First of all, a very big thank you to everyone who got in touch after my last post - your support means the world to me.

I have spent the last three weeks or so focussed 100% (well maybe 98%) on making art for my upcoming exhibition. And it has been wonderful! An unexpected heat wave has slowed me down a bit over the last couple of days but I’m one day ahead of schedule and, much more importantly, I’m really happy with the work I’m creating.

I will be making 3, possibly 4 new pieces and reworking an older piece. Doesn’t sound much but this includes two new, large pieces from my Ruins series. The last piece I made in this series was in 2019. Although I had some fabrics left over from then, there was nowhere near enough for the art I plan to create. So on Monday 21st August I started printing with the aim of printing 15 - 20 metres of fabric, more than I need right now but Ruins is an ongoing series. Since then I have finished the construction of Ruins 12 and have started quilting it. All of which is best explained in photos ….

1. (Above) The fabrics I already had.

2. (Below) Starting printing - I used 3 colours, rust brown, petrol green and half strength black.

3. Fabric printed using a wonky barcode breakdown printing screen.

4. I’ve got a big studio so I might as well use it … printing multiple pieces so that I can let the fabric dry a bit before adding another layer of print.

5. The dreaded rinsing and washing stage - has to be done!

6. Five days worth of printing, ironed and pinned to my design wall. Too much ‘light’ and too much ‘rust’.

7. Dyeing some darker fabric - I included some pieces of light printed fabric which were a bit ‘underwhelming’.

8. Printing darker, grungier fabrics.

9. The final palette of printed and dyed fabrics.

10. Adding small details to some of the fabrics using stencils, thermofax screens and textile inks.

11. Everything cut into mostly 2.5 x 6.5 inch rectangles. Scraps cut into 2.5 x 3.5 inch pieces. No cherry picking, just cut everything.

12. Shuffle fabrics, close eyes and pick pieces at random. Lay them out just as they come.

13. Layout with specific areas in light, medium and dark values. Layout loose on my big bench then sew short ends together and pin to my design wall.

14. Create my quilt sandwich with hand dyed cotton backing fabric and acrylic felt wadding. Draw parallel lines on the felt and start attaching long strips using the stitch and flip method. First piece, face up.

15. Second piece, face down.

16. Sew one quarter inch from line drawn on the felt. Flip the fabric over so front face is now showing. Add next strip, face down. Stitch. Flip. Add next strip …..

17. Once all the pieces are attached I can start quilting.

Of course its a little more complicated than this but you get my drift. And it will all make sense when the quilt is finished!

Sample made for my new Artefact series

My art goals for 2022 are simple. Make more. Submit more. The need to earn a living and to care for my family are what they are and mean that making art has to fit around them. One of the reasons I left industry and started teaching in my studio was to get a much better balance between these three parts of my life and it was, despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, the best decision I’ve ever made. I now have periods of time, mostly in the winter, when I can work on my art full time and without interruption. This is great for developing new ideas and starting on new series. But if I am going to make more art this year I need to figure out how to always have a piece or pieces part made that I can work on when I only have a few hours or a few days free.

I love making big art but the composition / construction stage really needs space (my big print bench and my design wall as a minimum, yes I’m spoilt) and time because I really don’t want to be unpinning hundreds of bits of fabric from my design wall each time I need it for a workshop. Whereas the quilting stage just needs room to get my sewing machine out. And a bit of clean space to fold / roll the quilt so that I can get it through the tiny throat on my machine. So, before my teaching schedule really kicks in in March I need to prepare several ‘backgrounds’ to use in Artefact and Cadence pieces. I can then spend the spring and summer quilting these backgrounds and adding the foreground details. Unfortunately I don’t completely ‘design’ my pieces early on in the process. My ideas evolve as I stitch. I don’t 100% decide on foreground details until I have finished the construction, and sometimes the quilting of the background. Inevitably some of the backgrounds that I prepare over the coming weeks will need to be cropped as I add those foreground details. Which feels wasteful but I’m hoping allows me to make more art this year.

My other goal is to submit more. I used to be good at keeping a list of upcoming calls for entry to curated shows and submitting proposals for gallery space but got out of the habit in 2020 when I lost touch with my art practise. I started submitting pieces again last year and have had some success with Cadence pieces but I need to build on this. I need a steady flow of new work to make this possible. And I need to become OK with rejection again. Because rejection is part of making art and cannot be a reason to hit the gin bottle and avoid the studio!

So my art goals are simple. Make more. Submit more.

My studio is a ‘bit of a tip’. Unlike our inglorious prime minister I won’t be asking somebody to pay for eye-wateringly expensive wallpaper to make it look pretty. Because my tip is a glorious tip! Everything has been moved about so that I can photograph some new pieces. Which is a sign that not only have I been creating new pieces but that I love them!

Because I work intuitively with my fabrics the early pieces in a new series are often not quite right or are, frankly, rubbish, and they don’t always get photographed. That was certainly the case with the Cadence series but then I was starting from a low point in terms of my artistic confidence. My new series has been fermenting inside my head for quite some time but I only unleashed it onto fabric once I had regained confidence in my creative process. There have been a few false starts, and yes I have printed (and thrown away) some butt ugly fabric, but I am actually rather pleased with the first two finished pieces. I’m not quite ready to share images of the full quilts but I am ready to talk about my inspirations and to tease you with a couple of images.

My new series is called Artefact. It is inspired by our relationship with man-made objects, especially those made with material taken straight from the earth and shaped into tools and decorative objects. Those objects which are collected and proudly displayed; those which are passed down within families; those that tell us about our past; and those that are lost to us. As a source of inspiration this has the potential to go in many different directions but I’m starting by referencing the vases and pots made by Pilkington Tile & Pottery Company. Their manufacturing site, which is now derelict, is only a few miles from where I live and I remember when their factory shop selling cheap tiles was still open. As with my Ruins series and my series on coal mining I like to work on subjects to which I feel some connection. And, as always I am inspired by our industrial heritage. In the detail shot below I used a breakdown printing technique to print the vase. I used a variety of printing techniques to create the fabrics used to make the background. I hope you like the result as much as I do!

Artefact 1 (detail)

Although the last posting date is later I’m setting Wednesday 15th December as a cut off for pre-Christmas orders as I plan on taking a long break over Christmas and the New Year. Orders placed later than this will be posted at the start of January. (Unless I get a bit bored and fancy a trip to the Post Office!). I thought you might also like to know that I’ve added a few more new Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my online shop.

I have now finished teaching for this year. The bad weather this week meant postponing the last two days teaching but other than that I’m happy, and relieved, to have been able to teach so many workshops this year. Despite the worries about the new variant we are much better place compared to this time last year. The rollout of vaccines has been amazing but I’m very grateful for the great attitude of all my students this year. We’ve worn masks, washed and sanitised hands, taken lateral flow tests and made sure that the studio has been a safe environment for all of us. Thank you to each and every one of year!

With no teaching scheduled until the end of January I can now turn all of my attention to making art. I’ve removed the plastic screens and re-arranged the benches to make the studio feel more ‘mine’. I’ve pinned all my ‘work in progress’ up on the design wall. And hidden the stock of chocolate biscuits so my beloved family can’t help themselves. Chocolate, and lots of strong coffee are an essential part of my creative process! The next quilt in the Cadence series is ready to quilt and I’ve got a completely new series in the development stage. So plenty to keep me busy!

Leah x

…. is the working title of the quilt I’ve been working on over the last week or so. It is a new piece in my Cadence series and will probably be titled Cadence 8 once it is finished. It is a piece inspired by those days when my carefully constructed oasis of calm, steady creativity is disrupted by unexpected but often petty interruptions (must remember to lock the studio door from the inside / turn off my phones), by stuff not working properly (I swear that my beloved sewing machine knows when to irritate me!) and by life just getting in the way. The type of day when I might say something a bit stronger than flamin’ nora.

I’m guessing you know what I mean …..

And so this quilt. It has the same main elements as Cadence 7 but instead of a calm, narrow band of colour running along the centre it is interrupted by a spiky band of colour that is the focal point of the quilt. It is a long way from finished but I thought that I’d share a few work in progress photos.

Although I’ve been enjoying some gaps between workshops this month my October and November are crazy busy. Which means that it will be December before I can finish the quilt. Which is frustrating as ideas for Cadence 9 are already forming in my head. But that’s life!

Taming The Wilderness - detail

Or, in my case, make a quilt!

I should be in the middle of a busy teaching schedule here in the studio but I’ve find myself with two ‘empty’ weeks. I have been isolating for the last week and have had to cancel next weeks workshop due to students having problems.

Why isolating? Well it’s a bit complicated. Our grandson lives part time with us and his dad, our son Joe, and part time with his mum and her parents. Last weekend a person in his mums household tested positive for Covid so everyone in the household was contacted by track and trace and told to isolate. Including our grandson who had just switched to our house and so was told to spend his isolation period with us. Isolation is tough on adults and would be totally cruel on an 11 year old who is pretty worried and upset. So we have been isolating as a household …. hence I had to cancel the workshop. The students have been wonderfully understanding, the family member with Covid has recovered and we’ve all been testing negative on our daily lateral flow tests. Panic over.

Some people might see two ‘empty’ weeks as an opportunity to relax, chill out, watch some TV etc etc. Hmmm …. so I have done a little bit of that but I just don’t have it in me to not find something ‘productive’ to fill the gap. Hence the quilt. It’s only a little one (30cm by 196cm high) but I’m rather pleased with it. I’ve called it Taming The Wilderness (detail above) and I will be entering it into a Contemporary Quilt exhibition called ‘Uncharted’. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that I work in series and don’t make my quilts with entry to themed exhibition in mind. But if the theme fits with a series that I’m working on then I will make a piece that fits a specific size requirement. Which is the case with this one.

My current series is called Cadence and is about the joy of process; the joy of making. I’m using my favourite colours and my favourite techniques …. I’m making comfort art in an uncertain world. Cadence is a musical term and I used a specific type of cadence to determine the layout of Cadence 7 and plan to use another type of cadence for my next ‘big’ quilt. So musical connections are generally buzzing around in my head.

During the pandemic I have found myself listening to more and more instrumental CDs and have been playing a lot of music by a band called Explosions In The Sky. One of their CDs that I brought a couple of months ago is called The Wilderness. It has the most fabulous cover art by visual artist Jacob van Loon that I could loose myself in for hours. In my head Uncharted = Wilderness = my new quilt. The jurors will probably consider the connection too tenuous but making this quilt has filled my empty week and made me happy.

And happy is good.

Taming The Wilderness (detail of backface)

After a couple of weeks break due to teaching I have spent the last few days finishing my latest art quilt. It is called Cadence 7 and I’m sharing a detail from the piece. Yes it is made from breakdown printed fabrics. Yes turquoise features heavily. And yes there is lots and lots of straight line quilting. But it needed something more.

The addition of a thin strip of complementary colour and some curved lines have helped to bring the piece alive. I absolutely love it and hope that some of you will get to see it in the Art Quilt section at Festival of Quilts at the end of July. Because the quilt is big (297cm wide and 101cm high) it should get displayed on a white wall …. I design my pieces to be exhibited on white walls and don’t enter them into shows where they would be displayed against black cloth. My art, my choice!

The next couple of months are super busy. As well as teaching my own workshops I’m delighted that Christine Chester and Ruth Brown will also be teaching in my studio. There are a few places left if you fancy a fun packed staycation in (hopefully sunny) Manchester. Details on my workshops page. And then there is Festival of Quilts where I will be demonstrating breakdown printing on my stand in the Quilt in Action area. I have everything crossed that it goes ahead - it will be such a boost in so many ways!

And whilst I like to fool my husband that I can bend time to get a couple of extra hours out of every day the reality is that teaching is all absorbing (and knackering) so I’m unlikely to get much ‘art’ time. I certainly won’t have the time to start the next Cadence quilt but I might find time to do a little sampling of some new ideas ……..

Time has done that weird thing again. The four week gap I had between workshops looked so long and held so much potential for making art …. and it feels like it has gone by in a flash! Don’t you just hate it when that happens!

My studio is nearly ready for tomorrows and next weeks Breakdown Your Palette workshops. I just need to pack away my sewing machine which I can do in the morning. I am determined that before I go to bed tonight I will have finished the straight line quilting on my latest quilt. I had hoped to get this done and the two halves of the piece sewn together but that might be too much to ask. I have a gazillion ends to sew in which I can do in the evenings but I will have to wait two weeks before I can finish the quilt. It is exquisitely frustrating to be close; to know what you want to add to a piece to finish it and to know how you want to start the next piece in a series …… But such is life!

That said I will be spending the next two weeks breakdown printing with the added bonus of having students in my studio! I can live with that.

Leah x

Another week has passed and I’m feeling really positive about the piece I’m working on! Having got a lovely stack of breakdown printed fabric I spent a couple of hours cutting about half of the fabric into long strips. I cut them in three widths - 2.5inch, 1.5inch and 1inch - without thinking about where the cut landed on the fabric. I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t cherry pick which fabrics to use. The beauty of breakdown printed fabric is the density of mark you get and the fabulous combinations of colour and mark you get when selecting fabric and using fabric in a random way.

I then divided my pile of cut strips into two groups - a darker value group and a lighter value group - albeit a few of the strips sort of sat in the middle and could have gone in either group. And then the real fun began! I took the pile of darker value fabrics, opened up the strips and jumbled them all together. I closed my eyes and started plucking strips from the pile at random. I pinned the strips to my design wall in the order I picked them. I wanted the finished quilt to be about three metres long so needed about 4.5 metres of strips - good job I have a big design wall.

Next I inserted paler sections of fabric of varying length into each strip. Although I selected the fabric pieces at random I based the length of each insertion on a short musical score of twelve notes. The earlier quilts in this new Cadence series were constructed using ‘pleasing’ shapes with no intent other than to enjoy the process of making. But having regained my creative confidence I wanted to link this new piece to ‘cadence’, in this case a musical cadence. Because the width of the strips varied the repeat pattern was not immediately obvious but I know its there.

It is always very tempting at this stage to do some ‘tweaking’; swapping out bits of fabric that maybe don’t have a lot of interesting marks on them or switching fabrics around to avoid two strips cut from the same fabric sitting side by side. But it is often these ‘imperfections’ that pop and create interest in the finished quilt so I resisted temptation and moved onto to constructing the quilt.

Because my sewing machine only has a 7 inch throat I construct large quilts in two halves and put them together as late in the stitching and quilting process as possible. I prepared two pieces of backing fabric and wadding, using basting spray to attach the wadding to the backing fabric. And then I used a stitch and flip method to add my strips, in order, to the wadding / backing. I love this method of construction because it eliminates the basting process .. I am making my ‘quilt sandwich’ as I join the strips. But also because it allows me to keep the long edges of all my strips parallel satisfying the control freak in me! In the photos below you can see that I use a sharpie to draw parallel lines, 2 inches apart, on my wadding. In my Ruins quilts all my strips were 2.5inches wide so each raw long edge lined up with a drawn line. In these Cadence quilts the strip width varies but I can still use the drawn lines as a guide. And so I have spent three days this week stitching and flipping! And as I’ve been sewing I’ve been thinking about the quilting and thinking about the orientation of the finished piece …. wondering what it would look like turned through 90 degrees?