Ranellhansenquilts's Weblog

I Madonari at the Santa Barbara Mission

ranellhansenquilts — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:16:48 +0000

I just got through helping my friend Marlene Ray do a chalk rendition of my skeleton quilt, Grateful Dance on the sidewalk in front of the Santa Barbara Mission.
Fun, but exhausting.

My quilt Santa Barbara Riviera was chosen to be in the West Coast Wonders exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach in July.

Faulkner Gallery Show

ranellhansenquilts — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:13:28 +0000

Here is a preview of a show that Jeanne Surber, Judy Rys and I just hung. It is at the Faulkner Gallery East located at the main branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library on Anacapa St. The show is called Conceptualize, Create, Communicate. Our work is very diverse, and yet blends well together. It is an absolute splash of color, texture, pattern and form. Please try to come and see our work during the month of March.

Open House photos

ranellhansenquilts — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:09:33 +0000

I had my open house on Saturday and almost 100 people came. It looked really lovely with quilts hanging on the eaves of the building, on the fence and all around inside the studio. I made little party favors for everyone who came, served cookies and juice, and just celebrated with lots of really nice people. Some of them had been to my studio before, but most had not. It was a wonderful event. There are more photos somewhere, but I will post this and look for them tomorrow.

“Grateful Dance” my newest quilt

ranellhansenquilts — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:07:59 +0000

Here is a photo of my newest quilt. It is entitled Grateful Dance. I created it in commemoration of my two hip replacements and in gratitude that I have mobility again. My inspirations were the skeletons from the Dia De Los Muertos tradition, and an image I saw on a T shirt of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a skeleton. The titanium hips are made of gold and silver lame fabric.

This quilt got a blue ribbon at the local quilt show last week end. I am entering it in Road to California. I am also quilting the muslin base fabric as a whole cloth quilt just to practice my machine quilting skills. I will be retiring from my full time job in October and plan to return to custom machine quilting as a retirement business. I feel that I need to hone my machine quilting skills because it has been a long time since I quilted full time.

This photo doesn’t show the border, which is very cool. I will take another pic with the border on soon. Actually I talked to my friend Judy Rys about taking a photo of the quilt for me.

slide show at Guild meeting

ranellhansenquilts — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:25:34 +0000

quilt guild Presentation 5-13-10

Here’s a sneak preview of the slide show I will be presenting at the quilt guild on 5-13-10. I am talking about my journey as an art quilter. The slides are to get to know me and to see some of my work and my environment. It will be lots of fun to present the show. I will also show some quilts.

Road to California entries

ranellhansenquilts — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:40:28 +0000

I had two quilts accepted into Road to California this year. One is a conglomeration of my Wild Women series, sewn onto a black background. The other is the Santa Barbara Riviera. The show is next week end. I am going to drive down to Ontario on Tuesday and take two classes from longarm instructors Pam Clark and Jamie Wallen. Then on Friday, I am taking a class from Yvonne Porcella who is coming to our guild, then on Saturday, going back to Ontario to see the show and take a class from Pamela Allen. Phew… I won’t know if I am coming or going by next week.

yosemite quilt photo

ranellhansenquilts — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:25:23 +0000

I was reading what I have posted in the past and I realized that I have not yet posted a photo of my Yosemite quilt. There is one on the Coastal Quilters Guild website at coastalquiltersguild.org . look for Challenge 2009.

Angel and Nativity banners

ranellhansenquilts — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:35:14 +0000

I just completed these banners for the Community Church in Carpinteria. I am happy with how they turned out, but need to make the faces more distinct. The angel is based on a Botticelli painting, and the figure of Mary is based on Susanne, my daughter in law with Beatrix, my grand daughter. I searched for a traditional rendering of Mary that had her holding a newborn baby. Almost everything I looked at either had the baby Jesus as a miniature man, or as a chubby 6 month old or more. Nobody portrays him as a newborn. The photo of Suzanne with Bea was just right, and the expression on her face is one of pride and contentment. I think that is probably what Mary felt. There is a certain euphoria that comes when you finally meet the baby you have been nurturing for 9 months face to face.
I felt great satisfaction having the banners completed and hung in the church. I grew up in that church.

My newest completed work and some work in progress

ranellhansenquilts — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:13:15 +0000

I finished a piece for the Fibervision alphabet challenge. My letter was B and the peramemers were to create a piece that would be displayed on stretcher bars 24×30. I am really happy with how my piece turned out.

Bee

Here is another photo of my Mariner’s Stopwatch hanging at the Houston Show. I met my friend Martha there and we had a wonderful time both at the show and with one another catching up on the past year or so worth of conversation.

I made halloween costumes for the grandkids. I never did get a good photo of the two of them together in their matching clown outfits, but here is a great one of Atticus in his. We went with them to trick- or- treat at some of the North Beach merchants. Atticus did not want to wear his clown hat, but when his dad told him that if he wore the hat, he would get more candy, on went the hat. Pretty cute.

Here’s Beatrix

My New A1 quilt machine

ranellhansenquilts — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:13:20 +0000

Lynn Douglas and her husband Scott were here today to set up my new A1 quilting machine. I am happy!!!. The thing I really like about it, besides the fact that it is very lightweight compared to my Gammill, is that it has an automatic lift system so that the table can be raised and lowered with a little remote. So, when I get tired, I change the height of the machine, sit if I am standing, stand if I am sitting, and continue quilting.

I bought the new machine as an investment in my retirement. I hope to retire from my full time job soon and return to teaching and quilting full time.

My other good news is that my Mariner’s Stopwatch quilt was accepted as a finalist in the Houston show. I hope to be going to Houston in October. I will also be entering my Wild Women series in Road to CA, which is in January. I have already registered for some classes at Road. I think that taking classes will get me closer to my goal of quilting and teaching full time.

I got my Yosemite quilt back from the First Thursday exhibit at Grant House. I need to quilt the borders more. I wanted it to look like a frame, so I put iron on interfacing on the back of the fabric so that it would be stiff enough not to quilt the outside border. However, the iron in interfacing I used shrinks with steam and makes the fabric bubble slightly. I know no one else sees it, but I do, and it really bugs me. I think that if I quilt the border more, it will take care of the bubbling problem. I just do not quite know what I want to do yet. I will have to take off the sleeve, but that is not problem. I will photograph it “before and after”. ( if I did not have to work tomorrow, I would do it then. I plan to take Wednesday off to quilt. I have such a hard time taking week days off because i feel like if I am not there, the place would not function…Yeah, right…Oh well.. Work Ethic – we should be taught interdepedence, not independence.)

Enough night time ramblings. I will post photos when I get them taken.