Seventeen students are spending this weekend making Cat Head Baskets with Jeanette Biederman, Rich Prange and Drew Tibbetts. It’s a group of Island residents and three first-time Sievers in Winter students (including some of our summer basket students here for an Island winter adventure). And yes, they did take a moment to look out and see the sunset while weaving their baskets.
As the first real snowfall (but only about 2″) started, our “To the Nines” quilting class with Ellen Graf was finishing up while our Woodcarving Workshop class with Harvey Stahl got underway. It doesn’t matter if it’s snowing outside when you can be working on something in the studio!
Betty Glynn Carlson has been a weaver since 1972, but when she discovered Navajo weaving she felt a special kinship with this simple way to weave that invites stillness and reflection. When she lived in Madison, WI, Betty studied with Fran Potter for several years and like Fran, sought out Navajo weavers from the Navajo Nation to continue to study the cultural context of their weaving. Betty regularly teaches Navajo Rug Weaving at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota and we are happy to include her class in Navajo Rug Weaving at Sievers in 2012.
Mary Fons grew up around Sievers and has many heart and family connections to Washington Island. She co-hosts PBS’s nationally aired Love of Quilting program with her Mom, Marianne, giving a voice to “junior varsity” quilters everywhere and is creator, co-producer and host of Quilty, an online show for rookie quilters. (Visit www.heyquilty.com to learn more.) Mary is also Creative Director of Quilty magazine, set to launch in May of 2012. Last summer she rented space in the barn studio with her Mom and Ellen Graf, while working on this quilt:
Mary will be the first “second generation” Sievers instructor to offer a class at Sievers and we’re excited to have her teach Beginning Quilter “Boot Camp” this summer.
Robyn Spady is a fiber artist and master weaver who has been weaving for many years. In 2004 she completed the Handweavers Guild of America Certificate of Excellence. She teaches throughout the United States and Canada and has authored many articles and publications. (Visit Robyn online at www.spadystudios.com.) Robyn has been recommended to us by many teachers and students and Carolyn was able to meet and speak with her at the Midwest Weavers Conference in Houghton/Hancock, MI last June. We are eager to welcome Robyn to Sievers where she will teach a weeklong class on Exploring Weave Structures with a Single Warp.
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!
With just a dusting of snow on the eve of Christmas,
only the wind and waves yesterday help us remember that we really are in the season of winter. (It will certainly make for an easier Polar Bear Plunge at Schoolhouse Beach on January 1st. Lucky folks!) Strong Northwest winds swirled the seagulls in Jackson Harbor,
pounded the shore of Washington Harbor,
and polished more stones at Schoolhouse Beach.
