Everything seems to have got a whole lot more serious and more threatening over the last few days. Trying to work out what to do for the best has filled my head but yesterdays UK governments advice to avoid all non-essential travel and to limit social interaction made one decision for me. It is with a sense of great sadness that I’m postponing, and in some cases cancelling, my workshops and talks through to the end of April. Of course I may have to do the same for May and beyond but, for now, I am hoping that the governments measures help stem the transmission of corona virus.

We have to hope for the best. It is what will keep us going. But we also need to plan for the worst. My income will suffer a bit but we have savings so we will not be faced with the financial crisis that so many families will be facing. We have food (and toilet roll!) to keep us going and will be able to pay the silly prices that I’m sure we will soon see in supermarkets. And we have a big enough house with enough bathrooms that we can take extra care of my husband who is ‘at risk’. I worry about my son in London and my daughter in Glasgow. I wish they were nearer but know that they have the means to get through this. So I am one of the lucky ones!

My heart goes out to all those that are not so lucky. I’d like to think that our governments will come through for them but suspect it will be down to all of us to find ways to help.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I take great solace in working in my studio. I plan on finishing a quilt that I will submit to Fine Art Textile Awards and will work on that online shop I’ve been talking about for a while. Fine Art might not happen and who knows how long the post offices will stay open but I’m going to work on the assumption that we get through this quickly. I’m hoping for the best having sorted my planning for the worst.

With love and all my best wishes, stay safe, Leah x

We find ourselves in a bit of a mess and we really don’t know what is going to happen in the next few days, let alone the next few weeks or months. Coronavirus is affecting our lives in many ways and I sincerely hope that you, your family and friends remain healthy and we don’t get anywhere near the worst case scenerios we are hearing.

Last week I had a wonderful gallery space and stand at The Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I got a little stressed setting up but my son Joe sorted me out and, as per usual, was a great help throughout. I meet some old friends, made new friends and had an amazing response to my work. We sold lots of books, fabric, dyes etc ….. the stand looked very empty by the Sunday. We also managed to meet up with my daughter and her partner who live in Glasgow. So very happy Joe and Leah!

I spent the first few days this week working to get ready for the Fashion & Embroidery Show at the NEC next week. Long, satisfying days in the studio. But unfortunately I heard on Wednesday night that the show has been postponed due to coronavirus. I don’t know if this is an over reaction. Only time will tell. The organisers have postponed the show until the 25th to 28th June. I will (hopefully) be teaching that week so won’t be there. Fingers crossed that this and other shows are able to go ahead safely.

In the meantime I thought I would share some photos that the lovely Elisabeth Viguie-Culshaw took of the mini workshop I gave at last weeks show.

My stand at last years Scottish Quilting Show …. can’t believe it has been 12 months!

Tomorrow my son, Joe, and I set off for the Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I’ve nearly finished packing everything ….. Usually I am super organised and have absolutely everything ready days in advance but this year seems to be whizzing by. So I still need to do a couple of things and am trying to ignore that panicky feeling I get when I’m not totally in control. Ho hum!

I really enjoyed the show in Glasgow last year and hope that the show will be a success. I’m delighted to have a substantial gallery space and will be showing a selection of my big quilts from last years exhibition at Festival of Quilts. I’ll be demonstrating breakdown printing in the gallery and will be teaching a 90 minute workshop each day. Please stop by and say hello! (And please congratulate Joe who become engaged on the 29th … yes, his lovely girlfriend Sarah popped the question!)

I also have a stand at the upcoming Fashion and Embroidery Show at the NEC, Birmingham (19th to 22nd March). Just a regular stand this time where I will be demonstrating breakdown printing and will also be giving a 90 minute workshop each day. If you are going to the show you can use the discount code below to get a £3 discount on your ticket.

March is a busy month for me as it also includes a couple of days teaching. And I will be welcoming my first guest tutor, Alice Fox, into the studio at the end of the month. I would love to think that I could get some hours stitching in as well but I think that may be wishful thinking!

Ruins 9: Cottonopolis Revisited

I am very excited to announce that I will be one of the featured artists at the upcoming ‘T’ IS FOR TEXTILES exhibition at the Rheged Centre in Penrith. Running from 27th March until 28th June the exhibition showcases the best in contemporary textile art across North England and Scotland. It features work from across a diverse range of styles and techniques and also touches on the textile heritage of the North.

The curator has selected three of my Ruins quilts that were inspired by the cotton industry in Salford and Manchester. I am delighted that these large pieces are going to be seen by so many people in what is a fabulous gallery space. As well as Ruins 9: Cottonopolis Revisited the exhibition will include Ruins 10: Salford Mills and Ruins 11: Bridgewater.

The Rheged Centre is more than just a fabulous gallery - it is a cinema, a theatre and has lovely shops and places to eat so is worth a visit. It opens from 9am to 5pm each day and admission to the gallery is free.

Last weekend I had a new group of Creative Surface Design students in the studio which was wonderful as we spend the first weekend of this course focusing on colour. Colour blending, colour exchanges, colour families ….. I love it!

Although you can buy Procion MX dyes in 40 - 50 diffferent colours in the UK I only keep 10 colours in my studio - acid lemon, golden yellow, magenta, scarlet, turquoise, royal blue, black, dark brown, rust brown and petrol green. I could blend rust brown and petrol green myself but buy them pre-blended as I use a lot of them in my own work. The remaining 8 colours I often refer to as my ‘primaries’ - OK they are not all technically primary colours but I use the word to mean a set of colours from which you can blend any colour that you might want. I guess I could call them ‘base’ colours or ‘starting’ colours but the word doesn’t matter. What matters is understanding how they interact as you combine them. For example if you want a vibrant violet purple you need to use magenta as your ‘red’. If you use scarlet as your ‘red’ you will get very frustrated as, when blended with either of my blues (turquoise or royal blue) you will get browny purples not vibrant violets. I love the ohhs and ahhs I get from my students when they understand this and discover how to blend the colours they want. It is so important if you want to control your outcomes when you print with multiple colours of thickened dye.

One of these days I will put together a 5 day workshop on colour but for now here is yet more eye candy courtesy of Amanda, Lesley, Barbara, Tracey, Anna and Cat.

Ruins 9: Cottonopolis Revisited

It is always sad when you put so much of your heart and soul into a quilt, or a collection of quilts, for them to only get shown in public once. So I am very pleased to let you know that I will be taking some of the pieces from Deconstruction-Reconstruction-Evolution to The Scottish Quilting Show at Glasgow’s SEC from 5th to 8th March. The organisers have very kindly given me a lovely space to display my big quilts. And I will be in good company with so many other well known quilters sharing their work.

I will also be demonstrating within my gallery space and leading a workshop each day in which you can print a tote bag using textile inks. If you’re planning on visiting please use the code EV265 to get a £3 discount on your tickets.

My son Joe and I had a lovely time at the show last March. Maybe it is because there aren’t many shows in Scotland but it was noticeable how warm and friendly the visitors and the stewards on the other stand were. Of course my daughter lives in Glasgow and my favourite place in the world (apart from my studio) is on the Ayrshire coast so I may be a little biased!

Overprinting a piece of breakdown printed fabric using a screen with a soy wax resist (Susan)

My 2020 teaching schedule got off to a flying start over the last two weekends with days with my Introduction to Surface Design and my Creative Surface Design students. On paper these is a difference between the two workshops. Introduction to Surface Design is technique focused and aimed at people with no or little knowledge of dyeing, printing and other ‘wet’ processes. Creative Surface Design is more design focused and is aimed at people who have some experience in a range of surface design techniques but are struggling to know how to apply those techniques to create their own unique pieces. But, of course, there is lots of overlap and I often find myself adapting each days workshop in response to individual needs. Quickly pulling together a demonstration that I wasn’t planning on or having a discussion on a specific element of design or the design process before I had planned. The lesson plan gets thrown out of the window some days but I love it!. I’ve never responded well to being taught in an regimented environment where I’m told to do A followed by B followed by C when I found B absolutely fascinating and wanted to see what happened if I added a bit of Z. So why would I want to teach like that? Thankfully my students seem to enjoy the deviations!

Top two images - paper lamination (Amanda and Sue). Middle two images - using interfacing stencils (Amanda and Pat). Bottom two images - using thermofax screens on top of previously printed fabrics (Michelle and Pat).

Brushing bleach over hand dyed fabric with soy wax and masking tape resists (Tracey)

Soy wax screen used to overprint pre-dyed fabric (Margarita)

Well maybe not quite as busy as 2019! A full teaching schedule, writing and publishing my first book, an absolutely amazing solo gallery at Festival of Quilts and unexpected drama on the home front meant 2019 was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. No wonder that I have spent a lot of the Christmas break sleeping!

However I did get into the studio most days even if only for an hour or two and spent my time working on the first two full pieces in my new series. I have given the series a working title of ‘Democracy’. I could have called the series Brexit but I want to make pieces that express my broader concerns about politics, the proliferation of lies and fake news and the way our political leadership is changing. And although the individual quilts may reference events in the UK I hope they will resonated with people in other countries. Despite the rather gloomy subject matter I am thoroughly enjoying working on a series. And, as per usual, I am spending lots of time machine stitching straight lines!

But the holidays are over and it is back to work for me. 2020 got off to a flying start - yesterday I gave a talk to the Manchester Branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild. This was the first of 8 talks I’ll be giving this year and the first of 4 that I’ll be giving to branches of the Embroiderer’s Guild. I arrived with a car boot full of quilts including some of the pieces I’ve exhibited in recent years. And, as you will already know, most of my pieces are big. Really big. Which means that some are quite heavy. So a big thank you to the ladies and gentleman who volunteered to hold them up! The difference in scale between my work and some of the pieces being worked on in the room could not be greater.

I also took along some older quilts and some sketchbooks from the City & Guild’s Diploma I did with the lovely and talented Linda Kemshall many years ago. Whilst doing my diploma I figured out that if you work onto separate sheets rather than directly into a sketchbook you can choose what you share. And you can back engineer a lovely looking sketchbook after you have finished making a quilt. OK, so I learnt that you could cheat. But much, much more importantly I learnt that I didn’t need to work into sketchbooks to produce art. It might not have been the intention of the course but this learning was an big step forward for me.

As well as talks I have a full teaching schedule this year. Most of my classes for the first half of the year are sold out but I still have odd places on my Simply Screen Printing workshop and my Print Your Palette workshop. I will also be welcoming my first three guest tutors into the studio. The workshops with Alice Fox and Christine Chester are sold out but there is still one place left on Ruth Browns Books for Textile Artists.

I will be demonstrating at The Creative Craft shows in Glasgow and Birmingham in March and will have a stand at this summers Festival of Quilts. And I am delighted to have a gallery at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show in August. Phew! There was me thinking it wouldn’t be as busy as 2019!

For those of you who will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow, I wish you a love filled and drama free day. Lots of laughter, good company and happiness. No under cooked turkeys or over cooked sprouts. No ‘tired and emotional’ chefs who started on the cooking sherry a little to early. No children being sick because they ate too much chocolate. No awkward moments when you open a present to find it is the one you gave last year ….. Just lots of happy memories.

With love and best wishes to you all,

Leah x