Oh I think online is so wonderful, most sites are so generous allowing people to print off designs etc. I find magazines are too full of ads . there are still the same copyright restrictions but that is fine. Videos on utube are so fantastic and you can save and view again. As a 73 year old I find it all so marvellous, disability bars me from attending many classes. All in all how fortunate we are to have all these things available to us. x Letty

Real magazines are my choice. I really am not interested in on-line magazines. There is something about being able to hold on to something and continue getting ideas. Old-fashioned, I guess.

Oh no! That stinks!! I use carbonite so everything is backed up on my computer, but it still would stink to have that happen. It's a huge pain to restore a backup too-it takes a LONG time.

I think books in general are becoming obsolete. 20 years from now there won't be any books. And magazines are, like you said, advertising.

I love them all...books, magazines, online, etc. However, in the interest of keeping the brain overload down, I have narrowed down my subscriptions down to two magazines and try to avoid buying books since there is a lot of good information online.

I use all medias for quilting, I like books the best, as I can refer back to a project specific page and refresh my memory. I have files of patterns that I have printed out from the internet, and I use them also. But nothing beats the tactile enjoyment I get from holding a "book", and "feeling" the quilt pictured with my fingers. I am lucky that book cases are in every room in this house (lots of thrift store finds).

I love Pinterest and the You Tube videos....I don't even feel the need to take classes anymore, just find a YT vid! BUT...I love my books, especially love the smell of a new book! And magazines? Nothing beats being able to browse through a quilt mag for ideas. I have an iPad and a laptop, but they are not as convenient to carry around, or hold for long periods of time. I grew up in a family that loved, loved books and when my children were growing up we owned an old Victorian home with a library and I had over 4,000 books! Did I say I love books? That was the single most difficult thing to give up when we downsized. :( I now probably have 3-400 books....Only non-fiction...I don't read fiction. The day books are gone will be a sad, sad, sad day! Books last 1,000's of years...where will your digital copy be in 10?

It is a personal preference, but I want the magazine. I drag them out periodically, and go through each and every one of them. They give me such pleasure and I don't need electric to view and use the patterns.

I love books and magazines and buy a lot. I can only read from a computer screen a short while before my eyes start to hurt and I have a very hard time reading for long. I can read from books all day so that is where I go for information and pleasure reading.

I love the sewing tutorials on You Tube, and the on-line classes, like Annie's and Craftsy. I also like the on-line information and patterns I can access. The problem is, until I get a new computer (mine died), I can neither save nor print anything on line ;-(. Don't know when that will be. But even then, I can only print in black and white. There is just something about the colorful photos in magazines that help me to "see" a quilt, and imagine it in different colors. For some reason, I can't do this on line. I have one on-line magazine, but the majority of the rest come from buying quilting magazines from eBay and other similar places. You can get a number of magazines for less than the cost of one or two in the store. I just love leafing through magazines, over and over and over again, so I feel any purchases are worth it for magazines. I sure don't have to worry about books. I went to an estate sale and bought out an entire collection of quilting books from a woman who had quilted for 40 years. Purchased the entire lot for (gasp!) $10. It was the afternoon of the last day of the estate sale, and the family just wanted to get rid of them so they wouldn't have to deal with them. Forget the 6-foot bookshelves! I have books all over the house, and I am loving going through them. So much fun to get a book that is 50 years old, and see the manner of quilting back then, and see if I could do the same blocks as paper piecing, foundation or Jelly Roll friendly. What a riot! And she had new books as well. I swear she was buying books right up to the day she died. My husband does not entirely understand my obsession. LOL! But he does appreciate that it's important to me.

I guess I'm saying I'll take quilting information from any source!

Now, don't get me wrong, I do like looking at some of the ads in quilting magazines, but then when I think about how much is paid for the add, and how much I pay for prescriptions...it does get to being kind of irritating.

I meant 'ad' not 'add.'

Amen, bdiver403! There is NOTHING like the smell of a book. Nothing. An e-reader is never going to do it for me, and I'm a techno-junkie. I've pretty much let all my magazines lapse. Too many ads. And most of the patterns out there today are knockoffs of traditional patterns, with just a tweak. Those I have fun trying to re-create in EQ. If I'm successful, great. If not, well, I've probably learned something in EQ. I'd rather save my money for fabric!!!

I always loved quilting magazines. Couldn't wait for the next one. (I subscribed to several) Gradually, as their prices went up, I noticed that over the years there was a lot of repetition. If I saw one more easy way to make 1/2sq. Triangles, I thought I'd scream. Then I noticed new things on line. Innovative, easy, broke a few "rules" and it was free. Then I found this board and I was hooked. YouTube was my new best friend and my evenings were spent with my iPad. Still subscribe to 1 mag. Just for old time sake, and enjoy it but it's a "pleasent 1-afternoon" kind of thing. The Internet has become my go-to for quilting.

I use to have subscriptions to magazines but only buy them now if there is a particular pattern that I want to make. I use online but still prefer books and magazines.

I love quilting books (especially from my favorite designers, like Kim Diehl, or my favorite design, like Log Cabin, or my favorite style, like Primitive). I collect these sort of books almost as much as I do fabric!

I love thumbing through magazines for inspiration, but they get too cluttery so I usually just rip out the patterns, pictures, or articles I just can't live without!

BUT, I received a Kindle Fire HD 8.9 for Christmas, and it isnow my new best friend. I'm able to instantly download a pattern (usually FREE). And it conveniently sits right next to me and my macine. No more struggling to keep books open to the right page, or realizing too late that you've either lost or failed to rip out the last page of instructions that you threw away months ago.

So for me, online is the way of the future. So of course that means I've got to hurry up and collect as many books as possible on my wish list before they are no longer in print!

Over the 40 yrs I've been quilting, I've collected MANY magazines and books.A few years ago I started clipping the articles and pictures I liked, and I save those in binders. I decided to prune the mags this yr and found that the earliest ones have very little that I want to save. I spent too much money on books to prune them. Don't belong to a guild, so they'll remain on my shelves. Since I discovered Pinteresst (big sucking black hole where I spend too much time every day - more than I ever spend here on the board - LOL), I'll never buy another magazine or book again.