Darley Y. Clevenger
I first got into quilting by making small pieces that were “framed” by embroidery hoops. I then moved into bigger quilts like a bird on a branch with a couple of flowers and then went on from there.
Quilting
I came to quilting purely by luck. In our early years living in Toronto, I came across a magazine with a choice of craft projects. One that caught my eye was a quilted wall hanging, of a woman/girl standing at a window (I think it was by Laurie Swim but can’t be sure). I really enjoyed the process and was so happy with the finished quilt that I made another for my Mom and then one for my sister – I was hooked. I decided to try a design of my own and made a small, very simple quilt of a boy standing and a girl sitting (viewed from behind) on a hill overlooking a lake and distant shoreline. When I finished, I walked it up the street to a shopping area that had a blend of knick-knack shops, crafts, art, and home decor type stores and found someone willing to sell it on commission. IT SOLD! ……and so it began…..
The other main, pioneering influence on my quilts dates back to when I was a girl. The paint-by-number fad was in full throttle and my mother had picked up a few to try. I was fascinated by the layout of the picture with the lines dividing the canvas into all those small pieces, each with a number designating a color to be painted in that small space. Then by filling in each small defined space with different colors a picture emerged. I, of course, had to try one or two and was amazed that I could actually create a picture that way! Fast forward 15 years to my sitting in the living room of our Toronto home, putting together a craft project from a magazine, and realizing that my small simple quilt could become much more nuanced, detailed and interesting if I used that paint-by-number technique with different colors of fabric creating the design! I wonder how many of those little pieces I have put on fabric backing to be appliquéd to create my dozens of quilts?
Life
I was born and grew up in Pekin Illinois – a medium sized town across the river from Peoria. The area was a transition from flat farmland to rolling hills along the Illinois River. With so little variation in the landscapes, I grew to appreciate the skyscapes that took up so much of the visual space. I used to love watching the storms come in across the farm fields. These fields and skies inspired the Fall Farm quilt – based on a farm I often passed by on the drive back to visit my parents. It is only after I moved away that I really began to appreciate the unique beauty of the farm & prairie landscape.
At the time, I was much more enchanted by my grandparents summer home in Michigan – land overlooking Lake Charlevoix which had been farmed by my grandmother’s family. It was a beautiful, inspiring place to spend our vacations. I loved the lake and the fields and woods around that beautiful piece of land.
Having grown up loving Michigan, I decided to do my graduate work at Michigan State University where I met my husband, John. After graduation we moved to Toronto (John was born and raised in Canada). We would make twice yearly trips to Winnipeg where his parents lived – traveling through The Lake of the Woods area where he grew up. I fell in love with that landscape! The drive along the north shore of Lake Superior and then into the lake country around Kenora in western Ontario will steal your heart! It definitely stole mine and is the reason why so many of my quilts feature that incredible combination of rocks, trees, undergrowth, water and, especially, where those elements all come together!
We have been lucky enough to have found a cabin on a lake near Sioux Lookout in Northwestern Ontario, not far from where John grew up, and where we spend parts of our summer enjoying the lakes, trees, rocks, wildlife and the unique vegetation of the taiga or boreal forest (the world’s largest land biome).We often joke that we could walk or canoe all the way to the North Pole without encountering any signs of civilization!.
We currently live in Michigan where the rolling hills, trees, lakes and rivers have provided continuing inspiration for my quilts. The home I designed and we had built nestles into a hill on our property with a well used porch overlooking the hillside flower garden that I spend much of my spring, summer, and fall tending, then enjoying from our porch as we rest from the day. The garden and the magnificent trees and fall color in our area continue to delight, awe and inspire me and are both the subject of many of my completed quilts as well as the inspiration for countless future works.
