the studio: workshops: dena crain
Dena Crain came to Kenya from the USA in 1990. She now lives on the shore of Lake Baringo,
two hundred miles and a five hour drive north of Nairobi, with her life partner Jonathan Leakey.
Dena is a devoted stepmother to Jonathan’s four grown children and their families, one Dalmatian, seven cats, and a large aquarium full of platties, not to mention an orphaned hippo named Cleo (now living with Owen and Mzee at Haller Park) and a troop of about seventy vervet monkeys!
Amazingly she also finds time to make quilts and teach quilt making. Dena’s quilts have been the subject of several solo art exhibitions. In 2004 Dena joined the faculty of Quilt University, an online educational facility for quilters. At present, she teaches six classes twice each year. Teaching online compensates nicely for her relative isolation in the Kenyan ‘upcountry,’ allowing Dena to interact in a personal way with students from more than twenty different countries.
Dena has become well known as an international quilt teacher.
Dena will be teaching two workshops - Reflections ( a one day workshop) and Darned Quilts ( a two day workshop)
Reflections
Thursday 2 September 10.00 - 4.00
£50 (includes lunch)
Let Dena help unlock your design talents, her practical challenges encourage students
to tread new ground. Students learn how mirror-imaging can turn even simple sketches
into fabulous works of art.
Dena’s positive and encouraging style of teaching mean you will learn new skills and be
amazed at your result. Experimental construction, intuitive interpretation, and effective embellishment are encouraged.
Focus of Class: Design, critique, interpretation, machine sewing, embellishment.
Suitable for confident beginners to advanced. 1 Day Workshop
Darned Quilts
Friday 3 September and Saturday 4 September
£95 (includes lunch both days)
Students work quickly and easily with gradated fabrics, freehand rotary cutting and piecing
techniques, and a variety of trims to create a suitable embellished background that shifts
gently from one value to another, or from one colour to another, or both!
Working with found objects, students carefully cut shapes out of the background fabric in sets. The shapes are repositioned to alter value, colour, and pattern. They are then reset into the background using decorative machine stitches for additional embellishment as well as secure construction.
Every student will turn a simple value study into a stunning art quilt of their own design. Anything is possible as the design and construction methods progress, and lucky coincidences are bound to occur.
Focus of Class: Construction, composition, embellishments
Suitable for confident beginners to advanced. 2 Day Workshop
the Studio: is part of The Loch Lomond Quilt Show Limited registered in Scotland no: 123456 | Registered office: