Sumac Sundowner #1: Will Stewart and Tim Higgins
Join us for the first in our Sumac Sundowner series for an evening of songs and stories with Will Stewart and Tim Higgins. Will and Tim will share the stage at Sumac Cottage, performing their original music and sharing the stories behind their songs. Arrive around 6, and expect the music to begin around 6:30. $10 at the door, venmo and cash preferred.
This show will take place outdoors at Sumac Cottage, so please bring a chair, blanket, etc, and dress appropriately. You are welcome to bring a cooler and a snack, and there are several great dinner options if you’d like to get take-out for the show. We recommend Ruan Thai on a Saturday evening.
RSVPs are not required, but help us gauge the crowd. If you’re planning to come, let us know by e-mailing magic@sumaccottage.com.
WILL STEWART
As one of the brightest and most prolific new songwriters to emerge from the Birmingham music scene over the past few years, Will Stewart has made a name for himself as both an imaginative storyteller and six string gunslinger whose detailed accounts of life around the Deep South seem to capture the essence of not just the humid, kudzu-covered environs they come out of, but also the creative cultural milieu that makes such narratives possible in the first place. Taking cues from everyone from Big Star and R.E.M., to Phosphorescent and the Drive-By Truckers, and even classic Southern literary figures like Eudora Welty and Barry Hannah, Stewart has managed to carve out a place for himself as a conjurer of time, place and characters— and the stories that swirl around them— in a way that’s simultaneously reflective, empathetic and unapologetic in their presentation.
Now on his fourth solo LP, over his past three studio efforts Stewart has shown a deft touch for not just engaging character arcs and succinct studies in the human condition, but also a range of musical modes that span everything from quiet dissertations on love and loss, to brash rockers and moody explorations of the complicated nature of modern Southern living. As someone who also wears the hat of a highly sought after sideman who lends his talents to friends and fellow travelers like Birmingham locals The Blips, Terry Ohms and Sarah Lee Langford, there are few sonic spaces that Stewart’s hands haven’t touched in some way, whether it’s blasting out amped-up garage rock or eliciting evocative and hushed guitar stylings for his longtime collaborator Janet Simpson.
TIM HIGGINS
Singer-songwriter Tim Higgins writes and performs songs which spiral around issues dealing with love, loss, destruction, and history; his are personal songs that often carry broader social implications. Born and raised partly around Detroit, Michigan, and coastal Alabama, his Rust Belt meets Southern upbringing is channeled in his straightforward imagery and gravel-throated delivery. Twice included on Rolling Stone Country’s Best New Music list, Tim’s debut album, BLIGHT, came out in 2020, and his songs have been featured on The Bluegrass Situation, No Depression, AmercanaUK, and NPR Music. In October 2024, Tim released the single, Lost in Heaven, followed by Doomed to Love Me in February 2025. Tim lives in the Black Belt region of Alabama, with his partner, textile artist, Aaron Sanders Head.
Black Belt Birding Festival
Mark your calendar for August 2nd for the 4th Annual Black Belt Birding Festival! It’s always a beautiful day in the Black Belt!
Walker Evans, Gourd-nests for the Martins, 1936, Hale County, Alabama
This year, like the past, we’re having live music and an artist market. But we’re adding in more magic this year, with a juried exhibition of bird-related art in the cottage. Stay tuned for the call to artists for that exhibition.
Pine Burr Quilts
Pine Burr Quilt by Lucy Mingo, Gee’s Bend, Alabama; collection of Saint Louis Art Museum
Spend the day learning to make the official State Quilt of Alabama—the Pine Burr Quilt.
The Pine Burr Quilt is a unique, textured quilt made from many different folded triangles that are then sewn to foundation fabric in varying patterns. There are many design choices to make, from fabric color, fabric texture, pine burr spacing, and framing techniques, and the resulting quilt – either sewn in rows or in a circular pattern – is a sculptural, individual quilt block that reflects the maker’s hand. We will make 12 inch blocks, and Aaron will share a variety of finishing options, from trivets to wall-hangings to pillows.
A note on materials: Pine Burr quilts are made from a lot of small squares, folded up into triangles and sewn together. To save time, please bring a stack of 20-30 four inch squares of fabric. This should be fabric you can easily sew through, but fabric that maintains its shape and doesn’t skew too easily. Starching and pressing beforehand can be helpful. It can be all one color, or multiple colors. You should also bring a few yards of additional fabric of your choice, that you can cut into various sized squares for experimenting with scale and color. Aaron will also have various fabrics for participants to choose from.
Indigo + Clay Resist
Spend the day exploring the possibilities of Clay Resist and Indigo. In this workshop, we’ll learn to make our own clay paste to paint onto our fabric before dipping into indigo, enabling dyers to create patterns and painterly designs on fabric. Aaron will also have various stencils for using, as well as stencil sheets for participants to make their own stencils, and we’ll explore a variety of tools for mark-making. Shapes for shape-resist will also be available for use.
Provided:
1 yard of cotton muslin
Stencil material
All dye materials and clay paste
Students should bring:
Additional natural material fabrics from home. Clothing, linens, vintage materials, are all great, as long as they are made from natural materials
Any stamps or stencils
Paint brushes and mark making tools. These might get trashed, so this is a great time to bring old bristly brushes-they can make great textures!
high-sleeved rubber gloves, like dishwashing gloves
Growing a Dye Garden
Join Aaron at Sumac Cottage for a day of learning how to grow your own color.
Aaron will walk us through the process of planning, planting, and maintaining a dye garden, as well as best methods for harvesting and storing dye materials that you can use in your craft. We'll begin by discussing options for long-lasting, homegrown color, sourcing seeds, and creating a planting/gardening schedule. Then, we'll cover how to source seeds and start them indoors—including heating mats, grow lights, watering methods and making our own seed starting mix. While we'll focus on several typical plants used for natural dyeing (such as indigo, marigolds, and madder), the skills you'll learn can be applied to a number of plants. We'll end the course with a showcase from Aaron which will demonstrate how to begin using these plants to create color, and participants will be able to experiment with color as well.
Participants will leave with dyed fabric samples, dye plant starts previously started by Aaron, seed-starting mix, and a small tray of seeds that the participants will plant in class. Participants are encouraged to bring gardening gloves and to wear clothing that can get messy.
Holiday Open House + Artist Market
Join us at Sumac Cottage for original art, gifts, music and more. Check back for full artist list and more details!
Sew Their Names - Drop-in Quilting Workshop
Sumac Cottage is partnering with the Jule Collins Museum for a special presentation of the Sew Their Names Project, and a drop-in quilting session on 11/16 from 10:30-12:00.
Sew Their Names tells the story of a group of quilters from Mt. Willing, Alabama who, in the wake of the activism spurred by the death of George Floyd, began stitching the names of enslaved persons found in the archives of the Alabama Baptist Church at Samford University. This simple act has now turned into a larger exhibition and project to commemorate the erased and forgotten lives of enslaved people across the state of Alabama. Two quilts are on display at Sumac Cottage, and the public is invited to a drop-in quilting session with the Mt. Willing Quilters on Saturday, 11/16 from 10:30-12:00, where community members can contribute to the project through continuing to help stitch the names of enslaved people whose names are listed in the archives of Samford University or connected to their own families.
Please fill out the form below if you are planning to attend. This event is free and registration is not required, this is just to gauge the crowd. Thank you.
Kudzu Foraging and Basket-Making with Sarah Bell
Spend the day with Sarah Bell foraging, processing, and weaving kudzu to create beautiful baskets. You will learn how to identify and process kudzu vines for basket-weaving. Beginner-friendly and all materials provided.
Optional Materials List. If you have some of these, please bring. There will be extras, but we will have to share:
Pruners
Awl
Pocket knife
Clothespins or small clamps
Flexible measuring tape
Hand Towel
If you would prefer to venmo your class fee, that is totally fine! Just e-mail magic@sumaccottage.com and we will arrange. If the workshop is full, e-mail magic@sumaccottage.com to be placed on the waitlist.
Sarah Bell is a fiber artist, sculptor, farmer, and educator based in Birmingham, Alabama. Descended from Chinese and American ancestry, she grew up using art and creativity as a way to find a sense of connection to her experiences of familial migration, grief, and home. She is greatly influenced and inspired by the use of natural and sustainable materials, ancestry of people and land, as well as ancient craft processes and land tending techniques that interweave into her daily engagement with place, materiality, and its impermanence.
Alabama Magic: A Collaborative Workshop with Aaron Sanders Head & Doug Baulos
Saturday October 12, 10-5
Sunday October 13, 11-4
Join Aaron Sanders Head and Doug Baulos for two days of making magic with a variety of materials endemic to Alabama—including sumac, goldenrod, black walnut and more.
On day 1, we’ll explore natural dyes and resist pattern making, as well as cyanotype and anthotype (plant-based photo print) emulsions. We’ll also explore methods of toning our photographic exposures for a broader range of prints. On day 2, we’ll explore patchwork and sewing techniques to assemble our materials from day one into small quilted panels. Folks will leave with a textile piece (either finished, or with a hefty start) as well as a plethora of new ways of engaging with their environment in Alabama.
MATERIALS:
Doug and Aaron will assemble material packets for participants that include dyed and printed fabrics for use in their work. Participants can also bring meaningful fabrics from home to incorporate into their work.
All dyeing and hand-sewing materials will be provided. If you have preferred sewing notions (snips, needles, etc.) at home, feel free to bring those.
A sewing machine is not required, but if you would like to bring one, you are welcome to.
This workshop is appropriate for participants of all experience levels. Registration is required and limited. We cannot offer refunds on workshops, but if there is a waitlist, we can help connect you with someone on that list—but no guarantees of reselling are made.
Registration is below. If workshop is full, please e-mail magic@sumaccottage.com to be placed on the waitlist in case there is a cancellation.
4th Annual Black Belt Birding Festival
Join us at the cottage as we take part in Alabama Audubon’s 4th annual Black Belt Birding Festival! The Cottage will be filled with an artist pop-up and related festival programs. The artist lineup and scheduled programs will be announced closer to the festival time.
To explore last year’s events to get a taste of what’s to come, you can visit Alabama Audubon’s website here.
This Moment is a Flower: Journal Making with Doug Baulos
Skill level: any - ages 14 and up
In this day long workshop, learn to create a beautiful journal with handmade papers and plein aire botanically printed paper covers (or, the art of fixing a shadow/permanent photogenic printing). This day long alchemical lab workshop will focus on observing and heightening awareness of textures and patterns observed in nature.
Drumming, tipping in, and paper engineering will be widely experimented with during the workshop. Content focus will be on heightening awareness and photogenically printing Alabama plant forms - sumac, goldenrod, bloodroot, and elderberry while creating a book that offers an expanded outcome towards a deeper sense of personal authenticity. The class will discuss the symbolism of devotional covers as well as create/workshop how to use paper engineering and other forms of journaling as devotional/garden meditations.
Doug will supply –
Adhesives
Pastes
all book block materials
handmade paper
toned and dye papers
natural dyes/emulsions
other supplies as needed
Students can bring the following as possible (DOUG HAS MANY EXTRAS!)
An awl (or metal pushpin)
bone folder
circular sewing needle (buy at beauty supply store)
scissors
ruler
small cutting mat
brush and small Tupperware for glue
wax paper
rag or sponge
apron
1 inch sash brush
xacto blade
pencil
8”x10” approx. piece of glass
small cookie sheet or 8x10” piece of stiff cardboard
*Students are encouraged to bring various and additional collage or decorative papers, whatever image making supplies you use - Please bring any other glues or mediums or collage materials/papers that are part of your personal aesthetic and studio practice to add to your investigations and research.
Registration will open soon for this workshop.