Over the past two years I have subscribed to McCalls, American Patchwork and Quilting, Quick Quilts, Fons and Porter For the Love of Quilting, Quilt and The Quilter. My recent subscriptions are to American Patchwork and Quilting, McCalls, Fons and Porter For the Love of Quilting, and The Quilter. I've been getting their Fall editions over the past couple of weeks, and none of them have appealed to me UNTIL I received The Quilter. The quilts in it are truly great.

But, does it seem to you the others are kind of less interesting than the used to be?

I'm finding all 3 of the magazines I subscribe to are less
interesting as time goes on. But, I can't decide if it's they
who have changed or my taste and skills. Maybe a bit of both?

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that I will never get to make all the quilts I have dog-eared in my magazines nor will I use up all the fabric and notions. Yes, I am feeling like I could probably do without magazine subscriptions for a while. Change is good.

I see your point! But, I sometimes look at some of the older magazines from special sales and older quilters, and I like them better! I guess a lot of it is personal preference.

I was thinking about what you said about older magazines. I
think the biggest difference I see is the older quilts are more made with templates.
So many recent patterns are designed for rotary cutting that we seem to get a lot of squares
and rectangles. I think that cuts down on the "interest factor".

I agree with changes in magazines - I gave up subscribing to Machine Embroidery & Textile Art magazine long ago because it moved into newer crafts relating to fashion design etc rather than machine embroidery but all crafts seem to be mingling together now, especially with the embellishments and appliques progressing so well.

I'm cancelling all of my subscriptions except The Quilter
they seem to have better patterns and they srethe best to work with McCalls had an article in their last magazine saying we could not even hang a quilt in the fair without permission and I don't want to make quilts to hide in the closet so I emailed The Quilter got a very nice letter back and we can use their patterns and the quilts are ours so that made up my mind

I subscribe to Quilters Newsletter, McCalls, American Patchwork, and Quilters World. I rarely make the patterns, but its such a fun mail day for me when I get one in the mail. I keep every one, and photocopy pictures for a notebook for a future quilt I may want to make. That way, for example, if I need to make a baby quilt I can quickly look through a bunch of pictures, then pull that magazine to see the pattern.
Even though I don't make many of the quits, I would miss my fun mail day!

I think another reason most of the quilting magazines seem stale is that they are all looking the same anymore. All they do basically is change the colors and borders but very little is really interesting. And too many ads....it is all about the advertising.

I have noticed the same thing for a while now. It just seems that there are fewer and fewer quilts in magazines that I really want to make. There's a lot more smaller projects, and felted wool projects, etc. I used to get quilting today and I just loved it. I hated it when they went out of business. Seems like there was quilt after quilt that I wanted to make. I think a lot of the color schemes used today are just not attractive to me. I guess I'm too old fashioned.... or maybe just too old!!!

When I first started quilting about 10 years ago, I received magazine subscriptions from many family members. They started to pile up and I stopped renewing them. Now when I need an idea or new project I just take them pile by pile and go through them. I always find something that I thought about making when I first received the magazine. I now just buy random issues when I see something interesting. They are definitely all starting to run together.

That is a big plus for The Quilter!

I am also drawn to more traditional color combinations and some of the newer magazines are using unusual (sometimes pretty, sometimes not) color combos.

Lady Tapioca]I was thinking about what you said about older magazines. I
think the biggest difference I see is the older quilts are more made with templates.
So many recent patterns are designed for rotary cutting that we seem to get a lot of squares
and rectangles. I think that cuts down on the "interest factor".[/quote]

I have found the magazines are going to more busy types of fabrics and designs so I have stopped my subscriptions. As for all the magazines I have, I went through and tore out the quilts that I liked and stapled the pages together. Then I sorted them by quilts, wallhanging, bags, etc. and put them into a 12 pocket folder that you can pick up at Walmart for about 3 bucks. Now when I want to find something, I only have to look in the files rather than try to remember which book it was in. It works well for me!

Agreed! As a newbie,I'd buy a mag & find the cover quilt patternthat I admired wasn't included.:-( So I started checking the index for any pattern I liked in the pics.Wrapped in plastic, can't check anymore, but that's ok...cause I no longer buy them.

BTW...most "Tips" etc booklets included have been old hat for yrs.I find more than I can use on line & there's always the library.

I feel that the newer magazines are all being designed by EQ6 or whatever then they slap a copyright on them like McCalls did and I find the older magazines has quilt patterns designed by real people before EQ6 and I like them much better I find very little in these new magazines worth the price and there are more free patterns from the fabric companies than I can ever hope to use

I agree that the quilt mags are not as good as they used to be. Too many things that aren't quilts (eye glass & phone cases and tote bags, etc). Plus many times they don't give any alternate sizes. And lots of the patterns seem designed to showcase a particular fabric line. Sometimes I feel like they should pay me for reading it since it's free advertising for fabric lines.

Apparently, McCalls and Fons and Porter's For the Love of Quilting magazines are run or owned by the same company. I've been getting "special" offers if I renew my subscription to both at the same time.

I subscribe to QNM, American Quilter (the AQS publication), Quilt Life, and Quilting Arts.

I don't think I've ever made anything straight out of one of the magazines, but I always am inspired by looking at what other people are doing.

Yep. I agree. Have taken AP&Q since 1993. This last year added three other subscriptions. I used to like AP&Q very much but now not so much. Too many adds, small projects, appliques, and designer quilts. I like old time quilts and have you noticed that a lot of their "scrappy" quilts can't be made with scraps!

what I can save on magazines can help pay for one good quilt book, pattern, video etc. and I have decided to keep a lot of my older magazines as they are a good source of inspiration and also better patterns I have also lost interest in quilt shows as most of them are all done commercially anymore seems gone are the good days with hand quilters and people designed quilts it use to be fun to go to a quilt show and oh and ah over someones tiny stitches but I do not get excited over what a computer can do just my thoughts

I have lost interest in most quilt magazines over the last few years. The websites for the magazines have pictures of what's inside the new issue. If there is a pattern I have to make I redraft it in EQ7. I get all the quilt ads I need in my email. I read quilt blogs so I know about the new quilt tools and fads. I pay for internet so I use it first before spending more money for something that's free to find online.

yup, i finally let all of my subscriptions go...no more quilting mags in the mail... :(
i was tired of more adds than substance...seems to me that we pay so much for them they could afford to cut back on content adds taking up 3/4 of the magazine. and it also seemed like out of 5 different magazines there was 1 project that taught me a new technique and i put to use. from now on i'm going to browse the magazine rack at the store and if i find a mag with at least a couple projects i'm interested in i will buy it...no more filling the mailbox with magazines that are just taking up space...i did really like the quilter's home mag (Mark Lipinski) and there were no adds, just articles and a couple projects...that one was much better but not really going in the same direction as i've been going in...i let them all run out. My hubby is happy about this since he's the one who usually gets the mail.