It's PIQF time again!!!

Well, almost... PIQF won't actually happen until October, but I just heard from them this morning, letting me know I got into the three classes I was hoping to take. I had to miss the festival last year because of taking care of our sweet Diana, and, let me tell you, I REALLY missed it!! At first I wasn't planning to go this year, because nothing in the class schedule jumped up and said, "Hey! This is It!" Then I decided I couldn't bear to miss the festival again. By then, it was too late for Long Beach, and Houston won't cut it, since the only reasonable way to get to Houston is to get my butt on a plane, which, alas, will never happen... >8-/ ... so, PIQF it is.

Recently, no matter how wonderful a class is, or how much fun I'm having, with my degenerating physical condition, I've become thoroughly sick and tired of schlepping a sewing machine around, so I was hoping for machine-less classes. That seriously narrowed my choices, and Dierdra McElroy's disappearance from the class list in recent years, hasn't helped matters either. So I started looking at teacher websites, and when I got to Sue Dennis... POW!! The decision was made in a heartbeat! Sue's work is eye-popping exciting - wonderful colors, textures and concepts, with lots of amazing and imaginative free-motion stitching, and tons of very cool surface design techniques. Be sure to check out Sue's Gallery pages on her website... and prepare to be dazzled!

When I first started going to PIQF in the mid '90s, they offered classes in fabric dyeing and painting, printing, and other surface design procedures. Then, for whatever reason, those classes disappeared. Someone told me the hotel got pissed because the carpets in the classrooms were being damaged by spilled dyes and paints... but who knows. Anyway, I've been hoping for a return of those kinds of classes ever since. A couple of years ago, we did some painting in Esterita Austin's classes, and I got hopeful. Sue's classes will involve working with oil paint sticks and doing some leaf printing... and... fusing... which I love! Piecing will always be my first love, but any new technique of surface design and embellishment always grabs my attention.

From this day in July, October seems years away, but, from past experience, I know it'll get here eventually. I'm seriously stoked!