While I know I'll never make ALL or ANY of the quilts in the mags, I keep a cpl. of sm.piles beside my fav. chairs as entertainment. I think the word OBSESSED fits here. LOL

If I find a pattern I want to keep, I photocopy it since I hate the idea of somebody else picking up the mag. & finding parts of it missing. I know I sure hate that.

Thank you everyone! Lots of great ideas! I think I will go through and start putting some in binders! I LOVE magazines!

I still have copies of quilt magazines from the 90's (Quilt World). Stopped the subscription when I went to work full-time. Now that I am retired....all the magazines are new to me (once again).

I do not subscribe to any magazines now. There are more patterns and information on the internet and this wonderful board than I could possibly do and retain in a lifetime. If a pattern really catches my eye, I might bookmark it and sometimes I will print it. Love the tutorials we have available now.

I started quilted in mid 80's and am amazed the explosion of interest there is now. It is wonderful to be part of a world-wide quilter's club. Happy quilting.

Hi mimmy, I keep all of my magazines but I do mark with post its, the favorite ones that I have put on my unofficial "bucket list". I just love looking at them time and time again...hate to confess but if I never bought another magazine, I would still not have enough physical time to create all the pretties I would want to.....lol!

OH MY GOODNESS, BNeighbor! What a great idea this is!!! I just need to clarify - by SIM card, is that like the little memory cards in a camera? Would you be able to transfer from this little card to a thumb drive? THanks.

I too love to look at quilt magazines, although since my husband became disabled and I couldn't find another job after getting laid off twice within one year, I've had to pick just a very few quilt magazines to subscribe to. I periodically I go through them and while nothing would pop when the magazine came out, I'll look again and then see lots of quilts I'd like to make. However, I don't have the space to keep them all, so once I have them for a bit, I go through them one last time and give the others to my girlfriend who will take out patterns she likes, putting them into protective plastic holders and put into binders, then passing the quilts on to other quilting friends. We just keep recycling them, as well as quilting books.

I have magazines from the 80's and even older! Those are the ones I am thinking about weeding through!

Organizing your patterns from magazines
 

When I find patterns I like in magazines or books I scan them then print them out. I then put them in sheet protectors & put them in my 3-ring binders under whatever type of quilts they are & for me the largest section is Misc. Recently I took an inventory of all the patterns & books I have & listed them on an Excel spreadsheet listing the name of the pattern or book & the author & I managed to fill 12 pages & I'm still adding to the list. One of these days when I retire I'll find ones I really want to make & go from there. Good Luck. MaryC in Naperville, IL

My guild has a "magazine/pattern" sale every so often at one of our guild meetings, where we can bring old magazines and buy/sell them to benefit the guild.

Otherwise, I keep a lot of them. I try to organize them by name and year, mainly Fons and Porter, American Quilter, The Quilt Life, and Quilter's Newsletter (all subscription). I also buy singles of some.

I don't subscribe to any of the magazines because I work full time and just don't get to reading on a regular basis. However I do have a stack of quilt magazines from the free table at guild meetings, ect. I also have a big stack of patterns from magazines, printed off line, ect. I'm moving soon and I'm overwelmed with how much I have to deal with.

Since I have many more patterns than I'll ever make in my lifetime, I've decided to start keeping digital copies only. For magazines, I'll scan the pattern If I find something I like. Then I can take the magazine to a future guild meeting and let someone else enjoy it intact. I can keep a directory on my 2 TB external hard drive and keep as many as I want.