This post was started last week, and I didn’t know I’d have a project in the current American Quilter magazine.  This post is about quilt magazines in general . . not any one in particular and not written for any personal gain on my part.  Full disclosure . . you know!

Seems like every quilt list or group has recently had a discussion about quilt magazines.  Without saying bad things about your least favorites, tell me about your favorite magazines.  Why are they your favorite?  What do you enjoy seeing in the magazines? Articles about quilters, tips on saving time with maybe cooking and cleaning so you can have more quilting time?  What about patterns, challenges?  Are you more likely to make the patterns that look quick and easy – maybe as a quick gift for a niece or neighbor?  Or do the more elaborate patterns call out to you?

I’ve always known it is impossible to please everyone but just from having the blog, I realize how hard it seems some days to please even a few.  I’d hate to be a magazine editor!   Before you’re too critical of any magazine, remember how many people they hear from each and every day — probably like everything else in life, they don’t hear so much praise but they surely hear the complaints.  And, I’m not saying this because anyone has told me this . . I’m just kinda guessing.

My guess (why do I write a blog post full of guesses?) is that financially, it’s hard to make it these days.  With Electric Quilt, we’re all designers.  With the blog, there are free articles and patterns everywhere!

Everything seems to cycle.  Several years ago, I let all  my subscriptions run out.  I’d look at the magazines at the bookstore and buy the ones that looked interesting.  I didn’t miss getting them in the mail.  But sometime last year, I kinda missed getting a magazine in my mailbox every now and then and I re-subbed to several and I find that I can hardly wait to sit down and read them when they come in.  Some of the magazines that I dearly loved a few years back are no longer my favorites.  Some of the ones I wasn’t so crazy about, I now love.  Did they change?  Did I change?  I don’t know but I’m happy to be looking forward to receiving them again.

There was a time when all the ads in the magazines aggravated me . . a lot!  Even knowing that the ads kept the cost of the magazine down, the number of pages devoted to ads bugged me.  But now that I so rarely get to a quilt shop, I love seeing the ads – seeing the new gadgets, seeing the new fabrics, seeing where the quilt shows will be held.

So, if you’ve turned your back on some of the quilt magazines, give them another chance.  At least look at them in the bookstore to see if they mighte something you might like.  We don’t want there to ever come a time when there are one or two or even no quilt magazines out there so let’s give them our support!