My solo exhibition is now open and, in my humble opinion, looks blinking fabulous. The team at Salford Museum and Art Gallery have done a great job with hanging the pieces. The exhibition runs until Sunday 5th May 2024 and I’ll be doing a couple of artists talks in the New Year (more details to follow). If you want to read more about my inspiration for the exhibition there is now an extended artists statement online which you can find here.

Having a solo exhibition in such a wonderful location is a really big deal for me so needless to say that I was rather nervous ahead of the opening last Saturday. Would anybody turn up? Thankfully lots of lovely people came and I had some wonderful conversations, especially about my coal mining pieces. In fact I was so busy that I didn’t take many photos during the opening but I will share images and details of the pieces in the exhibition over the coming weeks.

For now however it is all about Christmas. So may I wish you a very happy one!

Leah x

So I have had a little lie down and am getting very excited about my exhibition opening! I’m also really happy with the greeting cards that I have had printed for the exhibition. I used a wonderful little company called The Dandy Arthouse, great customer service and great cards. Very importantly the colours are perfect. Thanks to Hazel and Terry at InStitches for the recommendation. There are ten designs including images of works that are new for this exhibition. If they sell well I will get more printed and added to my online shop.

My second happy dance this week was the arrival of The Quilter magazine which features a short article I wrote for them about the preparation for my exhibition. Very happy with the images and the layout. And sort of happy with the photo of me … I hate having my photo taken but this one is OK (thanks Joe)!

What next for me …. well lots more sleep between now and the opening on Saturday 16th plus a big clean up in the studio. It is fair to say that I used every inch of the studio in the mad rush to get work finished!

And there’s also Christmas to get organised for ….

…….. and I got there! I was very happy, and mightily relieved, to deliver my art to Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday! I’ll be going to the museum next Wednesday to check that I’m happy with the hanging so expect lots of photos! The exhibition, called Beneath Our Feet will run from Saturday 16th December to Sunday 5th May 2024 with an opening event on the afternoon of the 16th December. You can get more info here.

I’d love to say that getting there was easy with no hiccups but I think the fact that I stitched the last stitch at 3pm on the day before I was due to deliver the art tells a tale! You just can’t schedule ‘life’!

Which is why I had a plan A, a plan B and a plan C …..with different layouts based on different numbers of new work. It pays to be pragmatic. And to have a support package (large quantities of good coffee, mince pies, Maltesers and other healthy foods) in place.

All that said, I would love to see some of you at the opening!

Leah xx

Four weeks until my exhibition, Beneath Our Feet, opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and I am delighted to invite you to the opening! The opening event, with drinks, is on Saturday 16th December from 1pm to 3pm. 

The exhibition runs until 5th May 2024 and the museum is well worth a visit. There is parking just outside with further parking a few minutes walk away. There is a lovely cafe and a shop.

The event is free but the Museum asks that you RSVP so they have an idea of numbers. Your can do this here -  https://salfordmuseum.com/event/Higgins/ . You'll need to scroll to the bottom and click on 'register'.

I hope that you can join me! I'll be the nervous looking woman propped up in a corner with a well earned glass of something! But for those of you who can’t I will post photos (and maybe a video) after I’ve had a little lie down ….

My new workshop, Luscious Layers, sold out really quickly so I have just added new dates to the website - the extra workshop will run from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September next year. I’m really looking forward to this one as we will work with multiple surface design techniques to create layered, complex beautiful art cloth. You can find out more here.

I’ve also added an extra Breakdown Your Palette workshop from Monday 12th to Friday 16th August next year. This is my most popular workshop and I love it! Breakdown printing is my favourite technique and the basis for most of my art. You can find out more here.

In other news I’m still stitching like a woman possessed …. 30 days until I need to drop off the art for my upcoming exhibition. Blimey …..

My upcoming exhibition opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 16th December and everything is coming together! The lovely people at the museum have created a poster for me which I think looks rather lovely. And they have extended the exhibition - it now ends on Sunday 5th May 2024.

There will be a preview from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday 16th which you are all invited to! More details to follow but it would be lovely if you could join me. The Museum has other exhibitions including one from the residents of Islington Mill on its 200th anniversary, a rather lovely cafe and a shop.

I’m also going to do a ‘Meet The Artist’ session on Saturday 27th January 2024 and a Childrens Print Workshop on Sunday 25th February 2024. Again more details to follow.

In the perfect world I’d have all the art ready …. if only! The studio is a creative mess and I’m somewhat stressed. The exhibition is a combination of new and existing pieces. I’ve aimed to create four completely new pieces as well as substantially reworking one of the older pieces. Which doesn’t sound a lot. And it wouldn’t be a lot if I created small pieces …. the new pieces range in size from 120 x 120 cm to 400cm x 135cm so not small. And my process is quite time consuming. Which is a long winded way of saying that I’m working long, but very happy, hours! So if I’m a bit slow responding to emails please bear with me …

Leah x

Printed using a screen made with a washable PVA glue resist.

Taking a quick break from quilting ….. I have one place left on my five day Simply Screen Printing - The Full Monty workshop on Monday 2nd to Friday 6th October. I’m offering it at a 20% discount so £360 instead of £450. You can find out more about the workshop here. The workshop is suitable for beginners and for those you want to add more screen printing techniques to their tool kit. Please email me if you have questions.

Looking forward to 2024, I only have one place left on my new workshop Luscious Layers running from Monday 3rd to 7th June 2024. This workshop isn’t suitable for beginners as it assumes a basic knowledge of screen printing and other ‘wet process’ techniques. I’m really looking forward to teaching this workshop as it is all about adding multiple layers of colour, mark, texture, line and shape to fabric to create beautiful, complex art cloth. You can find out more here.

And if you’ve been thinking about doing my Breakdown Your Palette workshop the only places left are on the workshop running from Monday 1st to Friday 5th July 2024. You can find out more here.

And now for the bad news …. unfortunately I’ve had to put up the price of my screens by an average of 19% (actual increase depends on the size of screen). I could probably source cheaper screens from outside the UK but I prefer to continue to buy from the small family company that I’ve been using for years. That said, a well looked after screen will last for years and years.

Now, back to quilting ….

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!

When I started work on my upcoming exhibition 11 days ago, it had been 347 days since I last did any physical work on my ‘art’. 347 days. Even though I knew about the exhibition at the end of last year. Even though my head has been full of ideas and plans. 347 days.

A solo exhibition in a venue like Salford Art Museum and Gallery is a dream and I know in my heart that I’m not going to be producing my best work because I haven’t been able to start work earlier.

The reason …..well the same reason many working artists don’t get any time to actually create art ….. money. We are blessed to live in a big house with a big studio in the garden. But we still have a mortgage and the energy bills / running costs are frightening meaning I have to earn a certain amount to balance the books. Not a problem when workshop take up is good and 80% of my ‘profit’ comes from teaching. But take up hasn’t been good since last summer and so I have had to run some workshops with just two students, to write another book, to sell more stuff through my online shop and to print and dye lots and lots of fabric to sell at shows etc. Long, long hours without the same level of ‘profit’. Don’t get me wrong, I love every part of my studio life but 347 days? And the prospect that, realistically, there will be no time for art once this exhibition is hung?

Something has to change. After a lot of discussion me and hubby have decided to pull forward our plans to downsize and move to Scotland. Small house + no mortgage = lower income needed = Leah can make some art + spend more time with hubby. We were always going to move in 3 - 4 years, we just can’t see any ‘benefit’ from waiting until then.

So 2024 will be the last year I teach in my studio in Manchester. We will start the move in January 2025 and expect it to take a year (mostly because we need a small house with a suitable studio attached). Not sure exactly what I’ll be able to offer in 2025 but I do intend teaching 4 times a year from 2026 onwards. This maybe in my own studio or in a space that I rent or I may teach in other peoples studios. Time will tell. And I will still be writing books - the next one will be a new edition of my breakdown printing book - and offering online workshops. And I’ll still be doing the Glasgow show in March and Festival of Quilts in August. I’m not retiring but I am taking the pressure off and actively shifting the focus of my life back onto making art.

However that’s for 2025, there’s a lot to keep me busy before then!