Storm!

That predicted storm arrived just at sunset last evening. The first raindrops are splashed on the window.
We awoke to winds gusting up to 60mph. It's impossible to walk on the lake side of the cottage. Those are 16 foot waves out there.
The view from behind my machine is still spectacular!

...and Now There Are Five to Go!

In the two days since I last posted, the panel I was beginning to work then is finished ... including cut to size and the yarn couched on the edges. It's the one in the lower left corner. I'm set up to begin layering onto the one above it.
Whew! Getting this level of realism near the bottom usually takes three days. I've been working until 10:00PM and then up and at the machine by 7:00AM the last few days.

The view today from behind the machine is spectacular!
By the end of the day a big storm from the northwest will move in with much cooler temperatures accompanying it. Brrrrrrrr!

PS: There's another "bit of Elvis" hiding in the just finished panel. If you need a hint, it's near an edge close to a Blue Aster.

Working In A Gift

The prairie flower installation project is "getting there". The first of the six panels left to get flowers was worked on today. This is the set-up in my studio to get the details placed so they flow into the surrounding panels.
Part of those details came from this box of yarns. They were a gift from a friend whose wife was an accomplished needlework woman.
I'm honored to received this supply of wonderful yarns and threads to work into my art pieces. Here are the ones used in this panel.
And here are the flowers. leaves, and grasses laid in place.
The next step is to add the layer of tulle and get the machine quilting done ... tomorrow.

Collage Play with Crowabout ~ Week #53

Collage Play with Crowabout offered up a wonderful collage sheet this week. Nancy B.of Crowabout really outdid herself.

As the mother of three sons, it was easy to create a collage that would be "all about boys."

If you haven't yet visited the Collage Play with Crowabout blog, you really must do so. There is an abundance of inspiration and fun waiting for you there.

Collage available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

Strange Laundry on My Clothesline

Finally I've gotten to the point of applying the final spray of Krylon fixative to the prairie flower panels ... at least to those in the vertical center row.
This is the second time for the spraying. The first was to the "underpainted" layer. This product not only sets the oil stick pastel work I've done to blend or accent design elements, but protects the surface against moisture and fading UV light rays.

The next step is to mount each in this row to the especially prepared MDF boards seen here. A local carpenter prepared them. He routed out some of the material from the back to lighten their weight, sanded, and painted them.
Then onto refining the details in the rows of panels on each side of the center, treating them with the Krylon fixative spray, then mounting those onto the solid boards.

When all that is finished, I have only six panels to build the flower details over the underpainted layers. There are no expected guests here at the cottage for the next three weeks. I'm projecting that I'll get this project finished before the end of October so we can head south for the winter.

Bitten by the Halloween Bug

Whether it was denial that the summer was over or just the "Halloween Scrooge" in me, whatever the reason, I was having a hard time mustering up the interest in creating Halloween themed collages. However, the "Mix It Up with Melange" Challenge this week got my creative Halloween juices flowing and I had great fun making the collages featured here.


I really do enjoy working in the colors that I associate with Halloween and Autumn. I may not really be ready for that nip in the air, but the changing leaves here in New England really are spectacular.

Collages available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

"Mix It Up with Melange" Challenge ~ WEE WITCHES

The Melange Challenge was just the nudge I needed to begin work on some Halloween collages. Once I started on this collage, I was inspired to create three more.

If you are in need of some inspiration, please stop by the Melange Team blog and join in on the "Mix it Up" challenge....we'd love to see what you create.

Collage available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

Summer's Really Over

During the height of summer when the activity and just plain NOISE around my house reached a crescendo, I yearned for a few hours of peace and quiet. Uninterrupted silence...a few moments to create in my studio...seemed like a slice of Heaven.

And yet now that the boys are back in school, some days are just TOO quiet. After the chores are done and the errands run, instead of making a bee-line to my studio, I look for other things to busy myself with and yet nothing quite fills the void. It's almost as if I am looking for someone to nurture and they're not here. The emptiness is palpable and I don't like how it feels.

Oh, I'm sure that I'll adjust to the empty house in time and the silence will be less deafening. But for now, I actually have to force myself into my studio. Today I prepped some surfaces for future collage work and then took my journal out to the screen porch...my very favorite spot in the house...and put those feelings down on paper. Yes, journaling was a good idea. Just that little bit of creative expression got under my skin and I was sorry when I had to set my journal down.

Yes, I'll be fine...there are surfaces ready to collage.

© Nancy Lefko

Just when i'd given up dreaming..

I've been gone for so long i feel like i abandoned a child not being on my blog this whole time. but i'm back because this is the one thing that truly makes ME who i am on my own.
I saw this and Fell in goddamn love instantly.. "Sweet child of mine" shot by Terry Richardson for Vogue Nippon Aug 09, just made me feel alive again and inspired to get back into the blogsphere. The feel of the shoot, the ridiculous amount of leather and the Model just make it perfect!













(photos courtesy of Paper Mode)

An Empty Pause!

LOOK! My studio is empty! Today the carpets and rugs in our cottage are being professionally cleaned.
This is what it looked like yesterday. Lots of stuff ... lots of work going on!
The room is not large, it has three doors and there are traffic paths through it ... one to a bedroom behind the design board, another from the lower level into the living room, and still another to the third floor bedrooms. It's necessary to block that last one off with my set-up of panels.
This is my arrangement so I can get the flowers and foliage to flow from one panel into the next to make one BIG picture.

I'm not waiting for the rug to dry before I roll my chair out of the bedroom behind the door to the machine and continue quilting on the current panel. I'm just waiting for the guy to leave.

Collage Play with Crowabout ~ Week #52

Collage Play with Crowabout is an exercise that truly stretches your creativity and gives your muse a workout. This week the collage sheet from Nancy B.of Crowabout was filled with wonderful images that I was immediately drawn to, and yet it took a while to formulate an idea or a direction for my collage. Even then, the collage you see pictured above is not at all the one I began...there were many changes along the way.

If you haven't yet visited the Collage Play with Crowabout blog, you really must do so. There is an abundance of inspiration and fun waiting for you there.

Collage available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

In Rememberance of September 11th

The Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild members made this quilt in 2004. It honors the victims of that infamous day, September 11th of 2001, as well as the new found spirit of courage and unity of the American people that resulted from this tragedy.
It was created in conjunction with an exhibition of September 11th quilts at the Knoxville Art Museum (those quilts were part of the collection that was gathered immediately after 9/ll and exhibited at the Houston show by Karey Bresenhan and can be viewed in this book).

The individual blocks for this quilt were made and donated by guild members. The quilt was designed and hand-quilted in the museum gallery over several Sundays during the exhibition by SMQ members. When members were not quilting at the big frame, they were docents for the exhibition.

Following are close-up photos.
The writing around the center block reads, "The legacy of September 11, 2001 is one of strength, compassion, determination, resolve, and a new spirit. We honor the victims in NYC, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC."

The upper left corner blocks...
the top center blocks ...
the upper right corner blocks ...
the blocks on the right side ...
the lower right corner blocks ...
the bottom center blocks ...
the lower left corner blocks ...
the blocks on the left side ...

The center block is my contribution. To read how the lettering was stitched go here. To view the 9/11 quilt, "Out of the Rubble" I created go here.

Labor Day Weekend at the Cottage

There's been lots of activity with 15 people at the cottage this Labor Day weekend. The weather was perfect even though the lake was cold. Most meals were served out on the deck.
Many conversations to catch up with the goings on in each others lives took place there as well.
And the sunsets were fabulous.

Here are two younger Durand women, Diane and Lucy joining me in my studio.
I was quilting that panel of lofty bits and pieces you saw in my last post.
Elvis's name makes an appearance in that one.
The furniture was moved out of the way so I could lay the completed panels out for a viewing by all were here plus the neighbors.I laid down on the panels with my feet placed about where the floor will be when this piece is installed. The scale of all these panels put together still boggles my mind.

All the photos except for the studio shot and close-ups of the one Prairie Flower panel were taken by my son.