Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with 'Scary', 'Spooky', 'Haunted', or 'Forbidden' in the title. - Shaggy--Scooby Doo

I love it when Halloween comes around, because it's finally my excuse for wanting to dress up.. if i could live in a different costume everyday i would.. well not everyday but i really do love costume parties.

So first party saw me as Cowgirl.. Thanks to my sister's awesome wardrobe everything i wore she already owned.. and to top it off i totally stole my niece's stick horse... and boy did mr horsy have a good time that night getting love from tons of strangers :p yeeeehaaa






Second party i went for a darker look as a fallen angel.. i saw these wings and fell head over heels in love.. i have a sick obsession with wings and these were just too good to not own.. paired with a black tutu and my DIY ripped tee and tons of black make up that i rubbed off in no time, i was good to go.





HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU ALL!!

Collage Play with Crowabout #58

Collage Play with Crowabout always offers a fabulous collage sheet; this week the images focused on those of the soothsayer persuasion. The thoughts that stirred in my mind seemed best suited to a journal page. I am a chronic worrier...world class, really. So, I pondered...what would it be like if I knew what the future held? Would I still worry? Probably...

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.

© Nancy Lefko

A little inspiration over a cup of coffee..

2 More Mini Prairie Flower Quilts

Featuring just a blossom or two was my initial plan for these 20 mini quilts that measure 8"x 10".
All the Violets leftover from those I made for "Prairie Performance" made it into this one . I consider it's a "bug's eye-view" perspective.
The scale of flowers that I chose for the first two mini's featured in my last post dictated big patches of Daisies and Cone Flowers in the foreground. They started out with just a few blossoms. More ... and more ... were added to each until they looked "right". My not knowing how each small quilt is going to turn out is what keeps me from getting bored ... the biggest factor that ensures all 20 will get finished.

Of course, you've spotted Elvis hiding in the backgrounds of the 2 new ones.

Mixed Media Monday ~MARVELOUS MOUSTACHES

This week's challenge offered by Mixed Media Monday is the whimsical MARVELOUS MOUSTACHES. I began this collage with the search for a gent who would fit the bill. After finding the fellow featured in my collage, my very first thought was, "that must tickle." The collage was born.

I encourage you to visit the Mixed Media Monday blog and view the wonderful creations inspired by this prompt.

Collage available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

Mini Prairie Flower Quilts

I found a project. Making mini quilts that feature prairie flowers. I figured that I might as well do this while all the supplies from making "Prairie Performance" are not yet put away and I'm in the groove of working with them. It surprises me that I'm not sick to death of this theme. I guess those flowers are not yet out of my system.

Their foundations are made from the pieces cut off the 25 panels when I squared and trimmed them to their finished size of 23"x 24". Whatever else would I do with those trimmings? At any rate, I just cannot discard them.
Here are five sets laid out. The bottom one's strips are sewn together with a zig-zag stitch.
And here's the stack of twenty foundations cut from those stripped together pieces.
The first one I made features daisies. I was disappointed this favorite flower of mine was not indigenous to the prairies of northern Illinois. Consequently, there are none in the installation piece.

foundation strips finished piece

I'm making these as thank you gifts for my friends who've contributed scraps that most likely ended up in the BIG prairie flower quilt. I think they'll appreciate having these small quilts made of scraps and leftovers from "Prairie Performance".

"Cone Flowers" 8"x 10"

As you recall, Elvis was tucked in a number of places on the big quilt. Each of the mini ones will have an Elvis cut from this chiffon scarf hiding among the flowers.
Here's one. Can you find the other in the field of daisies?

"Mix It Up with Melange" Challenge ~ BELIEVE

This week's challenge over at the Melange Team Blog is BELIEVE. Before beginning this collage, I began to think about what's worthy of belief and the first thing that came to mind is "love." As they say, it conquers all.

Come on over and join in on the fun of the Melange challenges. They are posted every Wednesday (with a sneak peek on Mondays) and are open to everyone. Hope to see you there!

Collage available in my Etsy shop.

© Nancy Lefko

New Melange Team Slideshow

© Melange Team members

Courage

This wall quilt, "Courage" was created in 1997 for a young friend as a graduating from college present.
This quote by Anais Nin is embroidered in a spiral in the center, " Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage."
The periods of clinical depression experienced on and off for a number of years by my friend are represented by the frayed raw seams on the front surface of the quilt. The joy and positive adventures I hoped she'd find are portrayed by the sparkling jewel-like colors in the outer portions of the connected rings. For the most part, I think her adventures in life so far have been in the outer ring.

It's hand quilted. This photo makes me miss those days of sitting in pleasant, quiet places stitching for hours.
Here's a photo of the backside.
The last post as well of this one feature quilts made in my early days of quilting. This happened because I had to move the binders in which I keep the information about the quilts I've made. Pocket pages hold the drawings, templates, photos, and info that pertains to the creation and finishing of each quilt.
I scanned the drawings and photos of this quilt on my computer to get the photos here on my blog.

I had forgotten this was inspired by Doreen Speckman's "Peaky and Spike" pattern that I saw her present on "Simply Quilts". Can't recall if I bought her book or checked it out from our guild's library.

Here's a photo of my design wall that shows fabrics being auditioned.
I still work this way ... making a loose sketch that's not too detailed filled in with general hues and values and then working the details out on the design wall. This method of designing is more dynamic than planning every detail and making all the decisions on paper. The time or two when I have done ALL the planning ahead, the projects never got made ...for me, the adventure of creation was done by then.

Pulling out those binders happened at a good time. I feel as though I'm "on hold" after the completion of the prairie flower quilt ... that I need to take time for contemplation. While they are out, stay tuned for the presentation of more quilts from the early days of my adventure into quilting.

Secret Windows

This quilt, "Secret Windows", spotlighted the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show at the 1998 Dogwood Arts Festival.
It was begun from a collection of scraps back in 1994 when I was a new quilter. A classmate in a one week workshop with Nancy Halpern was throwing out scraps of material that were larger than the fabric samples I had brought to work with. After I had made a fuss about finding them in the trash barrel, she consented to save those scraps if I found a bag in which to collect them. During the week after I got home, I sewed every scrap into "crazy quilt" squares. Originally, I had set them together to be a child's quilt that would be donated to the Ronald McDonald House
My husband and friends protested it being given away. So, through the next few years I'd occasionally make more crazy quilt squares from my own scraps. It grew into a full-size quilt that ended up being a Christmas present for our younger son and his wife.

It still looks good all these years later as you can see in a photo taken this summer.
I like to piece the backs of quilts.
The hand quilting is more easily viewed from the backside.
The crazy quilt squares set on point are quilted with satin-stitches using two strands of variegated floss. There was no way I was going to hand-quilt a running stitch across all those seams.
The portraits were cut from a shirt sewn by my mother-in-law for my husband with fabric featuring artists from the Expressionist period. It was a great shirt for the 1970's ... worn with chains at the open collar plus a wide belt with a big buckle and platform shoes. Woo Hoo! Let's do the Hustle.
This is the first quilt in which Elvis made an appearance.
I still have some of the home decorator fabric that was cut apart for the triangles around the crazy quilt squares. The printed squares are two and half inches.
Maybe I'll make another window quilt with crazy quilted blocks from the many bags of scraps collected in the ten years since this quilt was begun.

Upon this bridge of black and white their sacred naked feet have trod

Finally wore these Zebra pants that one of my best friends gave me.. she made a small mistake of buying them after i said i wanted them and quickly corrected it by gifting them to me haha.. i love my friends. So my sister chased me down with a camera to the zebra crossing where i kinda blended in.





( F21 black tee, Friday-Kinyobi zebra pants, Terranova clutch, New Look shoes)

One of the Collections that made me stare in awe this season was the Viktor & Rolf Spring 2010. Trust these two guys to come up with some crazy pieces like these:





and then sneak a few very elegant ones in between:





(photos courtesy of syle.com)