Experience Level: Beginner

Take wood boards and transform them into a decoration for your garden at a Wooden Planter Workshop on Saturday, June 6 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in Evergreen Lodge.

Instructor Lou Ann Koebel will help students build a small (20” x 9”) wooden planter from just a few boards of 5/4 treated deck material. The finished project will be suitable to hold pre-planted hanging baskets and designed to coordinate with any garden décor.

$150/person*. Registration will close May 30 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

*Students should bring:
— Safety glasses
— Cordless Drill

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Lou Ann Koebel has had a strong passion for woodworking since high school, and during the summer attends workshops at Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Indiana.

About The Farms

The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, offers classes, workshops, and gatherings focusing on art, health & wellness, history, nature & outdoor education, or science. All experiences value hands-on, experiential teaching and learning, and are facilitated by and for the members of the community.

Experience Level: Beginner

Join the barn quilt movement by creating your own painted quilt block to use on the inside or outside of your home at Barn Quilt Painting on Saturday, June 13 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in The Studio.

Students will begin with one of three options on a pre-primed board with their choice of design already drafted (choose between two star and sunburst designs at registration). Students will tape and paint at their own pace, choosing from a wide variety of colors.

Instructor Jane Cade will share a history of barn quilts, techniques, tips, and discuss how to properly seal your finished piece after the paint has dried for 48 hours. Leave with a 20×20″ wooden ‘quilt block’ to keep for yourself or share your talents and give someone a handmade gift.

$90/person. Registration closes June 6 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Jane Cade is a retired teacher from Clinton Junior High School. She has been painting barn quilts for eight years and sells her work online and at craft festivals. She teaches classes at Parkland Community College and will be teaching classes at her workshop beginning next year.

Experience Level: Beginner

Explore the botany, natural history and flavors of several local wild edible plants at Edible Midwest Natives on Tuesday, June 16 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Evergreen Lodge 7.

Heidi Leuszler, the owner and head chef of Berries and Flour in Champaign, will focus on native plants that are harvestable at the time of class. Those could include spicebush, common milkweed, nettles, sweet Cicely, black raspberry, American persimmon, common prickly ash and violets.

Students will learn ethical and sustainable foraging practices, look at different types of harvesting gear, and take a short walk into the woods to find, identify and forage edible parts from selected species. Students will then clean, process and eat what was foraged, and will go home with a handful of recipes, samples and plants (resources permitting).

$65/person*. Register by June 9. All sales are final.

*Students should bring work gloves and snippers/clippers.

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate, please email owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Heidi Leuszler grew up harvesting and foraging wherever she lived: mangos in Florida, morels and mustang grapes from the back acre in Missouri, wild strawberries and holly grapes in the Colorado mountains and chokecherries in North Dakota. Those passions remained as she added culinary skills in addition to becoming a professor of environmental science, ecology and botany at Parkland College.

She started Berries and Flour in Champaign as the synergy of several passions: culinary, ecology, growing of plants, foraging and teaching people about the plentiful Midwest land. Berries and Flour teaches how to harvest, process and consume regional foods, collaborates with others to promote food accessibility and justice, and produces value-added products from its commercial kitchen.

Experience Level: Beginner 

Learn the skills of improvisation, including scene creation and team dynamics at Improve Your Improv on Thursdays, April 23 through June 18 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Music Barn. 

 Instructor Kyle Tasch returns to The Farms to teach this popular course, which will be jam-packed with improvisational fun that uses both short-form games and long-form scenes. 

This will not be a class to sit down, hear lectures, and take notes.  Students will be performing as much as possible to emphasize the mechanics needed to act out an entertaining and meaningful scene on the spot with no lines. There are many elements of improv that are not only useful on stage, but also in everyday life – wherever you might be put on the spot! 

Students who have already completed this class are welcome to join again. Beginners and those experienced in improv are all encouraged to join! 

$100/person for the entire series  or $25/class at the links below. Registration will close on April 20 for the entire series or two days before each subsequent class. 

— April 23
— April 30 
— May 7 
— May 14 
— May 21 
— May 28 
— June 18 

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu. 

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken. 

About the instructor 

Kyle Tasch is an improvisor, improv teacher, filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian and musician from the Chicago suburbs. He started performing improv in 2004 and has been improvising in front of audiences regularly since 2015. 

Experience Level: Intermediate

Expand your knowledge and learn how to practice a new, healthier lifestyle at The Practice of Plant-Based eating on Thursday, June 25 from 5 to 7 p.m. in The Studio.

Instructor Karla Freeze will share tips and tricks on how you can practice healthier eating including how to let go of those highly processed and fast food while also adding more fruits and veggies to your plate. Karla's breadth of knowledge and 13 years of eating plant-based will help you create healthy grocery lists to stock your pantry with all the snacks to satisfy your cravings.

$25/person*. Registration will close June 18 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

*It is recommended that students take Basics of Plant-Based Eating with Karla prior to this class.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Karla Freeze credits the plant-based lifestyle she switched to about 13 years ago for greatly improving her health, helping her to reverse ailments including type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, psoriasis, sleep apnea, while also helping her lose weight.

“Plant-based education is my passion,” she said.

Karla has done many educational sessions throughout central Illinois and worked with an international dining services company in presenting health sessions in Dallas and Houston.

Experience Level: Beginner 

Learn a new quilting technique at Quilting 101: Foundation Paper Piecing on Tuesday, July 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the The Studio. 

In this class, students will create complex and colorful geometric patterns and motifs with accuracy using paper. If this isn’t enough fun, instructor Billie Theide will be bringing her vintage sewing machines for students to practice on including a Singer Featherweight. 

This quilting process can culminate in a wide range of projects like quilts, bags, and contemporary artworks. All supplies will be provided. 

$130/person*. Registration will close June 21 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final. 

*Students should plan to bring the sewing machine they feel most comfortable using. Allerton has a limited supplie of machines available for rent. Please contact Olivia for more information. 

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. If you will need disability-related accommodation to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu. 

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken. 

About the instructor 

Billie Theide is a former chair of the Crafts Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is Professor Emerita. Theide is a metalsmith, jeweler and ceramicist. Her work is in public art collections around the world including the Smithsonian, Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and the Racine Art Museum, among others. 

She is the recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and five Artists Fellowship Grants from the Illinois Arts Council. Theide has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and is a Distinguished Member and Past-President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Experience Level: All Levels

Learn the basics of weaving and take home a basket at Basket Weaving: Long Way Home on Friday, July 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in The Studio.

$100/person. Registration will close July 10 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu.

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.

About the instructor

Bonnie Rideout wove her first basket in 1994 and quickly caught the “basket bug.” She created a business — Bonnie’s Baskets in Decatur — in 2006 to teach others to weave. She is also a traveling instructor and has taught weaving in 18 states.

Find out more about Bonnie on her website, Facebook, Instagram and Etsy pages.

About The Farms

The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, offers classes, workshops, and gatherings focusing on art, health & wellness, history, nature & outdoor education, or science. All experiences value hands-on, experiential teaching and learning, and are facilitated by and for the members of the community.

Experience Level: Beginner 

Try learning a new fiber art at Punch Needle Coasters on Sunday, July 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the The Studio. 

Students in this class will learn to design motifs, scale and transfer designs, and set up a tension hoop. Then, students will learn the basics of punch needle to form perfectly looped stitches, change colors, and finish pieces to create beautiful textiles that function as coasters. Enrollment includes a toolkit that students will be able to continue their work at home. 

$145/person. Register here. Registration will close July 19 or when capacity is reached. All sales are final. 

Learn more about the space where your course will take place here. If you will need disability-related accommodation to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu. 

By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken. 

About the instructor 

Billie Theide is a former chair of the Crafts Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is Professor Emerita. Theide is a metalsmith, jeweler and ceramicist. Her work is in public art collections around the world including the Smithsonian, Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and the Racine Art Museum, among others. 

She is the recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and five Artists Fellowship Grants from the Illinois Arts Council. Theide has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and is a Distinguished Member and Past-President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.