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.

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. 

  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!

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 Schuster

This 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.

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

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/

learn how to weave…

harvest the willow patch…

and exclaim how beautiful the foliage is on the silo against a bright blue sky!

                                   and then the weekend Knitting on Location class came in and took their projects on the road, including this stop at the Red Cup Coffee House:

Meanwhile, Ken Workowski was working with his students on their Bent Willow Loveseats so that by Sunday afternoon, porches were adorned with the finished products.

Today, Sandy De Master and Mary Germain will welcome a group of knitters who will be working on projects of their own choice, with Mary and Sandy assisting with new techniques, trouble spots, re-working a pattern to customize it and more.  On Saturday night as a group, the knitters have already made a reservation for the Harvest Dinner (a turkey dinner with the trimmings) sponsored annually by the Women of Trinity Lutheran Church.  Many Island homes will be filled with the aroma of turkey, rolls, squash or pumpkin pies being baked this Friday in preparation for the dinner.  Some may also be preparing chili or caramel apples for Saturday’s annual Farm Museum Cider Pressing Party or the Fire Department’s Open House.  Sunshine and fall colors have been ordered for the weekend!

Rita’s overshot samples are wonderful, as you can see, as well as the projects students have been working on.

        Quilt Embellishment  

            Felt, Resist, Bead!    

        Step-By-Step Willow Basketry  

In the meantime, Lynn Schuster’s “Coiled Basketry” class was working on their baskets in the Sophie Studio.    

On the weekend of September 4-6, we look forward to Ken Workowski’s “Bent Willow Chair” class.  This student (from last year’s class) is shown putting the seat and back pieces on her chair.  This is definitely a noticeable take-home project!

Upcoming classes include Inkle Weaving with Christi Eales Ehler, August 7 – 9; Refresher Weaving with Nancy Frantz, August 16- 21; Antler Basketry with Rich Prange, August 21 – 23; New Ways in Polymer Clay with Judie Yamamoto, August 23 – 26 and Felt, Resist, Bead! with Chad Hagen, August 30 – September 4, and in the words of Walter Schutz, “much, much more”!

Today there are two classes in session, Nancy Frantz with Beginning Weaving on a Table Loom and Shirley Ver Hage teaching Purses, Purses, Purses!  Both classes were busy at work this morning:

During the class introduction, two students who had been roommates 30 years ago and had lost touch recognized each other and are now spending the weekend sewing purses and catching up after all this time.  This isn’t the first time a re-connection like this has been made here.  What will be the next fun surprise at Sievers? 

Sievers Scholarship Awarded to a 2009 Island Graduate

Again this year, Sievers has awarded a scholarship in the amount of $500 to a graduate of Washington Island High School who has benefited themselves and the community though their participation in the arts (music, theater, dance or visual arts).  This year’s scholarship was awarded to Rylee Johnson who will be attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, majoring in Education.  Rylee has been very involved in Island Players (the Island’s community theater group) and has shared the stage several times with Cindra.  Last year’s Sievers Scholarship recipient, Lydia Foss , will actually be working at Sievers this summer while on her break from Lawrence University.