Dena Crain: Artist/Teacher in Kenya

The most recent session of Goodbye to the Grid, my newest online art quilt design workshop at Quilt University, has just closed.  The students were great, they worked hard and produced some amazing work.  We all had a great time making art quilts from scratch!

I’m sorry if you missed out on this super opportunity to study with me online, but the class will run again soon.  Check my class schedule and find more information at Quilt University to find out when the next session of Goodbye to the Grid will be held.  Be sure to have a good look at the Quilt U Class Catalog while you’re there.  You may find other online quilt classes there that you would enjoy taking.

Glissando, art quilt by Dena Crain

Truly, even YOU can be an art quilter!  See you in class very soon!

By the way, see more art quilts in my gallery and be sure to have a look at my Quilt University students’ work.

Robert Genn has written a great article about creativity and the human mind called “Accessing the Default Mode Network,” well worth reading, on The Painter’s Keys.  If you like it, subscribe to his bi-weekly newsletter.  I find most of his posts to be right on target when it comes to making art!

See Dottie Sharp’s lovely new Structured Fabrics quilt on Facebook.  Check out her profile to see another.

Thanks, Dottie, for sharing with us!

I was delighted to receive a notice from Darlene of SewCalGal that someone has nominated me for the Golden Quilter Awards‘ Best Teacher/Instructor! What a lovely compliment!

Then I was dismayed to see some of the truly “big name” quilt teachers who had also been nominated, including Caryl Bryer Fallert, Ricky Timms, and Fons and Porter!

Find more information about the competition, and how to win points and prizes for yourself during the Golden Quilter Awards Voting & Giveaway at SewCalGal’s Insights on Contests and Freebies.

And while you’re there, how about voting for me, heh?!  Thanks!!   

Last week, traveling home from Nairobi with quilts rolled in a canvas cover on the back seat, I experienced some car trouble. I stopped by the side of the road, lifted the bonnet (hood), and found that the radiator was rather blocked. In the process of sorting out the problem, I drove for some miles with a plastic container of water bouncing around in the back.

What I did not know at the time was that the water bottle was not properly capped. Quite a bit of the water sloshed out, onto my canvas bundle of quilts. When I got home some four hours later, I saw the full extent of the problem and was completely dismayed by its results.

Bleeding dye on silk

Dye bled onto silk

Two new silk quilts, one not even yet finished, had bled dye onto each other. Neither of them was ever intended to come near water and were meant for dry cleaning only. I consider both of them ruined beyond repair.

Usually so careful about my quilts, I’m heartbroken to have had this experience. I share it with you here in the hope that you will take greater care with your pieces than I did with mine.

Also, if anyone out there has some kind of miracle cure for bled dye, I surely would like to hear about it! Any help would be much appreciated!

The most recent session of Crystal Quilts, my online innovative quilt design workshop based on symmetry and tessellation, on offer at Quilt University, has just closed.  The students were great, they worked hard and produced some amazing work.  We all had a great time making beautiful innovative quilts from scratch!

"All That Glitters," a Crystal Quilt by Dena Crain

I’m sorry if you missed out on this super opportunity to study with me online, but the class will run again soon.  Check my class schedule and find more information at Quilt University to find out when the next session of Crystal Quilts will be held.  Be sure to have a good look at the Quilt U Class Catalog while you’re there.  You may find other online quilt classes there that you would enjoy taking.

Structured Fabrics:  Stripes, Checks and Plaids is a great way to design improvisational and original art quilts.  Registration for this online quilt design class at Quilt University remains open for now, but it won’t for very much longer!

Check out the course description here and find more information at Quilt University.

Detail from Conversation Piece, a Structured Fabrics Quilt by Dena Crain, commissioned by Rockefeller Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya

By the way, see more Structured Fabrics quilts in my gallery and be sure to have a look at my Quilt University student gallery.

See you in class!

This from Steve Pavlina:

Amateur bloggers get their minds loaded with tips and tricks from other bloggers, and then they set to work on trying to build traffic to their sites. The only problem is that many of the tips they learn are based on falsehoods. The tips don’t work consistently because the underlying assumptions simply aren’t correct.

More at http://www.stevepavlina.com.

Goodbye to the Grid, my newest class at Quilt University, has been scheduled to open again on June 11, 2101.  This is the class that turns everyone into an art quilter.  Learn how to unleash hidden creativity through easy, guided drawing exercises as you learn more and more each day about composition and design.  Then, make your original sketch into a fine art quilt by learning my specialized quilt construction methods.

Discover more insight about Goodbye to the Grid here and at Quilt University.  Be sure to have a look at my previous students’ works while you’re there.  Each student was entirely responsible for producing her own original design, and you can do such wonderful work yourself with a little bit of help from me!

Goodbye to the Grid art quilt by Judy Eckhardt

Goodbye to the Grid art quilt by Carole P. Kenny

Goodbye to the Grid art quilt by Maria Ragusini

I promise:  your art quilt will look like no other!  Join me for this great chance to move completely off the grid. Mark your calendar now for May 7, 2010 so you will be among the first to register!

We had a lovely two-day outing over the weekend into the highlands of western Kenya to visit family who are managing one of the major tea plantations, growing Camellia sinensis.  It has been many years since I first saw tea farming in Kericho, and the vistas before us were a sight for sore eyes.  Long accustomed to the browns and yellows and pale chartreuse colors of Baringo, the lush emerald green of the tea was as enticing as an ocean of green velvet.

We flew to the plantation.  Because the airstrip was also grassy, we would never have found it but for our GPS which told us we had arrived at our destination.  The flight there was a bit nerve-wracking for me.  Never particularly comfortable flying in a light aircraft, I found the 20 minute ascent from 3000 ft to over 9000 ft altitude, listening to our poor little airplane’s engine working for all it is worth, to be not very nice.  Nevertheless, we  safely topped the escarpment and the vista beneath opened up into wondrous farmlands and forests, all brilliant green sparkling in the morning sun–lovely!!

We had a happy time visiting our family, a most pleasant tour of the plantation, a relaxed dinner, and a good sleep during the cool highland night, a feast of an al fresco breakfast and flew home late Sunday morning.

This journey was much easier, as it was virtually downhill all the way.  Once again, we flew over the farms and forests, dropping over the edge of the escarpment and straight on to the airstrip at home.  Despite the mid-day heat and haze, the views were dramatic as we looked down some 5000 ft to the semi-arid landscapes below.  We flew over Chemeron Dam, where I once swam with crocodiles (not any more!), and over a dried-up river system before finding our destination airstrip straight ahead.  Our two days away from home were a truly delightful outing with family!