Dena Dale Crain relocated from the USA to Kenya in 1990, then returned to the USA in 2023. She spent most of her time in Kenya, living on the shore of Lake Baringo, two hundred miles and a five-hour drive north of Nairobi, with her partner Jonathan Leakey.
Dena saw patchwork quilting as a way to employ local women, taught herself the basics, and began a small production quilting business in her home. With advanced degrees in design, anthropology, and textiles, she was uniquely positioned to help. As her experience and confidence increased, she began producing “one-off” works of art. Dena’s innovative art quilts were the subject of several solo art exhibitions and group quilt shows in Africa.
Dena helped found the Kenya Quilt Guild and keeps a pulse on its activities. She helps educate members of the society at large about quilts as art. She has written magazine articles and lectured at quilting and non-quilting functions.
Teaching in Cape Town, South Africa, for the Good Hope Quilters Guild National Quilt Festival in July 2002 moved Dena into the ranks of international quilting teachers. Since then, she taught art quilting at such prestigious venues as the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England; the European Patchwork Meeting in Val d'Argent, France; and the International Quilt Festivals in Houston and Chicago in the USA. In 2011, she earned South Africa National Quilt Guild Certification. In 2018 she became a Recommended Teacher for the same guild.
In 2004 Dena joined the faculty of Quilt University, the first major online educational facility for patchwork quilters, later teaching for QuiltEd Online and the Academy of Quilting. An inventive and creative mind coupled with top-notch sewing skills makes Dena Dale Crain an educator of high merit in the world of patchwork quilting.
Find links to Dena's patchwork quilt ebooks, live and virtual quilt classes, original pattern downloads, and more on her website.