On the weekend I did something that I haven't done for about 4 years….
I picked up one of our Aussie quilt magazines.
There was another one on the table, then another…
So I sat down with a cup of coffee and began to peruse. I had 3 different magazines….
I have to say I was really disappointed. These are the magazines I've been bragging about and pushing to my students overseas for years and yet…. it looked to me as if they have stayed in limbo….
The projects are the same…
The colors are a little different…and so were the adverts.
The content was the same…
There was very little to challenge or stimulate the imagination………."Wow, how did she do that"
Am I over re-acting?
Do you still buy the magazines?
There are so many new techniques, so many new ideas in quilting… and yet I looked at those pages, willing the next one to grab my interest…. and all I saw were projects that could have been there years ago…. fu fu I call them…. (fairies undies) pretty, cute, craft.
Those magazines used to capture my imagination… I waited with baited breathe for a new one to come out and I read it from cover to cover… I took it to bed with me, I tried patterns and I marvelled at the stories…. I stored them in my studio and went through them often.
Now maybe I'm wrong, maybe they were a banal bunch this month… but if this is the norm, I won't be bragging about our Aussie quilting mags anymore.
I got my issue of Selvedge on line today…. I had to stop and read a little and I can't wait to get back to it this evening. I carry it with me on my computer and my Ipad.
The stories capture my imagination and feed the soul.
I write for several publications overseas and they have moved forward and satisfy my yearning for something new.
I’m not buying many magazines these days other than Quilting Arts. I find it’s just the ‘same old, same old’ in the regular magazines. All of my subscriptions have lapsed. There’s nothing in them to inspire me. I would rather buy a technique book than a magazine.
I find most of my inspiration from blogs, like yours.
I thought the same thing Pam when I grabbed some magazines in the U.S. recently – just the same old thing! Maybe you’ve just moved in a different direction – you used to like the cute stuff!! 🙂
I am glad someone else agrees with me…I think most of our magazines relating to quilting etc are soo darn beginnerish…the projects they offer seem to be rehashed ideas of the past several years…nothing new or exciting …I subscribed to many of them for a lot of years, but haven’t bothered for the past couple of years…I now subscribe to a few american ones…about 2 years ago I emailed AP&Q mag and told them they needed to lift their game,( I never heard back from them..lol..)I said basically that their projects etc were boring and very, very basic…nothing new or exciting enough to make someone want to produce it…and I am sooo sick of seeing a lot of the quilts they showcase that are not quilted as well, or if they are, so darn basically…boring…grrr…
I have noticed this in the past with American magazines and also with the Australian publications. My deduction has been that they are really targetting the beginners and less experienced quilters. I’m sure their marketing has shown them that they are the people who purchase their magazines.
Thankfully worldwide there are some other wonderful magazines, depending on ones interests I think there’s something out there for everyone.
You know, I think many of us have quilted long enough now that we can look at a quilt pattern and say ‘I know how to do that’. So perhaps Di is right – many of us have moved in a new direction.
What I do like is reports from the quilts shows, reviews on new books and quilting stories.
I no longer subscribe because the internet is so much better for keeping up with the creative and new. I might buy a book, real or kindle, but I will still occasionally pick up a magazine and flip at the newsagents then buy because something caught my eye.
It’s just that the imagination is more developed now, so I tend to use my ideas rather than other people’s.
I haven’t subscribed to any quilt magazines for years. I agree with Audrey regarding techniques over patterns. I’d rather see a video or informative blog like yours, Pam, that features techniques and makes us think differently about how to create an image or pattern.
Interesting comments, and a lot of people think like you, Pam. But I move in experienced quilting circles, so I think we who have been around for a while are looking to extend our skills and techniques beyond what many mags offer. The fact that the mags are publishing what they are suggests there is a market – I would imagine that they would change if people no longer bought the mags. I think about people who don’t have time to attend class, are on their own in a remote part of Australia, or lack confidence in designing their own work. I think they would look forward to seeing the projects – no doubt all new to them. And I don’t think we can ignore the fact that many people lack confidence in choosing fabrics and colours – so when they see a quilt that may be in a well known pattern, but in a new colourway, they are attracted to it because they can visualise it and so feel they can make it. And it may not be just a confidence thing either – it may be a time thing, or simply that’s the comfort level of the person – they are happy just making simple quilts and being guided by patterns. It seems to me that a lot of US quilts are darker, muddier, more repro than what we do here, and they can start to look the same. But having said that, I regularly buy the Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting mag…probably because it IS different from what we have here. What is amazing to me, is that when I started in 1993, there was so little around for the person starting out. Now there is a huge choice. It means it’s just as OK to be an everyday simple quilt maker as it is to be a prize winner or an art quilter. There is room for us all. And that’s a good thing….
Ditto, ditto, ditto. I don’t need another magazine article on six different methods of making flying geese or half square triangle units. I am letting most of my subscriptions lapse. I have found that I flip through most of the magazines in 10-15 minutes and then chuck them into a basket for the free table at the next guild meeting. I do like Quiltmania (French), but don’t subscribe. I find it at Barnes & Noble two or three times a year. I like Quilters Newsletter and the magazine that AQS puts out (the name of which escapes me at the moment). It will have interesting articles on technique such as rust dyeing or discharging with bleach.
After someone remarked to me that the quilt magazines sometimes take patterns from years before and re-publish them in current fabrics, I got really disgusted.
Haven’t bought any for ages, and I have ditched almost all those I had. There are only so many copies of instructions for a Shoo Fly or Log Cabin quilt I need to look at!
Judy B