I'm super excited about going to the big IQF show in Chicago this year! I usually take all the days off of work, plan out every minutia of my time there. I take lots and lots and LOTS of classes, at least one class every day of the show. I also spend inordinate amounts of money, usually bringing several hundred dollars of my saved "allowance" of our household budget. I may have friends coming to stay with me who plan to attend the show this year, and my quilt friends locally are all taking classes too.
But... (and you knew something was coming, right?)
I got the show catalog this year, and wow... what a downer. The classes are just not that exciting. I was hoping for a repeat of some of the classes I didn't take last year, no such luck. The dyeing classes, gone. The foiling and tyvek classes, gone. There is ONE class listing for Sunday, and it's one of the "samplers" in which you get to sample a demo from about 10-15 teachers. In fact, I have the Houston 2008 catalog on my desk, and putting the Chicago catalog next to it... it's downright anorexic.
Is this the state of the quilt show in Chicago? Were there not enough people last year? Every class I took was very full. I don't get it. I'm so disappointed that I didn't even fill out my class form online until this week, and I checked the Quilts.com website EVERY DAY until the class list was posted.
What will the show floor look like? Will it also be similarly reduced? Is it the economy?
I did eventually sign up for the Thermofax class and the Embellish it sampler class, but I really didn't have the same giddy feeling I did last year. I'm still looking forward to the show, and buying new supplies, and seeing the lovely quilts.
2 comments:
Actually, it's all my fault! I asked them to reduce the offerings this year, trying to get you to save some money so you can come visit here instead.....
Ummmmm, not really.... but I made you smile!
I had the same feeling with last year's catalog since I had wanted to take a class with Lesley Riley and she wasn't teaching, and none of the other classes grabbed me. This year, my friend Laura (whom you met at IQF in 2007) is getting married that weekend so I didn't even look at the classes.
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