What’s better than one Fair Isle knitting class? Two Fair Isle knitting classes! Last week, Sandy De Master and Mary Germain taught a class in Fair Isle Techniques followed by Fair Isle Design with Janine Bajus, who we welcomed for the first time as a Sievers instructor. What made it even better was to have our Beginning Basketry class in session at the same time with Kay Normann and Drew Tibbetts sharing three fun and busy days with their students. Teddy had plenty of sweaters to choose from while modeling for the techniques class. Students learned construction techniques by knitting this small sweater. Then it was time to continue our Fair Isle theme and focus on the concept of design. By using photographs to develop […]
One of a kind
Start with handwoven or store-bought fabric, linen and lace tablecloths, chenille throws from Pier 1, bedspreads, sale and resale finds or whatever else your imagination can turn into one-of-a-kind wearables and you have this week at Sievers with Mary Sue Fenner. See if you can find the throws, tablecloths and bedspreads. This is definitely a first. A skirt made with fabric that just happened to match the ironing board cover in the studio! Here’s a few views from the fashion show this morning… It was a very inspiring, one-of-a-kind week!
What’s important
With books and with baskets, generally it’s what’s held inside that may seem the most important feature. This week at Sievers, both the inside and outside are equally important. Daniel Essig taught two classes in book arts, Reliquary: Window and Niche and Greek & Centipede Stitch Book. At the same time, Jeanette Biederman’s Splint-Woven Basketry class has been in session. Treasures used in the making of these books represent family, Island and Sievers memories and no doubt, similar memories are woven into all the baskets this year and in so many past years during “basket week”. While class was in session, Ann Young and Connie Westbrook awarded a Quilt of Valor they had made to one of the students in the basketry class. Penny Newton, Air […]
Not a small world after all
The world surrounding our twelve machine quilters these past few days has probably seemed about 12″ square…focusing on the precise area they are working on with sewing machine, needle, thread and fabric, learning the intricacies of fine free-motion machine quilting from Julie Yeager Lambert. There are other feathers and lines in the world outside the quilting studio this week…found in birds, trees and the sunset at People’s Park.
Just the start
Six beginning weavers finished not one but two projects in their five-day class with instructor Nancy Adams and assistant Susan Johnson. They made table runners and towels as their first and second handwovens. Now that they’re home, we wonder what the next projects of these enthusiastic weavers will be? Besides the excellent instruction, kringle from the Danish Mill on three of the mornings made the weaving go faster, don’t you think? Across the road in the Walter Studio, Ellen Graf’s Quilt Design class learned concepts of color, balance and composition to work on quilts in progress or draft new designs. Follow the progressions this past week… We hope to see these finished quilts on a return trip to […]
Pathways and Passages
We’d like to share some “Sievers family” pathways and passages with you that have occurred over the past few months. In April, Kathy Sorensen of Washington Island passed away. Kathy offered more than ten classes at Sievers, mostly as Sievers in Winter classes and two team-taught with Judith Yamamoto during our summer season. Many students through the years may have shared a class with Kathy, bought some of her exquisitely dyed silk ribbons and fabrics or experienced her enthusiasm for color, art, fibers and the Island while watching her demonstrate and share her love of silk painting, dyeing, embroidery or watercolors. As you can see, her interests and talents were varied. In the former Door Voice newspaper, an article written about Kathy quotes her […]
Here we are, at 37!
It doesn’t matter your age, the first day of school feels special. Here we are, Sievers School, at 37, excited to greet new and returning students and experiencing it again as fresh as ever. The same newness is around us in the apple and crabapple blossoms, lilacs and forget-me-not now at their peak. For a long time now, we’ve been waiting to have this space transformed… …by our first group of nine quilters, into a studio filled with color and creativity! Welcome to the 2015 season of classes at Sievers School of Fiber Arts!
Art: Inside and Out
Whether it’s inside the Walter Studio this week with the Washington Island Art Association Spring Open Workshop in session, or in the shop where we’re greeting new and familiar acquaintances every day now, to the Island’s roadsides filled with trillium, we are surrounded by art, inside and out!
