Looking North from the Island ferry dock, swans, seagulls and ducks enjoy today’s early morning sunshine. There have been around 20 swans swimming between the ferry dock and Detroit Island and hundreds of ducks between the dock areas and the entrance to the harbor.
30th Anniversary Gift Certificates
For our 30th Anniversary in 2009, we recognized those students who had completed 20 or more Sievers classes, giving them a gift certificate in the dollar amount of the number of classes they had taken. For those students who did not attend a class last year, the gift certificates were mailed with a note that the certificates could be used in the future in the shop or for a class, or the dollar amount could be put towards the purchase of sewing machines to be used as rentals for students traveling via air or for a student whose machine may break down while they are here for class. Thanks to the generosity of seven of those students, $144.00 was donated back towards the purchase of those sewing machines. We now have two new Janome 625E machines!
Sievers Scholarships
Each year we offer scholarships based on artistic merit and financial need to students who wish to attend a Sievers class. The Elisabeth Beinert Scholarship, given in memory of a former student, is designated for weaving classes, while the Doreen Speckmann Scholarship, given in memory of a former instructor, applies to all classes. Scholarship funds can cover partial or full class fees. The application deadline for 2010 is April 1st, with notification of award on April 10th. Last year’s recipient attended the weeklong Quilt Design class. Contact us by phone, email or though the online registration form for a scholarship application. Since 2008, we have also offered a scholarship to a Washington Island High School graduate who has been involved in music, theater or visual arts here on Washington Island. Last year’s recipient was Rylee Johnson who is attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. We saw her recently on the Island during her winter break as one of the performers at Island Players “Center Stage”.
A note, along with a donation to the Sievers Scholarship Fund came to us within the last month. It reads, “My friend and I met in September of 1993 at Sievers taking a Nantucket Basket class from Frances Wight. I still have that class list! That week was the beginning of many things for me, most importantly, (the start of a) 16 year friendship; so it seems only fitting that I memorialize my dearest friend in a gift to the Sievers Scholarship Fund, so other women can develop the skills and great relationships that Sievers nurtures.”
Perhaps a new best friend is waiting to meet you in a Sievers class.
With Judie Yamamoto’s “Fun with Polymer Clay” class, our 2010 Sievers in Winter classes came to an end this week. Here’s just a few glimpses into what students were doing this January and February:
Chicken Track Bags with Connie Westbrook
Basketry with Jeanette Biederman and Rich Prange
Quilting Techniques with Ellen Graf
Coiled Basketry with Lynn Schuster
Polymer Clay with Judith Yamamoto
During the last week of February, the Island Weaving Study group will be renting the Sophie Studio and working on their 2010 project of an Island-themed calendar Book of Days. Winter goes by quickly!
We’ve had a great response to our online registration which began February 1st. As of today, a total of 173 students have registered online or called to sign up for a 2010 class! The print brochure is in the hands of our dear Trudy across “the Door” in Sister Bay who helps make us look good each year through her work and the printing done there at the Door Reminder.
Speaking of numbers in the hundreds, at last check Sievers had 106 Facebook fans. Thank you, one and all for being fans of Sievers! Seeing you on Facebook or hearing from everyone who registered almost makes it feel like summer, knowing that we’ll be seeing you soon.
We will be welcoming three new teachers in 2010. Lorrie Grainger Abdo is from Kalamazoo, MI and will be offering a weekend class in Paper Mosaics and Paste Painting. Lorrie learned how to make handmade paper at Sievers and her pieces combine colorful expression with precise craftsmanship. She has sold her paper mosaics and notecards in the Sievers Shop.
Joyce Krueger will teach a weekend Rug Hooking class. She has been hooking rugs since 1976 and is an accredited McGown Teacher. Joyce has been teaching since 1984 at rug schools and in her Waukesha, WI home studio and was recommended to us by several of our teachers who have been her students.
Connie Westbrook of Sherwood and Washington Island, WI is another Sievers success story! On staff since 2007 and a student in many Sievers weaving classes since 2003, Connie credits the growth in her weaving to her teachers and the instruction she recieved here. She has taught two “Sievers in Winter” weaving classes and we look forward to her Handwoven Towels class this summer.
We will also be welcoming back this year Flo Hoppe, Stephanie Robertson and Michelle Workowski. Those teachers on “sabbatical” are: Jackie Abrams, Bettina Havig, Deb Menz, Sylvie Nguyen, Frances Potter, Linda Streifender and Heather Winslow. Retiring from teaching at Sievers is Marla Yeager. Marla first came to Sievers as a student of Doreen Speckmann. She co-taught for a number of years with her good friend Jean Lohmar and then went on to teach Machine Quilting and our Quilt Design classes. Marla was the proud winner of the “Bernina Machine Workmanship Award” at the American Quilter’s Society in 2007. Her winning quilt, “Buckskin” now hangs in the Museum at the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, KY. She was our “Queen Bee” and much more!
To give you an idea of some of the 2010 classes, here are some photos:
Turned Draft Weaves with Judith Yamamoto
Woodcarving Workshop with Harvey Stahl
Mixed Media Fabric Pendant with Karen Buell
Beyond Beginning Weaving with Nancy Adams
Handwoven Towels with Connie Westbrook
Coiled Basketry with Lynn Schuster
Variations in Pulp with Tom Grade
Landscape Quilting with Natalie Sewell
Mixed Metals Jewelry with Mary Hettmansperger
Paper Mosaics & Paste Painting with Lorrie Grainger Abdo
Basket Potpourri with Diane Ericson
Handmade Paper Lampshades with Michelle Workowski
Bent Willow Chair with Ken Workowski
Wearable Extravaganza with Daryl Lancaster
Overshot Odyssey with Rita Hagenbruch
Willow Harvest & Weave with Jo Campbell-Amsler
Stained Glass Sweater Vest/Coat with Jeanette Biederman
Beginning Rug Hooking with Joyce Krueger
Knitting on Location with Carol Anderson
Beyond the Basics: Willow Basketmaking with Jacki Bedworth
Rag Rug Weaving with Deb Sharpee
Felted Wool Penny Rugs with Mary Curran
Boundweave Rugs with Lynn SchusterAs of today, Sievers has joined Facebook. If you would like to “be a friend”, and if I’ve done it correctly, you should just be able to search for “Sievers” at www.facebook.com. We look forward to seeing how many friends we have and what they have to share.
Th
is past weekend, Sandy De Master and Mary Germain were here to teach a Sievers in Winter class in knitting and today Connie Westbrook began a 4-day class in weaving rag-rug style tote bags. (Homemade soup lunches included!) We are also looking forward to Jeanette Biederman and Rich Prange’s basketmaking class this coming weekend. They have been coming every year to teach winter classes since 1995.
Our first “Sievers in Winter” class had six students learning how to make lined mittens from old wool sweaters with instructor Kathleen Morris. On display that same day was Ann’s Mitten Tree with 30 mittens she handmade to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Sievers. It has now been moved to the W.I. Recreation Center in time for their Season of Lights event on December 13 and where many Island residents and visitors will enjoy it thoughout the holidays.
Sievers Gathering
We have set aside the dates of Friday, October 1 and Saturday, October 2 of 2010 for our Sievers Gathering. At the last Gathering, Dick Purinton of the Washington Island Ferry Line shared a Power Point presentation which included the “roundheads”, posable figures he purchased at the Twice Around Shop, on and around the Island, including a few stops at Sievers. Most of that video is now on YouTube. You can view it by searching for “Washington Island Roundheads Vacation” on the YouTube website.
2010 Schedule In Progress
In the meantime, our Sievers in Winter classes for full-time, part-time and I’m-on-the-Island Islanders begin on Saturday, November 21 with “A Family of Mittens” (recycled sweaters sewn into mittens) taught by Kathleen Morris. Other classes are in January and February:
January 5-7 “Beginning Watercolors and Color Theory” with Cathy Meader
January 8 – 10 “Knitting Retreat” with Sandy De Master & Mary Germain
January 11-14 “Chicken Track Rag Bags” with Connie Westbrook
January 15 – 17 “Household Baskets” with Jeanette Biederman & Rich Prange
January 20 & 21 “Beginning Machine Sewing” with Kathleen Morris
January 26 – 29 “Quilting: Better Basics, Advanced Techniques” with Ellen Graf
February 1 – 3 “Needle Felt Embellishment” with Jeanne Shay
February 4 – 6 “Coiled Basketry” with Lynn Schuster
February 8 & 9 “Fun with Polymer Clay” with Judie Yamamoto
Walking over to the Sophie Studio this morning through the rain and October’s “confetti” (leaves falling from the trees) to visit the last class of the 2009 season, Deb Sharpee’s Rag Rug Weaving, the camera caught these images on our last day of class:
And here’s how diligently the students were working yesterday:
Speaking of “lasts”, Sunday, October 18th, was the last passage through the Door for the C.G. Richter, iconic Island ferry and winter lifeline for the Island for 50+ years, having been bult in 1950. It is headed to its new home in the Caribbean via the Mississippi River. For a great perspective on the C.G. Richter and all things Island, visit Dick Purinton’s Ferry Cabin News blog at www.ferrycabinnews.blogspot.com/
make a coat from old wool sweaters…
learn how to weave…
harvest the willow patch…
and exclaim how beautiful the foliage is on the silo against a bright blue sky!
