Question about Quilting Magazines
 

Hello all,

I have A LOT of old quilting magazines, some that I want to keep, others that I don't. Of the ones I'd want to keep, there might only be one project in the magazine that I'd want to make.


What I'd really like to do is cut the one project out of the magazine and donate the magazine to my quilt guild to be sold at our quilt show coming up in a few months. (They're usually sold for .25 or .50) When you buy old copies of magazines, are they complete, or have they been cut up like I'm talking about? I definitely don't want to upset anyone; but I also don't have time to scan all these projects before the show in May.

Any advice?:confused:

I would be upset if a magazine was not complete. Even if it only cost 50 cents. What you cut out may be what I want the magazine for. If I cut out what I want from one, I recycle the rest. Just my opinion.

What I do is scan the pages of the magazines for a given project and save as a file on my computer hard drive. When I'm ready to work on the project I just print the file. Magazines can then be donated and I haven't used up storage room.

I would give them away if they have had a pattern or two removed. I wouldn't care if I got one free that way, but if I paid for it, I would expect it to be complete. jmho

I also would expect to buy a magazine not cut up even if I only paid 25 cents for it.

I have been known to bring a few with me to a doctor appointment and then leave it there when I am called in. That way someone else can find it and enjoy it and I feel like my money was not wasted even tho I didn't want to keep that particular issue.

I keep my magazines, they are in order by name and year. I may not see anything I want to use right away but have gone back and found a cool quilt I hadn't noticed before.

You cut you keep Look at it this way Would you buy a magazine that had been destroyed? I don't think so.
Keep in a file on your computer and copy if you like later

I would at least put a little note on it saying what you cut out that way whoever wants it knows that a pattern or what not is missing. Most people buy those magazines for the pattern. You don't want your guild to get a dishonest name or anything.

Some people cut up magazines, insert all the pages for individual patterns in clear notebook sleeves and sell them on ebay. You could do that (or just clip or staple the pages) and people could just buy the patterns they want.

I agree with the comments about giving the magazines away if they are cut up. But, I do sympathize with your problem.

Why not just scan the things you want to keep onto your pc or copy them and put them into a binder. Then you have what you want and the magazines can go to a good cause. I rarely ever get paper mags anymore. I've switched to digital and if I can't get digital then I rarely buy it. It just got too much between cooking, photos, pcs, quilting, embroidery and then there is just books in general. I now put everything either on my pc or my Nook or look at it online.

GIVE away the cut up magazines....even if only one project is cut out. We have a table at our guild that anyone can take from....that's where it goes. The others you can sell. My opinion....hope it helps...

I WOULD NOT buy a cut up magazine - I wouldn't even want it free, because I'm sure there would be part of a project I would want, and then it might not be there. You should just recycle the ones you've cut up. But I'd buy old quilt magazines if they were intact, and not so old the directions called for templates instead of rotary cutting!

Make a note on the front of the magazine as to what pattern you took out and just give the magazines away. I would not pay for a mag. that had stuff torn out. It doesn't take any more time to scan and save than tearing out and trying to keep the rest of the book intact. Then at a later date, you could organize them in files and print as needed. Much faster than trying to figure out what to do with paper patterns. JMHO

One of my future goals is to scan the projects I am interested in to
a pdf file and save it on my computer.

However that is for all the print copies I have now. I have started the
process of switching MOST of my print copies into digital formats when
possible.

Once I have the magazines scanned to pdf files I am going to give the
old print copies to the senior center near me and to a lady at my local
library who has a sister in Hawaii who is a quilter.

But that project must come AFTER my reorganization of both the sewing
room and the fabric room.

Thanks to everyone who has responded! I have much to do before the next quilt show, so I may just have to wait on scanning projects for now. I'll probably re-evaluate what projects I want to actually make as I'm going through the magazines and give them to the guild to sell at the show. There's NO WAY I could actually make everything I dreamed of doing anyway!! :)

I too have wayyyyyy toooooooo many quilt magazines. Most of which I would only ever make 1 quilt from an article or pattern. I now remove the pattern/article I want, put it in a sleeve and keep it with others in a 3-ring binder. I have 3 binders now, one for applique quilts, one for pieced, and one for totes/home dec/ etc. I bundle up the magazines 10 to a pile and donate them to the local Goodwill. They usually sell the bundle for .95 and have told me people ask for more.

I would be upset if a magazine I bought was cut up. I would just copy what I want and then donate. There will always be another guild show to donate to in the future. We sell our donated magazine for 12 for $1.00 and people come just for that sometimes. There are 300+ members in the guild I belong to so we get a huge variety.

I am in the process of sorting and filing my vast magazine collection. Any double ups or ones I don't feel the need to keep I am donating to my Mum's craft group. I am only giving them complete books with patterns. I really hate it when cut up magazines are put for sale....either keep the whole mag or cut out what you need and put the rest of the mag in the recycle bin. Scanning is a great idea, but time consuming.

If the magazine if incomplete give them away to people that are aware they are incomplete. If they are complete sell or donate them to be sold. Please do not throw away magazines that are just missing a pattern. People might even be willing to pay shipping to get them.

Good idea! I may try this. I have a lot of books I want to get rid of.

Scan the pattern and put them in a binder in the clear plastic sleeves. Have done that with my machine embroidery designs and one for my e-patterns and one for quilt patterns.

I bought a hand held scanner at Walmart a few years back (under &100.00 but they are less expensive now). You put one of the small SIM cards like your camera or cell phone has in it. You just glide the scanner over the page and it stores it on the card. You then put the card into a card reader (also at Walmart for under $10.00) and download the info to you computer. Nice thing is you can take it anywhere and scan anything. Depending on the card size, you can store quite a bit on the card before you have to transfer the designs. Set up your folder and sub-folders by magazine, date, design name etc. There is a way to thumb nail a photo of the pattern, but have not found a freebie to download, yet.

Several years ago I went through my magazines and removed patterns that I wanted - I wrote on the front if the magazine was missing pages - a group that I am involved with sold old magazines at a quilt show table - but we knew up front if pages were missing. But, when I remove a pattern, if one of the pages goes with another pattern in the magazine that I am leaving, I made a copy of the page I wanted so the next person wouldn't be missing the last page of a pattern. Hope this all makes sense. I would love to scan all the patterns I have pulled out of magazines but it would take me FOREVER with my home scanner and it's not worth the money to have it done by someone with a faster machine.

I would cut it out, but I would also mark on the front of the magazine that that pattern has been cut out. So no one is surprised when they get it home.

Whenever I remove a pattern from a magazine, I make sure there are no instructions for another pattern on the reverse side. (and if so, I photocopy the instructions I need). The remainder of the magazine I give away to my quilt buddies at our retreats. There may be a pattern or two missing, but at least all the instructions are intact.

I had a huge amount of magazines I was going to try to sell or donate. Asked my neighbor if she wanted to look through some of them. She told me she ripped out the pages she wanted -- I was horrified. I can't do anything with them now. Guess I didn't make it clear I expected them back. I just never would have thought to do that with a magazine someone let me borrow.