One other thing- this month, I saw about 4 magazines in plastic. So it isn't just a Fons & Porter thing.

The reason I stopped getting the mag by mail. is Its was middle of Aug. just turn to Sept and I alredy have to mag that are Sept Oct then I got another one its dated Oct.Nov..They want to push push tgo see thing to buy

The plastic gripes me also. Especially the ones I subscribe to that are in the store, covered in plastic ,because the ones in the store have an extra something that I as a subscriber didn't get. Why do they get the extra and not me?

I have pretty much given up all magazines these days. There are so many ads in them I figure they should probably be paying me to read them. LOL I took one of the magazines I used to get, and removed all the ads from it that I could. If there was an article on one side of a page and an ad on the other side, I removed half a page. By the time I finished taking all the ads out, more than half the magazine was gone. Then I removed other non-reading things like coupons, ordering catalog slips, things that named the companies they featured in the articles (another kind of ad really) and references to brand names in recipes etc. I don't think there was 1/4th of the magazine remaining by the time all the fluff and gratuitous stuff was removed. That did it for me.

I recently stopped all my magazines also. I have a whole room full. I'd rather buy cloth. I'll buy one if there is something special in it. Fons and Porter won't be one of them.

I will check in my large magazine collection for you.

I'm sort of a crazy magazine person and probably buy too many. They have to have several patterns or articles in them for me to buy them. All I see here in plastic are F & P and I never buy them because of that. They should look at this newslist.
Verna in So Cal.

Done! say, thanks for the info... sometimes there are none in the mag, worth buying for the price of the mag... :-P

F&P are the only ones in plastic here. I also go on the internet and pay for a pattern if I want it. Also you can get all the hints and help you need on the internet instead of buying a magazine that has tips and is wrapped in plastic. The library is also a great place to look at magazines and books. If I like a book I take it home and make the pattern.

I used to subscribe to F&P and receive lots of mail from them, which I promptly throw unopened into our mail recycling box. I hope didn't throw away a DVD that they expect me to pay for. Found out years ago anything you receive in the mail that you didn't order is yours to keep or throw away.

Like many of you gals I've lost my interest in quilt mags. I'm saving my mag $'s for fabric buying, now that always something that interests me. LOL! May in Jersey

You can go in goole the title and find the mag.. or just go into the magazine title and issue date... I have done this myself and found what i was looking for....

Eddie, I sent you an email. Didn't want you to think it was spam or someone trying to sell you something. <g>

Linda

Thank you for sharing this information! I enjoyed reading this magazine and have subscribed to it for future issues.

well ladies, i love my quilt mags, i'm a new quilter,and i have learrned a whole lots of information on quilting ,and the quilts are bueatiful.. and about the price of fabric , you get what you pay for ,have you ever had a diamond a real one doesn't it make you feel special? so does having and expensive quilt, it makes you proud of it and it will sell at a higher price when apraised good luck girls

If I had money to buy, I would not buy books or magazines if I could not look threw them. God bless.

I received a free dvd from F & P and then a few weeks later received a invoice for that dvd, wrote to them and told them why I had already canceled my subscription and I wasn't paying for something I hadn't requested.

When I rec'd my QW mag, and it was in plastic wrap I was sure glad. The reason? It was del'd to another street, and the youngster that brought it to me told me that her mom really would have liked to have looked at it before I got it. I've had other mags that I haven't gooten when I should have, and now I know why. As far as in the stores being in plastic its probably because they want you to buy before you see it or too many thumb through or spill on them. The plstic wrap is costing the companies more so our subscriptions keep going up.

My mom usually will get magazines and then pass them to me. It is easier to share. Sometimes there are only a few things in there that I would want.

I don't like it when you buy a magazine because a pattern count your eye. Then when you read it ,you have to buy the mag again next month to get the other parts of the pattern.

I really don't think your missing anything. It is very rare, that I find something I like in a magazine. Personally, I think they know that there is nothing attractive in them and that putting them in plastic prevents people from thumbing through them and realizing that they don't want them. Just mine opinion.

What I'm thinking is, they know most of the patterns are rehashes of traditional blocks, and if you look at them you can reproduce them without buying the magazine.
Or else, they have something special in there, that they know you might be able to reproduce without buying the book - either way, they don't let us see the insides.

I've noticed that too and I find it SO frustrating. Sometimes my local news agent will deeply discount back issues of quilting magazines and and put them on a rack outside the shop unwrapped. I try to pounce then.

The other thing I've noticed is that those magazines that get bundled together in plastic wrap seem to have a fair bit of content that's very similar across the publisher's different titles. Seems to me they're recycling content.

Other than that I agree that books are much better value for money.

I use http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ for books. Free postage. Gotta love that!

Ditto what you all said, especially about the patterns that continue in the next issues. I have ipad but prefer books that are paper and holdable. I like to go to the bookstore and wander the shelves. When I pick up a book I can read the jacket and get a sense of whether I like it or not. The info on the computer does not help me decide. I like to watch the other book buyers and what sections they are in...biography, crafts, hobby...gives a sense of who they are. Nosy I guess or just like being around people who like books. I like holding the book to my bod and carrying it to my car and sitting on my sofa with a cushy pillow and the book in my hand. Guess I'm proof you can't teach an old dog new tricks. The quilt books are lovely. If a magazine has at least 5 items I like or one I'm enraptured with I will buy it. I do no buy wrapped ones either except the cross stitch ones which are lovely and always have patterns I like. I once bought a wrapped magazine and someone had slit it and removed the free item. I didn't notice til I got home and the store replaced it. The quilt shops have great patterns and books, more than I can afford but browsing is nice. The internet patterns are a treasure chest waiting to be opened.
When I am being economical, I search the book store for what I want and then ask the library to get it for me. It has boomeranged on me a few times because I liked the book so much that I went later to the book store and ordered one for myself after seeing the library copy. At our library you can donate money for a book on a topic like quilting and they will let you read it first. That way I do not have it hanging around and others share it at my expense. I can only do this once a year. I must say that knitting and crochet magazines are quite original and mod. I love the styles they are coming up with.

Well, I subscribe to 4 of them and some come in plastic once in a while and i see no reason for it. Then mostly they come as is. So who knows. I am thinking, no more subscriptions soon, they are getting repetitive.

I stopped buying magazines when I was piecing a top from F and P and the instructions were wrong. Never again.

Magazines are just eye candy to me. I have never made a quilt from one. Instructions are usually not the best way to make a block anyway.
Im down to 2 mags now and will keep one just for something to look forward to in the mail.

Barnes & Noble, cup of coffee and a couple of quilt mags. My idea of a perfect rainy day.
And I put them right back where I got them.

Is it possible that they are wrapped in plastic because 'some people' were removing the pattern inserts and then the mags were not sellable.....my goodness people are stealing newspapers for the coupons....you can not put anything pass people in todays economy.

garysgal,

It was F&P with the clothes catalog inside. On Monday night someone at Guild had mags. for $1 and I bought 6 - all my cash. F&P was there.

The DVD's cost them about 10 cents. No worry if you keep something that you did not order.

Quilter68

When I first started quilting, I thought I had to subscribe to every magazine out there. So, I ended up with tons of mags which I just recently gave away. I also have probably 20+ hard back books. Now that I'm back into quilting, I sort of regret giving away all my magazines before I went through them and cut out some patterns I really really liked. Oh well, such is life. I have just subscribed to one magazine again, American Patchwork & Quilting. They had an offer of a free year with one year purchased, so I am getting 24 issues for $24. Not too bad a deal. And as far as plastic wrappings, I like to get my magazines wrapped so that they are not torn when I get them. I am a great respecter of books and magazines and don't like them to get damaged. Cannot stand to turn down a page corner in a book. (A little OCD I guess.) I think with these new mags, I will clip any articles or patterns I want, then pass them on.

I thought a year's subscription was just 6 issues.

depends on the magazine....some every month, some every other....which is a real bummer.