Sunday, April 11, 2010

A tale of two quilt magazines

Way back in November, my school had a magazine fundraiser so I ordered subscriptions to two quilting magazines: Quiltmaker and BHG's American Patchwork and Quilting. My first issues of each arrived this week (took long enough!).

Quiltmaker was always the magazine of choice among my quilting friends when I lived up north and actually had a circle of quilting friends with whom I met regularly (now I quilt in isolation, but that is another story entirely).


We loved the variety of patterns, and the fact that they were rated very accurately for skill. I haven't bought a copy of this magazine for a few years and I have to say that I was quite disappointed in this issue. The patterns seem a bit 'silly' to me, and there is only one that I would even consider doing. I do, however, like the Inspirations section where new products are reviewed.

I've always like American Patchwork and Quilting and I wasn't let down with this month's issue. It contained some new twists on traditional patterns, which is more to my taste than appliqued teddy bears and such.


There is an article in this issue about Minick & Simpson (you can see it listed on the cover) and I swear I read almost the exact same story in another magazine a few years ago (and I could probably find it in my magazine library if I cared to look). I don't appreciate that kind of repetition, since there are so many new designers in quiltland who could be featured.

APQ had an advertisement for one of these:


Have you tried this rotary circle cutter? I went out and bought one because it looked so cool. I got it at Michael's with my 40% off coupon this week and when all was said and done, it cost $22. I usually don't jump at new trends and I definitely don't buy a lot of things I don't 'need' (I have a husband to spend our money that way haha), but this seemed like a fun little tool and I have a project in mind for it already. Uh oh... another project. I haven't used my new toy yet, but I'll review it when I do.

I haven't got much work done on my Paris quilt yet this weekend - my time has been taken up with other things not necessarily of my choosing, but that's the way things go, isn't it? I'll have to get moving on it, because it needs to be finished by April 15th if I want to enter Pat Sloan's Black and White in Paris contest. I've been calling it "Springtime in Paris" but that's not correct. Duh.

Anyway, I hear the vacuum cleaner downstairs so I have to go and start feeling guilty because Mr. P is doing the housework instead of me... or I could just ignore it, turn on my music, and get on with sewing...

Enjoy your Sunday!

9 comments:

Dogwood said...

Thanks for the magazine reviews. You sound like a pro. Maybe a "next" career for you.

Go girl and enjoy your vacumning!

Have a great day.

Pat said...

I gave up my Quiltmaker subscription a year or so back....just didn't interest me any longer. Now I have no quilt magazine subscriptions.....just buy an individual copy occasionally if I see a couple of things in it that I like. I saw the circle tool demonstrated at the quilt show...looked pretty good and lots were buying it.

Sherri said...

I love American Patchwork & Quilting...did you see the coupon for $10 at FatQuarterShop too?

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

I'll have to go find the new APQ magazine. And I DO have the rotary circle cutter and I bought it before I was interested in sewing. I needed it to cut nice fabric circles to cover the tops of my jelly jars for my wedding favors. It made it very easy!

Stacy said...

I vote for ignoring the housework, turning on the music and sewing!

As you know I don't quilt but last year I bought a quilting magazine for some reason and enjoyed it so much. It included all sorts of cool things like using fabric to create pieces of art that look like paintings. It wasn't one of the mags in your post. I'll have to dig around and find it.

Finished my ATC's this weekend and will put them in the mail this weekend. Your theme really made me stretch. I discovered some new techniques I probably never would have attemped (not that I used any of them).

Hope you have a good week ...

Barb said...

Just ignore it and get on with your sewing...HA!

I can't wait to hear what you have to say about your new tool....

Dolores said...

I subscribed to Quilters Newsletter for years and years and then I gave it one more year but I finally had to let it go. It had nothing in it anymore that held my attention. I guess Quiltmaker went the same way.

Thimbleanna said...

Hahaha -- I feel like I could have written this post! Why is it that when the hubs help with the housework we feel guilty? I SO shouldn't be that way -- we work and they live there too!

I feel like almost all the quilting magazines are a big disappointment these days -- such simple stuff, I always wonder why they bother with a how-to. Maybe we're just getting old and forget what it's like to be a beginning quilter? I've always LOVED the BH&G magazines, but they are notorious for repeats. I let my subscription lapse last year (after maybe 20 years or so?) and this issue was the first one that made me sort of wish that I still had it.

And HEY! You don't quilt in isolation -- you have US!!! ;-)

beachvintage.com said...

Looks like you grabbed a bargain, let us know how it went. I have not used one before so I cant comment.