Quiltmania: My Thoughts

The quilting world was recently stunned by the closure of Quiltmania, Inc., publisher of Quiltmania, the wildly popular quilting magazine. The editor, Carol Veillon, wrote more of a lament than an apology on their Instagram post (pictured above), simply thanking those who had a part in the success of the magazine and not addressing the thousands of loyal readers who were left with unfulfilled subscriptions. Along with the announcement came the website shutdown and no direction for customer service. Many of the comments on the post are painful to read. One woman had received a subscription as a gift from her teenager, and she was heartbroken. Several others received theirs as gifts, and many had just recently subscribed and had not even received their first issue. What is even more upsetting is the non-response of Carol or anyone from the magazine in addressing these subscriber concerns. In the well-spoken words of Shania Twain, "That don't impress me much".

I purchased one issue of Quiltmania years ago (not the one pictured), and I thought it was pricey even then. After reading through it, my overwhelming feeling was that I wasted my $13.99. It just isn't my kind of magazine, but apparently I am in the minority. I have no idea what the individual cost is now, but I did see one mention of $160 for a subscription. While reading through the comments on the Instagram post, I was struck by the one common thread. All of them, whether unhappy about their subscriptions or simply eulogizing, were remorseful about the magazine closure, and I am sad for all of them and the loss of their "happy mail".

Here is the link to the PDF of the final issue: QM Issue 160 and the mystery patterns may be found at this link: Free Quiltmania.

In other news: Hopefully before the weekend, I will have another post up, with a big family announcement and a finish or two. Here is a sneak peek!