In 2012, two of our instructors are retiring from teaching at Sievers, Jeanne Pfister and Natalie Sewell. We will see a number of instructors return after a year or more ”on sabbatical” joining those who taught here last year, and we will welcome three new instructors.
Jeanne Pfister first came to Sievers as a student in 2002 for a quilting class with Ann Fahl, but had been quilting for over 30 years, beginning with traditional quilts and designs and gradually moving toward art quilts. Many of her quilts have been seen and received awards at national quilt shows. She uses a variety of techniques to express her thoughts in fabric, often embellishing her quilts with decorative machine quilting, stitching and beads.
Starting in 2007, Jeanne offered eight classes here, one with her good friend Ellen Graf. Jeanne is pictured below with a student in her Machine Quilting class.
Jeanne had donated this wall quilt to Sievers to be used to raise funds for the Sievers Scholarship Fund, which many of you saw or heard about during our class introductions last summer. A total of $500.00 was given to the Scholarship Fund, thanks to Jeanne and to all who contributed.
Natalie Sewell initially studied traditional quiltmaking techniques before developing her landscape style, which reflects her love of trees, flowers and humble nature scenes. Leaves, foliage and flowers are ”cut-outs”, machine appliquéd onto a background fabric with fabric paints, oil pastels, etc., applied before, during and after to enhance the colors and add detail and dimension. Then, each piece is machine quilted “within an inch of its life”, using free motion stitching. Many of Natalie’s quilts have won awards in national quilt competitions. She co-authored three books with her friend Nancy Zieman, Landscape Quilts, Landscape Quilts for Kids and The Art of Landscape Quilting (the cover of which is a quilt made from a photo taken at People’s Park here on Washington Island).
Natalie began teaching at Sievers in 2003 and offered eight classes in Landscape Quilting.
Natalie (front and center) with one of her Landscape Quilt classes.
Natalie graciously donated this landscape quilt to the Sievers Permanent Collection which now hangs in the Sophie Studio:
Thanks to Jeanne and Natalie for sharing their love of quilting and so much more with many students in their time here at Sievers!
We have a number of instructors returning to teach classes in 2012 after one, two or even eleven years “on sabbatical”. We welcome back Mary Curran, Marianne Fons, Barbara Heike, Mary Hettmansperger, Flo Hoppe, Anita Luvera Mayer, Stephanie Robertson and Heather Winslow.
New teachers at Sievers in 2012 include Betty Glynn Carlson (Navajo Rug Weaving), Mary Fons (Beginning Quilting) and Robyn Spady (Weaving). Look for more about our new teachers in a future post!