At this time of year a lot of people are doing everything they can to get rid of autumn leaves.

They rake them. They blow them. They mulch them and they bag them.

But Nancy Zimmerman begs to differ. She's a visual artist, living in Carlisle, who not only celebrates the magic of fall colours -- the leaf is a favorite medium.

Zimmerman -- who is the mother and "co-creator" of the famed electronic music producer and performer Deadmau5 -- painstakingly stitches and pastes together beautiful quilts of leaves. And this year, she says, has been especially wonderful for raw materials.

"I don't understand the nature, why or how the leaves change so magnificently one year and not another," she says. "But over the last couple of weeks, in my area anyway, the leaves are just unbelievable. They have so many incredible patterns and vibrant colours. They are just so bright."

She posts photos of her creations on her Twitter account. Her last one carried the message to her nearly 5,000 followers "I can't stop making leaf quilts. I am a woman possessed."

But alas her creations do not last long, and you would never crawl into bed with one.

"It's very ephemeral. It's like the colours of fall. They are only here so briefly. I love the idea that they just go back to where they came from."

She says it takes about 24 hours to make a full-sized quilt that will last two or three days.

"There is no point in having a leaf quilt show because they would probably last only a matter of hours before they all fell apart and blew away," she says.

Zimmerman uses stems for thread and a paste mixture to hold her creations together. She arranges the leaves in symmetrical designs in the same way that pieces of cotton are organized on a fabric quilt.

"I'm going to keep making them until madness sets in or God just gets rid of the temptation. Everyday, the colours seem more vibrant and beautiful.

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"Look at all those leaves," she says pointing to the trees behind her house. "They want to be in my show. They come to my front door to audition."

Friend Carl Young says, "She's an amazing artist. When she started to come up with these quilts I found them to be incredible. A lot of people are raking leaves and mulching leaves. A lot of people are bagging leaves. Now you have a lady making art out of leaves."