Digital Quilting Magazines

In the space of one week, I encountered three different variations of electronic quilting magazines.

Cotton Spice is a good read, lots of variety, patterns, and website.

Fons & Porter offered a half off special for a cd of three years' magazines - for $29.95!

Quilter's World is offering a one year digital subscription to their print magazine, plus two years of past issues, for $14.95.

This has really got me to thinking. I am a loyal subscriber to Fons & Porter's magazine - I have years worth stacked up on the bookshelf - many ragged from reading, photocopying, some even have rotary cut slashes on a page or two! Do I really want to replace those with the electronic version? Even though a laptop can sit on my lap, it really doesn't replace - for me - the comfort of curling up on the couch (of course with a quilt over me) and browing through a new magazine, or a stack of older ones.

I've downloaded Cotton Spice but must admit to not reading all that I wanted to. I haven't adjusted to long reading sessions on the computer, and I guess I never will if I don't practice, but there is a strong urge just to hit print, and take the pages to the couch!

Then there's Quilter's World. For $14.95 this is a pretty good deal - they have lots of patterns, with a wide variety of skill levels. Good articles. The decision to be made is, how much does the convenience of storing the magazine on the computer - with being able to do computer like things with the issues such as searching, printing, image saving - override the paper effect of having the magazine in my hands? The cost in this case does make a difference too - in Canada, my subscription rate would be about $30 - the $14.95 is about the price of one pattern or maybe a book - and this is far more than that!

I also wonder, if we support these electronic versions will they eventually phase out paper versions? I know this has been a fear of newspapers for years, and it hasn't yet come true. But newspapers aren't quilt patterns meant to be kept as ideas and references for years to come.