>> Hi, I'm James Steinbach,
a volunteer here at
Wisconsin Public Television.
And you're just about to see
a favorite episode of
Sewing With Nancy ,
"Landscape Quilting,"
this is something that,
this craft that Nancy was
really immensely proud of.
And y'know, we're really happy
to carry on the legacy of Nancy.
We miss her, as you do,
but to carry on her legacy
with these programs.
And so we're going to show
you this in just a bit,
and also you're going to have
an opportunity to support
Sewing With Nancy
and go to Quilt Expo,
which is one of the many
projects that Nancy worked on.
So this is something
to stay tuned for,
because after you watch
"Landscape Quilting,"
you're gonna be able to see
how you can get tickets
to Quilt Expo coming up soon.
So stick with us.
Landscape quilting is not a new topic
on Sewing with Nancy .
It's a technique that always piques great interest.
Many of you have embraced this art quilt idea
and created beauty of nature for yourself.
Others have voiced a hesitancy to begin.
Taking the challenge to further streamline the process,
I've invited my quilting buddy,
Natalie Sewell, to return
and we're going to present a series on landscape quilting
from a beginner's perspective.
Welcome back, Natalie.
Well, it's nice to be here, Nancy.
I think we have simplified the process for beginners.
Mm-hmm.
First, we'll show you
how to create a simple fall scene.
My quilt "October Evening"
features dramatic trees and simple foliage.
Instead of showing you how to make this specific design,
we'll show you how to easily create trees
with my raw edge appliqué technique.
"Beginning Landscape Quilting,"
that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy .
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with Nancy Zieman is made possible by
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For your first landscape quilting project,
you only have to work with a few fabrics.
Natalie, "October Evening" has only four fabrics in here.
Right.
And that includes the background.
It's a very simple scene.
Great for beginners because
you learn all the techniques of landscape quilting
without a very complicated scene.
There's no ground cover.
Mm-hmm.
And we found these wonderful trees.
We used a photo for inspiration,
but we left the photo behind very soon
because we did find some of these wonderful leaves,
of course, much closer up
than the photo.
Now, you saw
from the inspirational photo that we used
that it had a day, it was taken during the day.
I took the photo, I know,
but Natalie did it beautifully in an evening scene.
And you can change your scene
just because of the fabrics you used for the background.
There are so many choices.
There are wonderful batiks that make good backgrounds,
and those are readily available everywhere.
Here, this is a batik.
I'm sorry... got that mixed up.
Yes, and then there are these wonderful hand dyes
that are now more easy to find.
Mm-hmm.
And more people are dyeing fabric,
and it's a great background.
The dappling of light really does half the work for you.
Yes, it does, it does.
Now, the trees, we're concentrating on a dark
colored tree, and we usually don't use one fabric for trees.
Often it's very nice to use, makes a shading by using
lots of different colors on the tree trunk.
These are some choices of tree fabric that are wonderful
if you cut them the right way.
Speaking of cutting, we're using raw edge appliqué,
and Natalie's going to show you a messy cutting technique.
Yes, never use a rotary cutter
when you're making a landscape quilt because it's too straight
and everything will look like a telephone pole.
So, what I like to do
is cut with just a scissors
and starting with a sort of fat bottom
and working my way up to--
So, I'm not careful because trees have
a lot of irregularities in them.
They have a lot of character.
Yes, they do.
And this is easy to do and fun.
And you just have to give yourself permission
that you can cut poorly.
Yes.
Messy cutting is the key to landscape quilting.
Here's a tree that looks like a mess
[Nancy laughs]
but when we get it on the scene,
it will look just fine.
A glue stick, paper glue stick
is the key next to pin,
not literally, but baste it down into place.
Right.
And, Natalie, you have your basting station
next to the table,
and you're going to glue the back.
Right, I'll start with one of these trees
that I've messy cut,
and I'm going to glue the back.
Now, on a batik like this,
the back and the front are exactly the same.
So, it doesn't matter which side.
And I have a glue stick right here.
Glue sticks will not gum up your needle.
We get asked that question all the time.
Yes.It dries clear.
Think of it as a stabilizer.
It's just fine.
It's the kind of glue stick
you can buy at a drug store
or an office supply store.
It's just a paper glue stick.
And while Natalie's gluing, I'm just going to
roughly put up some tree trunks.
Natalie, I don't know if I'm following your design.
Oh, it doesn't really matter.
We can convey the idea easily.
And it's nice to put a little wiggle in the tree.
Sure. Just a little bit.
A little gnarly. Yeah.
Sometimes, I do admit,
that I pin it up just to make sure
I like what I'm doing
or where I have it positioned.
So, I don't have any glue here,
but then go back and do some gluing.
Right.
After I get it down.
Now, these trees, as you can see,
have darker areas.
So, we used a darker fabric.
And cut little...
And cut little slivers...
Mm-hmm.
...to shade the tree.
And I'll put these on here.
Okay, you do that.
We're going to do some tag-teaming.
As Natalie is doing some positioning
to give it shading, to give it depth,
I'm going to cut
this great leaf fabric that Natalie found,
and it's a little bit larger than maybe
the leaves need to be.
So, you can cut the leaves down,
make them smaller.
This is raw edge.
We're going to eventually,
in the third program in the series,
show how we stitch this down.
Right now, this is the designing process.
And we'll stitch them down
but right now we'll just position them.
And, Natalie, you're getting some shape there.
It's looking quite interesting.
Oh, good.
And I'm going to cluster some leaves.
We don't have a branch there yet,
but we'd add a branch
and cluster some leaves down.
Let's put a branch in there.
Okay, good.
And you can kind of see how this process,
you're building the way you see it,
and there we go.
I'm just going to stick some on here.
You don't want to have it evenly spread out because--
Here we have a falling leaf.
We have another falling leaf.
It's almost fall.
Yeah, they're falling down.
Well, as we're working on this,
we'd like to show you two other images
that we've created, or Natalie's created.
One called "Windy."
Right.
"Windy" is a very simple quilt.
I fell in love with the fabric.
It's gorgeous leaves, and I simply put them on...
I just put them on wonderful background fabric,
and that was a landscape quilt.
And your oak design: really stately trees
strong with a lot of shading
and different colors of fabric
in the middle.
Yeah, it was fun to make the tree trunk.
I have a lot of oak trees around my house,
and they were my model.
So, you get a hint of what we're doing.
We're applying, gluing down the fabric,
adding some shading with the fabric.
Natalie added a branch.
We'll show you later how to shade the branches,
cluster some leaves, but you can see
from a very short time period
how you can create a beginner landscape quilt.
When you'd like to create a landscape featuring
white birch or aspen trees like Natalie's design, "Old Friends,"
some of the same designing principles apply,
along with a few new tricks.
In this design, we'll detail
how to create depth and shape
and also how to improvise when you can't find
the exact leaf fabric you'd like.
Now, Natalie, this is a work in progress.
Yes.
You haven't stippled it yet
but, oh, the designing is perfect,
and the white trees,
the birch scene, summer scene
is impressionistic and inviting.
Oh, thank you, Nancy.
It was a fun one to do,
and I found wonderful birch fabrics.
I can show them.
It doesn't say birch fabric on the selvage, but wow!
I think it's meant to be storm, but if you cut it...
Sure.
You can see how easily it can look like a birch.
Now, there are other options that you can choose.
Right.
Remember that when you're using birch fabrics,
you have to make horizontal lines.
So, make sure you cut this direction, not that direction.
Mm-hmm, so that the little lines
that are in the birch trees--
Right.
Now, this actually
is supposed to be snow fabric, I think.
I know, we've used this for snow a lot.
but it also would make a nice birch
if you look carefully at what the little lines show you.
So, you don't have to get things exact.
It doesn't have to--
We're not technically correct in this series.
No.
We're just giving the illusion of pretty nature.
Right. Right.
And the design is summer.
Natalie has chosen a hand-dyed fabric.
In the second program,
we're going to learn about ground cover,
but we just put some up there for the look.
And because here's our inspirational scene.
Right.
Two trees, nice summer day,
and we've made the design much like it
with putting two trees down, and, Natalie, branches.
We'd like to show our viewers how you shape.
We cut a skinny, skinny piece.
Mm-hmm.
And we're going to just put it--
Do you want a little glue on there?
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Yeah, here, we'll just put a little dab of glue.
Usually we do a little bit more, but not today.
So, just have it
go here and run off.
Make sure you've got curves, and have it...
It can run right off the fabric there.
Now I think we need to shade our trees.
We do, and shading
is really important.
We're using markers, permanent markers.
All available at office supply stores.
Yes.
Permanent, make sure, so it doesn't run.
And we're going to make believe that the sun and light
is coming from Natalie's side of the quilt.
So, we'll shade on dark on this side.
Right, Natalie?
Right.
It makes a huge difference.
It adds such depth and dimension
when you do some shading.
A few lines are good too.
It rounds it off right away.
I'm just going to darken
this branch here to show
it's a little gnarly in there.
Oh, good. Yes, yes, excellent.
And we want to define between the trees here.
It doesn't take much
to give some shape.
I think we're going to go on the bottom
of the branch to shade it.
Yes.
Next time, I'll glue that down a little bit better.
And we're going to stitch this down later on,
don't get me wrong.
But in this temporary time period,
we're just going to hold it down like that.
And then we have black
and we also have some gray.
Sometimes, if you want a little bit more gray,
you can use a silver permanent pen.
But then...
the magic happens when you do some drawing.
Drawing of the fine leaves.
Natalie is Yes.the master.
This is a little scary for beginners
but let me show you how easy it is.
You take your pen in your hand,
I use the black first, and you wiggle it.
Just give it a wiggle.
And...
start branching out.
And Natalie's branches always look better than mine,
but I'm working on it.
[both laugh]
And then, you can highlight them
to give them depth with the silver pen on top.
Isn't that right, Natalie? Yes.
That gives a lot of definition.
These little markers here are
just wonderful for making the branch look realistic.
That's the magic of beginning landscape quilting.
Now, for impressionistic leaves, Natalie chose
a batik fabric, and then, this yellow fabric.
Oh, my goodness!
Not your normal landscape quilting fabric.
Nice cluster of bananas.
And while Natalie is cutting that,
I'm just going to quickly glue up
some shapes.
You used bananas because of the shading.
The shading is wonderful. Uh-huh.
And so, I just cut a leaf.
I'm going to stick it right here.
If we look back at the original,
you can see how she's clustered these
and they're not evenly dispersed.
Added a few lines through the leaves
to get them more realistic.
It's just playing with fabric.
Playing with markers.
Tremendous fun.
Yeah, it is.
We have some showcases to show you.
"The First Day of Summer"
features one big tree as a focal point.
A lot of shading on this with gray and black markers.
And then I also did a scene called "Blue Birches."
That fabric is-- Birch trees aren't always blue,
but it's a winter scene.
Well, it depends on the light and that makes a tree blue.
So, we've taught you just some basic principles
of shading with markers, drawing in branches.
You can cut fabric that isn't meant to be leaves,
to resemble leaves,
baste them down,
and you have the beginning of a great design.
Winter landscape scenes pose new design opportunities.
"River Birch Trees in the Snow" by Natalie showcases
the stark contrast between snow and trees.
We think you'll be slightly surprised to learn
all the fabric options when your inspiration
comes from snow-covered ground.
We'd like to show you landscape scenes
in various stages.
And, Natalie, you've finished designing this,
but it hasn't been stippled or layered.
Or layered. Right.
And the scene or the inspiration came from a snapshot
after a winter stormy day.
And here you can see some river birch trees
and how the snow drifts up at the trunk at the base,
and you will show our viewers how to do the same.
But first, let's just talk about tree fabric
because you're not going to go to the fabric store and say,
"Where is your tree fabric?"
Right.
Because you're not going to find what you need.
And this is what you found.
And it is exactly what you needed.
And I didn't know that when I bought it.
I just thought it was an interesting piece.
But when you look at it carefully
and put your hands like this, you can see that a tree emerges.
And it could be various shapes of trees.
Right, right.
So, that was a real find.
And then, I just found this the other day.
What a nice oak tree this will make.
You can see my hands going.
The bark is so much like an oak.
And that light and dark... Right.
The dapple shading
and you can use this fabric for the two distant trees.
Right.
And this really is a natural.
I won't need to shade this much at all.
Mm-hmm.
Because you can see from the original,
it makes a perfect tree,
and I used these to show a little distance.
We should say something about the snow.
Yes.
This is a hand dye and notice that it isn't white.
Mm-hmm.
It's got a lot of shading
of light and dark and blue snow,
which is really more realistic.
But it does read as winter.
There's no doubt about that.
Right.
We thought it was important to do shading again.
Because we just gave you a taste of it,
and it's so crucial
in beginning landscape quilting, or advanced landscape quilting
as far as that goes.
And the light, we're going to have the light
come from your side, Natalie?
Okay, good.
Light from my side.
We're going to shade this side with--
We're using black markers,
the kind you buy at an office supply store.
They're permanent so you don't have to worry about--
Once they're on, they're on forever.
And then, you know, we can do some lines,
like Nancy's doing right there.
The fabric, whoops,
the fabric helps
do that,
but we can add a little more.
And the shading, this is a lot of fun.
I hate to say this, but, boy, I just--
Some people relax by reading.
I shade trees. [laughs]
Shading trees is very scary.
I've been teaching for a long time,
and I know that shading
is probably the scariest thing for beginners.
But look how easy it is.
Now, it's winter so in our scene we had,
I think we had in our scene some snow gathering
in the crux of the elbow of the branches.
Right.
And I was careful not to find a snow that was snow white.
This has lots of shading in it.
Sure.
So, what we're going to do is put a little piece
right here.
And we glued this down, I have to say.
But we're just kind of putting it in there.
Yeah, we do glue.
But you can see the look there.
And then, we'll quickly do some drawing.
Right.
How about I do the brush
and you do the background trees, Natalie?
Okay.
It's just like the branches.
Only we will make it look like the shrubbery
that is left barren.
And here, we're going to have distant trees.
I'm using a little bit of a silver,
and then, I'm going to use the black.
And at home, I'd take a little bit more time in this,
but you get the concept.
You can just draw right on this area.
Now, we have two more scenes, winter scenes to share
with you, and the first one
is a joint project that we did together.
Natalie found this snapshot or this photo in a newspaper.
Right. Right.
Three basic trees, a man walking away,
and then we created
"January."
And we did it in 45 minutes because it is such
a simple tree, simple scene.
I couldn't make the man, but that's Dick, Natalie's husband,
walking away, and I think it's just a great scene
and the fabric makes you shiver.
Doesn't it?
Now, the inspiration that you see next is from summer.
It's a stately tree.
Yes.
I had a lot of fun
painting and designing and marking up that tree.
But you made it not in a summer scene but in 10 below.
Yes. Yes.
And it is a very cold, cold-looking scene,
as we all know from experiencing winter in Wisconsin.
[laughs] Yes.
So, you can take elements from one inspiration,
put it on a winter background.
You did that, Natalie, so you didn't have to
put so much background foliage in.
Right.
So simple.
It allowed me to focus on the tree.
Winter is one of the simplest scenes
in a landscape scene to design.
So today, in this program, we've done a white tree,
white and winter, and fall,
>> Hi, I'm James Steinbach,
I'm a volunteer here at
Wisconsin Public Television,
and today we're doing
something really important.
We're celebrating the legacy,
the living legacy
of Nancy Zieman of
Sewing With Nancy .
You've watched this program,
well we've been doing this
program with her
for almost two decades, and
you've watched this program
for years, so you know how
wonderful a teacher Nancy is.
And that grace, that wonderful
way that she had of inviting
you into what she was teaching,
as you invited her
into your living room, is
something really extraordinary.
And we know it's important,
and we want to keep this program
available for you, viewers of
Wisconsin Public Television,
and in part, it's because
these things never get tired.
These shows that Nancy did
are shows that you can watch,
and you can watch with your kids
over and over, and that's
what she wanted.
That's what she wanted to do.
So call us at 1-800-236-3636.
>> Hi, I'm Linda Burman,
a volunteer here at
Wisconsin Public Television.
And indeed, to celebrate
the legacy of Nancy, we are
offering you the opportunity
to go with a one-day ticket
to the Quilt Expo.
This is September 5th to the 7th
at Alliant Energy Center
in Madison, and you can
experience some of the
quilt masters' ideas,
you can purchase items,
you can take in lessons,
there are all kinds of
opportunities for you,
but this comes with your call,
if you call and pledge,
it's gonna be $35 or more,
$35 if you're a sustainer,
if you want to call and pledge
at the $6 a month or $72,
you get not only the Quilt Expo
tickets, but there's amazing
book, Landscape Quilting ,
and it's Nancy and
Natalie Sewell share their
techniques for creating
realistic quilt scenes
from eight different
landscape patterns.
It provides you the patterns
and suggestions for different
fabrics that you can use.
At $10 a month, you get not only
this wonderful book,
but the DVD.
And watching step by step
how Nancy and Natalie did this,
and again, the Quilt Expo
tickets come with that.
This is all your opportunity,
remember, if you're a sustainer
already, it's just $35.
If you want to call and pledge
to get the book, or the DVD,
you will also get the tickets
for the Quilt Expo.
It's an opportunity to ask
your phone operator right now,
but it starts with your call at
1-800-236-3636.
>> Hello, I'm Diane Agans.
I'm so happy that you're here
with us during this brief
intermission in the
"Landscape Quilting" show.
And we are just so happy that
you are a part of the classroom
of these wonderful teachers,
Nancy Zieman and Natalie Sewell.
We've been able to learn
so much from them, and that is
because members such as you
have come forward and made
gifts of support that support
this kind of programming
on public television.
And it really does make
a big difference.
We really encourage you
to do that because it keeps
the teaching going, it keeps
the legacy living on, and we
were honored to work with both
Nancy and, both Nancys, and we
can keep on sharing their vision
with your membership support.
Let me also encourage you to
become a sustainer of
Wisconsin Public Television
when you make that
membership gift, and that is
when you make monthly
contributions from your--
automatically-- but
automatically from your
credit card or from your
bank checking account.
It's a very simple way of
keeping the teaching
going here at
Wisconsin Public Television,
and it really does make a
big difference, so please
go ahead and do that,
take advantage of the Quilt Expo
tickets that we're giving away,
if you've not been to Quilt Expo
you've got to go to Quilt Expo,
it is an awesome experience.
1-800-236-3636.
>> And remember, any membership
level, you get tickets
to Quilt Expo.
It really is a pretty cool
thing to go to.
People come from all over,
they come in buses, they come in
from all over, they make a
weekend out of it, really
something to think about
coming down with a group
of friends and enjoying
that time at Quilt Expo.
It's a pretty remarkable,
remarkable thing.
And y'know Nancy, in addition
to being a great teacher,
she was also a really
good businesswoman.
And she taught us how to
do this Quilt Expo in a way
that would work for you.
It's not something that you
can just kind of put together
and throw together with
a couple of people.
You really need to work
hard at it.
Nancy made that possible.
She was really, all around,
a terrific person.
Great businesswoman,
great leader, great teacher,
and gracious person, and
that's why, I think,
so many people loved her.
And continue to watch this
program, it's something that,
it just doesn't get tired.
So call us now, at
1-800-236-3636.
>> And the wonderful people
at Nancy's Notions worked with
Wisconsin Public Televison
to come up ways to say thank you
to you when you call in
your pledge of support for
watching Nancy's programs.
And the first thing was,
tickets to the Quilt Expo.
Any pledge at $35 and above,
you will get the
Quilt Expo tickets.
Now, if they also suggested,
especially with the landscape
quilts, this would be a great
idea to have $6 a month, $72
to get the book, and you'll
also get the Quilt Expo tickets.
Again, this is Nancy and Natalie
sharing techniques for
creating very realistic and
gorgeous scenes from their
eight different patterns
of the landscape quilt.
At $10 a month you get the book
and the DVD, so you can watch
step by step, plus you get
the Quilt Expo tickets.
And I want to remind you
at all levels of
Wisconsin Public Television,
you will get our Airwaves.
Now the Quilt Expo, as
everybody's been saying,
it is fabulous, and I do not
quilt well, I do not sew well,
but I buy well.
And I can buy fabulous gifts
at the Quilt Expo.
So join me there,
1-800-236-3636.
>> And you can learn well at
the Quilt Expo too.
There's all kinds of workshops
and exhibits and demonstrations
and all of that, y'know, is
part of the brainchild that
James was talking about, that
Nancy and the wonderful folks
at Nancy's Notions helped
Wisconsin Public Televison
collaborate and create this
wonderful event known as
Quilt Expo.
Let me tell you one more thing,
we have some new news here too.
Wisconsin Public Television has
begun work on a documentary
about Nancy.
We realize what a remarkable
person she has been, and
you know, nobody tells stories
better than Wisconsin
Public Television.
And so we are honored to begin
work on that documentary,
to bring that to life, and
sharing in that legacy, and
that wonderful life story
lessons that Nancy is telling
us, so look for that coming
in 2020, we're starting work
on that right now too, but
right now the important thing
is to go ahead and make that
gift of membership support,
to keep programs like this and
keep our work moving forward
at Wisconsin Public Television.
1-800-236-3636.
>> So I can put on a button
every now and again, and
I've been known to do a bad hem
every now and again, but
it's not something anybody
would want to wear,
except for me.
But Nancy made me think,
almost think that I could
actually do this too.
Because she had such a
great attitude about y'know,
this is still something
that anybody can do.
She would work with kids,
she'd work with anybody.
So we could go on and on
about that, but the main thing
is that these programs are
something that really sustain
themselves in time.
And it's something worth
watching, worth spending time
on, and worth supporting by
calling us at 1-800-236-3636.
>> And we can't say enough
about Nancy.
I was so lucky to be able to
volunteer with her during
her pledge drives, during her
special, "Stitch It Up a Notch,"
different opportunities,
and Nancy was always the most
wonderful person, and we're
continuing a legacy by saying,
here's an opportunity for you
to go to the Quilt Expo to see
what she started, to enjoy it,
it's one-day tickets, $35
level of any pledge above.
$6 a month, you can get the
wonderful book with Natalie
and Nancy explaining the
landscape techniques, at
$10 a month the DVD, watching
it step by step, but the most
important thing is you're
calling to pledge
your support to say,
"I love Sewing With Nancy ."
So give us a call.
Thanks so much.