for?
When I attended the April Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL, there was a booth hawking subscriptions to QNL and when I was asked if I wanted a subscription, I said "NO" and before I could finish, the clerk said, "Oh, another quilter who dislikes the new format." Perhaps QNL will return to their original format that made it the best selling magazine in the quilting world. We can only hope!

I've been trying to think of another magazine I like and thanks to a poster, my memory is refreshed. It's Quiltmaker. They have had in the past a lot of patterns I have used. Haven't bought any recently. I've got quilt magazines everywhere. My mother subscribed for years and I inherited them and then started my own subs but no longer take any of them. No space.

I get Quick Quilts, Quilt, (my 2 favorites), Quilter's Newsletter, McCall's, Better Homes & Garden one, Quilter's Home (I hate it) & Fons & Porter. I think that is all, may be one more. It seems one month they are good & next they have just junk. I always put post it tabs on ones I like & put them in a file crate basket for future reference. I'm like some of the other ladies I inherited all my mom's books, magazines & stash. She also cross stitched so I have all those magazines & books. Some of the old magazines are like now some have good stuff one month & junk the next. Guess we can't win for losing. I'm not going to renew some of them & will just get off news stand so I can get what I want & not waste my money.

I have also been disappointed with the quilting mags! But I am also disappointed in ALL the magazines lately! $5.00 subscriptions to a bunch of them last year. Every month they all had the same articles. I'm 60 years old and they are all geared to 2 generations younger than me! No offence to any one...I was young too. Woman's day, Family Circle, LHJ, Good houskeeping, Redbook, Organic something, Body and soul Several of Martha's mags. AND the amount of advertising is unreal! Why should we have to pay for any magazines........Sorry that was quite a soap box!
I am not a very active member....mostly read and look at the pictures! I love this site. I have several more places but this one is the easiest to navigate. Thanks for listening

I know what you mean. The 1st think I do is tear out all the card things so I can read the mag. My favorite is Cusine because they have no ads anywhere. Cooks Illustrated & Cooks Country don't either. I would love a mag with less ads. I also hate all those ladies mags that advertise sex articles. My little grandmother would turn over in her grave if she saw what is in them now. My daughter had an issue of Cosmo & I couldn't believe what was written in there. I'm not that old either but I was shocked. I guess when enough of us don't renew they might get the point.

This is an interesting thread. I stopped my sub. to QN about a year ago. I realized there wasn't a thing in it that I was interested in any longer. That was the first of my subscriptions to go. Next was McCall's. The problem with them was the same as what a lot of you mentioned, the fabrics they used weren't what I had in my stash and the quilts don't look quite as good without them. I'll be darned if I'm going to go out and buy more fabric when I have a studio filled with it. Aniother thing is that I have back issues (all in order) of so many magazines. I always put a sticky note at the top of the page when I want to use a particular pattern. When I looked at all the sticky notes sticking out of all those magazines I knew that I couldn't possibly live long enough to make all of those things. Nor to use up my entire stash. So, as each of my subscriptions expire, and I have quite a few, they will not be renewed. That's one of my contributions to my DH's economy toot. And yes, I purchased the first two issues of Mark Lipinski's magazine. I found it a little too flip and smart alecky for my taste. I have a good sense of humor, but his stuff left me flat. So no more of them, either. I DO like his fabrics though.

Our quilt guild resells the magazines for .25 each and I have taken several sacks full to them! We live in a micro apt and I just don't have room for any thing else. I scan the patterns that I like and then share the mags with quilting friends or the guild.

Thanks JudithB, scanning is a good organizational plan, great idea!!

You can also download to a flashdrive which would really save space as I have 3 - 4inch binders full of quilt patterns. I'm running out of room. I need to down load all my machine embroidery patterns to one as Ms Computer is getting full also.

In Tucson, a used book store called Bookman's pays you for some books & magazines and resells them. QNM is one of them. I save mine, so I don't know how much they buy them for, but others in Tucson who want to find OLD issues can look there.

Saving to a portable hard drive is a great idea. I use binders now - but I have a lot of them. I'll never use all those ideas in my lifetime, but I keep saving them anyway!

I haven't bought a new quilting magazine in some time -

I've noticed a lot of the other magazines have so many ads for various medications - have the quilting magazines stayed free of them so far?

YES! I have had a subscription for 20 years. Have saved the old issues and often been able to find articles from years ago that help me figure out a problem and/ or give me new inspiration. For the past few years the articles seem to be promo ads for new fabric lines. Would like for QN to return to the format that made their so great; ie current design trends, new techniques, increased reader content, quilt histories, and quilt venues.

I subscribe to my two favorite quilting mags, which are McCall's and Fons & Porter. I also like Fabric Trends because they have a great selection of patterns in each issue. Does anyone else buy Fabric Trends magazine?

I love saving quilt patterns on my computer, but they do take up a lot of room. so my solution was to get an external hard drive, 500 gigabytes, that holds a lot of patterns, pictures and is a good back up for my computer. I highly recommend it and you can always find these things on sale, more even closer to christmas shopping time.

I do agree with you. I really was impressed with the magazine the first year I took it, but this year has been a complete bust. I won't subscribe again. I think most quilting magazines do the same thing. Fons and Porter is another one that I would not take again for the same reason. If your lucky you get one pattern every other month for your money.

:twisted: I see patterns that I like in the fabrics shown, but most are only sold in kits. I would like to see the fabric measurements (i. e. 1 yd pink floral; 2 yds blue wave, etc.) matched up with the fabrics in the pictures so that you could visualize your own selection of fabrics. In other words 1 yd pink should also be marked as fabric A with a corresponding A shown in the picture of the quilt. Gives a much better picture of what your own selection would look like, but I guess that's too much to ask. Maybe the problem is with me or I'm not experienced enough to make the proper visualization on my own.

I subscribe to Quiltmaker and New Zealand Quilter but won't be re-subbing to QM when my subscription runs out, it's just not value for money. I will definitely be re-subbing to NZQ though.

I've stopped buying Australian quilt magazines because they all come in a sealed pack of 3. Two are back issues of other quilt magazines that they want/need to get rid of. They also charge $1 extra to the cost of the magazine I want for the 2 back issues that I don't want. Down Under Quilts is great if you are into artsy quilts, and Australian Quilters Companion is great - and also includes a free CD with each copy.

Because I'm on a fixed income and don't have money to waste on things I don't want/need, I prefer to look through the magazine before I decide to buy it. That is how I discovered NZQ, and also American Quilter - and became a member of AQS.

Just got a new issue Of "Quilt" today. Has some nice stuff in it this time.

I do the same; except the only ones I've gone back and made were from McCall's and from Fons and Porter.

Minda, I too love Fabric Trends as well as The Quilter. My very favorite is Quilting Arts Magazine. So inspiring and chock full of techniques!! These three mags I always save and never toss.

I bought a lot of old magazines on ebay and i learn a lot of little bits here and there...as far as difficult patterns they have them...the cover quilts are all wow

I'm lucky as it is at the local library so I don't have to buy it and can just look at it. I have another delivered hom and have already made one from one of the magazines. I will probably ask for another subscription from my niece for christmas. She likes to do that.

I am just so appreciative of reading all your opinions on magazines and books available for quilters. I'm not part of a guild, and don't have any quilting friends in town, so reading your reactions to things like this really helps me decide where to best spend my hard-earned money. Thank you all so much!

PS: I've been disappointed with Quilter's Newsletter Magazine too, and with the last issue I bought I had to ask my self why I bought it.

Renee

I think what happens is that people new to quilting are so excited with it that they love almost all of the magazines. The bright colors, and the beauty of all the quilts, plus the pictures (in the readers' "write in" sections) give them a lot of confidence that they too can make these quilts. I know this happened to me. The magazines make you aware that there's a whole new world for you out there. After a number of years that kind of glitter wears off a little and you settle down to reality, what you can someday hope to make and what is simply beyond your expertise. You begin to look at the mags with a jaded eye, and you want a more realistic approach. You also know that your lifespan will only permit just so many quilts to be made, no matter how fast you can work. That is when we start weeding out our subscriptions and getting them down to a reasonable few. Or just stop subscribing and start going through all the back issues we've saved. Just my opinion.

Well said, Bev!! That's exactly what has happened to me.

I subscribe to Meg Cox's newsletter, and she may have the answer for you in her latest: (I am sorry that it is long, but I didn't want to take anything out of context) .......so, don't be quick.....wait and see what happens with the new owners.
NEWS FLASH: MAJOR MERGER OF QUILT MAGAZINES
We all know the economy sucks and magazines and newspapers everywhere have gone under due to steep drops in ad revenues. There have been rumors for months that magazine publisher CK Media was in trouble, followed by reports of layoffs at its various titles. These are some of the most beloved quilt publications around, from the long-lived Quilter's Newsletter to the fun, new kid on the block, Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home. Personally, I subscribe to both of these as well as other CK titles like McCall's Quilting and couldn't bear to contemplate their demise. In all, CK Media put out 9 magazines with a combined circulation of about one million.
The news is mostly good. Earlier this month, CK Media was acquired by New Track Media LLC, a publishing company based in Cambridge, Mass. that already owns such high-profile quilting properties as QNNtv, Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting and the Keepsake Quilting catalogs.
There's been grumbling over the subsequent firing of more than 20 CK Media employees, from editorial staffers to management and back-office types. I can see why New Track wouldn't want to keep circulation, accounting and other such functions in Denver and Salt Lake City when it's got these departments elsewhere. But I also understand why this mega deal might make some folks nervous. The lion's share of quilt magazines are now owned by one company. That's a lot of eggs in one basket, so let's take a look at whether that basket is sturdy.
New Track Media is part of the portfolio of a well-regarded private equity company called Boston Ventures that specializes in media and communications. But the key player here is New Track's CEO Stephen Kent. As a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, I know there are investor groups full of meatheads who buy up assets willy nilly, with no passion for the products in question and no more than greed as a strategic plan, but I don't believe that's the case here. I had an opportunity recently to put some questions to Stephen Kent about the deal, so I'll share his responses.
First off, Kent is a savvy, Harvard-educated guy who formerly spent 5 years as CEO of F & W Publishing, a publisher of hobby and special interest magazines, books and book clubs that grew to $250 million in annual revenues from $65 million when he began. So he gets the publishing business and he knows how to grow it. He founded New Track in 2006 and since has acquired Keepsake Quilting, Fons & Porter and QNNtv, among other properties including the magazine Sky & Telescope.
In defending the staff cuts, Stephen Kent told me: "We believe that the entire group (at CK Media) was at risk before our transaction, which is to say that we feel like we protected most jobs while having to reduce some." Going forward, he says, quilting is now the biggest component of New Track's business, and thus he is committed to "seeing the category grow and helping it do that by serving quilting enthusiasts in the best ways possible... The objective is to do more not less, so eliminating publications is not in our plans."
I was eager to ask Stephen Kent about the Quilting in America survey, a popular census of quilters which has been published every 3 years since 1993. The last survey came out in 2006 from CK Media, so 2009 would seem to be time for an update. "The former ownership let this slip, presumably due to cost," he said. "We are now trying to figure out if we can make this happen. If at all possible, our intention would be to continue the research." So, there may or may not be a 2009 Quilting in America survey announced at Quilt Festival in October, but they're trying.
It's impossible to predict how this company will change these publications going forward, but so far things look promising. For one, this deal puts two powerhouse talents in the same company: Mark Lipinski and Jodie Davis, president of QNN, who will debut their new quilt TV show, Quilt Out Loud, on the web later this month. (For details go to www.quiltoutloud.com). Also, Angie Hodapp was just named editor-in-chief of Quilter's Newsletter, taking over from Jan Magee. Angie is a young, passionate and very able editor who understands the high-tech tools of today's quilters, so this bodes well.
Bottom line: I think we should all celebrate this move because it represents a humongous investment in the future of quilting. These are smart people and they clearly think quilting is going to continue growing. Let's surpass their expectations, shall we?

Patrice.J, thank you for the web site. I signed up right away. I love to look at things on line.... especially for free. There are so many sites out there now that charge a lot to view their shows and products... nice to get a freebie... Quilter 1234

You know, after my earlier response, I was thinking that instead of buying the magazines, a new (or even an experienced ) quilter would benefit more from purchasing a few good books written by professional or seasoned quilters. I have several and have gone to them as good resources. At first I looked for books that "started from the beginning." I looked for good illustrations, good step-by-step instructions, and all of the things that a new quilter may not be aware of. For instance -- what are the sizes of different quilts: baby, lap, couch, twin, double, queen, king? What tools are most necessary? Care of fabrics. Etc. Piecing techniques.

A lot of books come to mind, and I know which ones I like best. I don't want to seem as though I'm advertising any of the authors or books. Many books would suit the needs a new quilter. I still consider myself a beginner, even though I began in 1995. There are so many things that I don't know. And truthfully, this board has been my favorite "book."
Just the day-to-day advice and comments are good learning devices. And let's not forget the tutorials. I know a lot of you could add more than this. I'm still learning my way around the board. I learn something new everyday.

I let my subscription to QN go 2 yrs. ago. Not my cup of tea! I like the others except Lupinski's. I'm interested in the quilts the subscribers make.

I agree. I discontinued my subscription.