Dena Crain: Artist & Teacher in Kenya

You know what I mean. You’re trundling along pretty well, moving from one day to the next, everything running pretty smoothly, quite a few up’s and the occasional down but never anything too serious. Suddenly, and in a flash, something goes badly wrong. Inside of yourself, you scream “why me? why now? why? why? why?” but there are no answers. Life has laid its hand upon you in a seemingly random fashion and turned your whole world upside down.

When someone uses a photograph of a quilt made in one of my classes to promote a class they are planning to teach, which just happens to have a title also recognizable as very nearly the original title of the workshop they studied with me, and when they clearly intend to profit from the usurpation of all my hard work and the years of experience and know-how it took for me to develop that class, I think it is time to draw the line!

Win a free copy of Lark Books’ “500 Art Quilts” by Karey Bresenhan. Simply visit Virgina A. Spiegel’s blog and follow her instructions.

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!

Quilt University now has a presence on Facebook! If you are a Facebook member, you can find the Quilt University wall just by entering “Quilt University” in the search window. If you are not already a member of Facebook; well, what in the world are you waiting for?! See you there! PS:  I’m on Facebook, [...]

Quilt University will soon be taking its annual holiday break. To entertain and amuse you while classes are temporarily not in session, the Dean has set up some great new fun features.

Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Twitter page – check it out! // < ![CDATA[ google_ad_client = "pub-8198892365157918"; /* 125x125, created 3/4/08 */ google_ad_slot = "5455104503"; google_ad_width = 125; google_ad_height = 125; // ]]> // < ![CDATA[ google_ad_client = "pub-8198892365157918"; /* 125x125, created 3/4/08 */ google_ad_slot = "5455104503"; google_ad_width = 125; google_ad_height = 125; // ]]> // [...]

Ellie Schimelman, director of Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc., has reminded me about her upcoming African textile workshop to be held in August, 2009, outside Accra, Ghana. I believe there are not so many such initiatives these days, so those of you interested in African textiles should seriously consider signing up and going for this workshop.

The Kenya Quilt Guild has a new website! Check it out at http://www.kenyaquiltguild.org! It’s still fairly new and will change in coming months to keep up with the Guild’s activities.

Bev will be teaching in Ailsa Craig, during The Quilts of East Africa Festival sponsored by Cotton-by-Post, October 20-26. Other teachers include Maggie Robinson, Sheila O’Hagan, and my Kenya friends Charu Patel and Neela Shah. Check out the entire schedule – we hope to see you there!