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.

I finished my challenge quilt at 10:00 the night before it was due and turned it in. The Challenge theme was The Art of the Travel Poster. I chose Yosemite for my quilt and used a photo that Leroy had taken when we were there in April with the kids and grand kids.  Here is the photo of Yosemite falls that I used as inspiration.

I do not have a photo of the finished quilt yet, because I forgot to photograph it before I turned it in, but my quilt won the highest award in the challenge, and tomorrow I am going to be interviewed by the News Press… I will post a photo after tomorrow. The quilts are on display at Grant House sewing center on Canon Perdido near the Sojourner restaurant in Santa Barbara. I do not have the full address, but if you know SB,  you can find it.

WOO HOO!!!

Here is the Mariner’s Stopwatch quilt I just submitted to IQ A Houston Show. Judy Rys took the photo for me, put it on a disc and I mailed it off Express mail to reach Houston by tomorrow at noon, because I waited until right before the deadline to mail it. What is it with me? It seems like if there is not a deadline attached, I never get anything done… I hope to be accepted into the show. This is a 2 person mixed technique quilt. It is a product of a Fibervision Challenge alternately called revision, and regurgitation. We each put something in a bag that we were totally willing to give away with no strings attached.  The challenge was to make something out of it. I got the mariner’s compas block and used it as the center of my stopwatch. Serindipity is amazing… the Mariner’s Compass block was made by Rene Jennings.When she saw the quilt she told me that she used to coach track, and had a stopwatch in her hand constantly. Wierd, huh!

So, one of my dreams was to have a show of my own work and it has become a reality. I was asked to exhibit my quilts at Porch, a wonderful gift shop in Carpinteria that used to be a bank. After it was a bank it was an auto parts store, which used the  bank vault for storage. Porch made the vault into a gallery. They call their gallery, what else, Vault.

I was told by the owners of Porch that they had more people come in to see my show in the first 10 days than at at any show they had there since they opened. I was happy about that. I sold one piece, Todd’s Fishing House. It is always a little sad to sell your work, because I will miss seeing it. I guess that is something you get used to.   But, Oh Well, more money to go into my quilt machine fund. Besides, then I get to make more quilts.

Last Saturday I participated in the Carpinteria Artists Studio Tour. It was fun to have people visit my studio and get their feedback on my work. Inbetween visitors I made a really cute little dress for my grand daughter, Beatrix.  I have a piece in the local gallery, a group show featuring the work of the artists featured in the Tour.  There are some interesting pieces in the show. I finally finished my Green Martha, and submitted it for the show. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. No photo, though.

I have found out that I am definitely not a blogger, that is, I do not take the time to post entries in a very timely manner… I want to try and improve that. We shall see…. I wish I had time for all of my creative pursuits…

                                                                                            I am selling my Gammill Optimum quilting machine. The price is $8000.00.  I bought it new in 1998 and have quilted over 500 quilts on it. It has a 14 foot table and comes with some accessories and patterns. It has been well maintained and runs beautifully. Here are some photos of it. If you are interested, please email me at llenar.nesnah@gmail.com. Thanks, Ranell

this is a cool detail from one of my Wild Women quilts.

This is the one I sold to Jackie for her new restaurant.

Here are Leroy and me laughing at something… We are standing in front of the quilts of us.

This is a photo of  my toy sewing machine collection.

This Mariner’s compass was part of a challenge. It has become a Mariner’s Stopwatch. I am quilting it currently, and will take a photo as soon as it is done.

Today I called Cranberry Quiltworks in Yorba Linda because my quilting machine was frozen. It just stopped while I ws sewing and would not work. The technician there was very friendly and helpful, and solved the problem for me over the phone.  I recommend their services to any and every one.  They were willing to go out of their way to fix my machine for me. Great customer service!!  Thanks folks.

One of them is made with size labels. Small, Medium and Large. (Maybe XL too, I don’t remember.) I used to have a contract sewing business and had thousands of size tags left over from a job. I thought that they were too great to toss, so they have been sitting around for years waiting for the exact right use… the top photo is a closeup. I think I have a good magenta head for one of them, Aren’t they fun!

Here are some dolls I have made. Leroy, my husband, calls them Pizza dolls, because of their triangular shape. They are all hand made and just something fun to do. I usually have one going and stitch a little bit every once in a while. I have three bodies waiting for the right heads.

Last summer I participated in the studio tour where local artists opened their studios to the public. My next door neighbor Marty Lee was the one who talked me into doing it. Because of that little bit of exposure, all sorts of great things have been happening.  I entered a quilt in a show at a local shop called Porch that has a small gallery. I was asked to do a show there in March 2009. I was also interviewed for a magazine article in Carpinteria Magazine.  The issue came out in October or maybe early November. It was fun to have my 15 minutes of fame in my home town.

Anyway, I am adding some photos that were taken for the article by Liz Muraoka. Some of them were in the article and some were not. Unfortunately, the current issue of the Carp Magazine is not up yet on the Coastalview.com website, so have fun looking at the photos here. Oh, a friend, Jackie Walsh, who just married Gary Neilson saw one of the quilts in the magazine and bought it for her new restaurant at Santa Claus Lane.You can see it in person there.

I will add more photos later.

I just found out this week that my quilt, “Todd’s Fishing House” was accepted into Road. The Blockheads, one of my groups,  are planning a trip down there in January. Bev Ferro will be there as a vendor and can see it in person. Her man, Todd is the one who built the fishing house near their pond, which he restored and stocked with fish. When we visited them we walked around the property looking at all the cool stuff he either has restored or is in the process of restoring. He has a grist mill on the property which he is restoring a little bit at a time, an American Gothic style house that is also in the process of being restored,  some fields, some forest, a creek. It is a fabulous place, full of history and beauty. I took the photo of the fish shack that inspired this quilt. It is pretty true to the photo. I used the actual photos of the stuff hanging on the wall because I could not figure out how to represent them. I ended up enlarging the bits i used and  photocopying them on to fabric and then appliqueing them onto the quilt. If I can find the original photo, I will upload it to this posting.