I’ve taught at Woodland Ridge Retreat, just outside of Menomonie, Wisconsin, annually for years—but this year was the first two-week-long class, with one group of students—including Betsy Hite, photo above. Yup, 10 days of class with 2 days in the middle to explore the area before getting back to work. I call it a fabric collage immersion, and it certainly was. It’s a new sort of class setup for me and my students—this was the second location—the first being last September in Bar Harbor, Maine.
When this immersive class came to mind, Woodland Ridge Retreat owner, Chris Daly, was one of the first people I asked about it and we decided to give it a try this year.
The retreat center is placed in a rural area but not far off of highways and connections in all directions. It’s quiet with birdsong in the mornings and spring peepers (tree frogs) in the evenings—just like a retreat should be.
The building was built in the architectural style of Mid-Century Modern—think Frank Lloyd Wright—and Chris has it set up inside with that same clean, classic, relaxed sort of look.
I always enjoy springtime at this location—with the afore-mentioned peepers and the simple woodland gardens surrounding the sprawling building.
In the courtyards viewed from the interior hallways and classrooms, we could daily see the perennials grow from emerging shoots and fiddleheads, to violets and ferns fronds. A lot of “green” happened in the two weeks we were there.
My 2026 Class at Woodland Ridge Retreat
Day by Day
I’m a relatively early riser, so most mornings I was the one to turn on the coffeemaker, just a couple doors down from my bedroom, in one of the two hallways of the building.
While the coffee brewed, I’d step into the next room, still in my PJ’s and fuzzy aqua leopard-print slippers, and tidy up my morning demo corner tables—replacing yesterday’s collage samples and quilts with new “topic of the day” examples.
By the time I was done my preparations I was ready for a refill cuppa, and maybe a sprucing up of the display wall outside the classroom door, and possibly a fluffing up of the fabric scrap pile, which seemed to grow over the two weeks even though I knew folks were finding “just what they needed” in it as well.
Days when I had a little extra time before getting myself ready for breakfast and class, I might wander into the second hallway which is home to Chris’s other business, Dye Candy Fabrics, where bolts and bolts of colorful, fanciful, and gorgeous stock are on constant display. A very handy (and dangerous) resource to be in near constant contact with for any length of time, much less two weeks.
Halfway down this hallway on the left is the second classroom. This year I had ten students, so there were five in each room, giving a lovely amount of space and two tables to everyone. At most, there’s six to a room, since Chris takes a maximum of twelve students for any of the classes taught at the retreat.
Eventually the retreat wakes up and other early birds get to work. At eight, the breakfast cart rolls down a hallway to the center space where a big dining table, the retreat entrance, and a sitting area meet. At noon, the lunch cart magically appears in the same way, at the same place. Chris’s menus are another reason why I return to this location year after year.
Student Work from Classroom #1
Since my days started in this first classroom with everyone gathering for morning demos, questions, and (very good) discussions, I’ll also begin here with introducing you to the first half of this class and their fantastic projects from our two weeks together.
Enjoy!
Click on any of the smaller photos to view them larger and to scroll through the photo galleries.
Carol Gordjamer
Carol with beginning and end of retreat photos of the colorful portrait of her son’s very personable pug Lucy, are above—in-progress photos are below.
Carol’s goals for the class were: to get started, to expand her palette of fabrics, and to think outside the box. Within the first day of class, Carol ditched the fabrics she arrived with (seen in photo above, left) and chose a new selection of big patterned and bright colored fabrics to better match Lucy’s personality.
By day two, Carol decided Lucy needed a dandelion to look at. Using dandelions from outside as inspiration, Carol collaged a few and decided to name this piece, “Flower Child,” or perhaps, “Lucy at Woodstock.”
Betsy Hite
Betsy with beginning and end of retreat photos of her adorable grand-niece, Caroline’s, portrait (plus her “extra” cicada and spiral) are above—in-progress photos are below.
Betsy’s goal was to create a colorful and blue (Caroline’s favorite color) portrait to portray this exuberant young girl. And she did so , exuberantly.
Betsy has a wonderful way with fabric collage and works very intuitively, giving her the opportunity for more collage challenges in week two. A cicada with “vibrating” colors and patterns was one—adding the extra challenge of sheer and lacey fabrics for extra details. She finished up the retreat with a spiral exercise to work on gradations of values.
Pam Shaw
Pam with beginning and end of retreat photos of her large iguana are above—in-progress photos are below.
Pam arrived with a ready-made list of goals: to finish, work on speed, to not overthink, be more playful, work on values, and to, “get my mind around ‘how’ to approach the iguana parts”—and she made progress on all of them. This guy is coming together and looking quite pleased about it.
Rosemary Sanza
Rosemary with beginning and end of retreat photos of her full-spectrum sea lion are above—in-progress photos are below.
Rosemary’s goal was to collage her sea lion with multi-colors and learn how to move from one color to the next with “fingered blending”—and to use larger pieces. She achieved those while blending both horizontally and vertically using not just the colors but also the light/dark values, and also keeping in mind the “warmth” of the colors—yellows=warm/blues=cool.
Nan Becker
Nan with beginning and end of retreat photos of the latest installment in her series of pear-based compositions are above—in-progress photos are below.
I don’t often have a person who choses a still life as a class subject, but collaging a pear in a bowl was Nan’s goal. As soon as she started describing the visual, tactile, and edible qualities she saw in pears, it did seem like the perfect subject for her and her goal of depicting volume with values.
Before class ended, Nan brought in the other pear studies (pictured in photo above, right) she had done in a class with Sue Benner. The one she began in this class will be a beautiful addition.
Next Week’s Post
In next Saturday’s blog post, I’ll introduce you to the other half of this class who worked in Classroom 2. Below is a preview of the impressive work these women created. Scroll over the photos to see their names—much more to come in Part 2: Fabric Collage Immersion at Woodland Ridge Retreat 2026!
Also in next week’s post, I’ll touch on the “weekend” in-between the class weeks—we definitely stayed busy enough to appreciate returning home to the retreat at the end of each day.
Plus visiting the watercress stream in the back woods. See you then.
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