I’ve just arrived home from my annual artists retreat with twelve textile artists and friends in Grasmere. As always the company was funny, supportive and all round wonderful and the location, in the Lake District, beautiful. And as usual it did me the power of good and recharged my creative batteries.

We all work on our own projects and I took three pieces of printed fabric to add stitch to. Despite an emergency dash home to collect my spare machine when I managed to jam a needle in my sewing machine, I completed all three pieces.

The pieces are from my upcoming online workshop Simply Screen Printing and needed stitch that enhanced the printed marks and lines rather than distracted from them so I kept it simple. The photo above (detail) shows simply curvy lines added fabric that had been printed with a loose paper resist intially then over printed using a breakdown screen. The photo below (detail) shows simple straight lines added to a piece that had been printed using a loose net resist. I also sewed around the circles which really helps them ‘pop’.

And finally, the photo below (detail) shows a simple grid of blue and light brown lines added to a densely patterned piece of breakdown printed fabric. If I have time to add facings and finish these little quilts I will take them to The Scottish Quilt Show in Glasgow on 7th to 9th March.

Simply Screen Printing will be available from this Friday 1st March. Featuring 25 hours of video and detailed notes , it will cost £300 for 12 months access which means that students can work at their own pace knowing that they have support from me via monthly Zoom meetings, a private Facebook group and email. More details to follow, so watch this space!!

A little bit of Hollywood is visiting Urban Studio North! Filming for IMAX 70, in Dolby surround sound, with an Oscar nominated screenplay, audacious multi-million $ action stunts (eat your heart out Tom Cruise) and a cast of thousands ……

OK, so it’s a cast on one. Screenplay, what screenplay? And the most audacious action sequence was me dropping my screen part way through printing some fabric. Although the not-quite-Dolby sound system did do a pretty good job of capturing my swearing. Hmmm………..

Yes I am busy filming Simply Screen Printing. Just me, two static cameras and some reasonable priced editing software. I was originally going to include a dance sequence with Ryan Gosling but he didn’t turn up for rehearsals. Instead there will be a feast of beautifully screen printed fabrics and hours of detailed instruction on how to screen print at home. The workshop will be available from 1st March but, for now I thought I’d share what I think is my favourite piece of fabric printed in the workshop. Can you guess how I printed it?

At long last I have started working again on an online version of my Simply Screen Printing 5 day workshop and book. I started last May with the hope of getting it done for Christmas but then a couple of small things got in the way…. Festival of Quilts and the solo exhibition. OK, maybe not small things. I’ll share lots more detail (and photos) over the coming weeks but I thought I might tease you with detail from one of the fabrics I’ve printed this week. It is intentionally pale and delicate. The first layer of print was created using a loose paper resist and the second layer was printed using an embedded object breakdown printing screen. Not my ‘usual’ colours but I have rather fallen in love with this piece and will be adding stitch to it during my annual retreat in the Lake District later this month. Calamities aside I intend launching the new online workshop on 1st March.

I’ve also been getting organised for a childrens workshop that I will be running at Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Sunday 25th February. Bit outside my comfort zone but it is good to give back to the staff at the museum who have done such a fabulous job hosting my exhibition. Although I might need to lie down in a dark room for a while having spent the afternoon with 30 children using textile inks and acrylic stamps to decorate aprons and bags! You can find more details here.

And just to stop me getting bored, I am also getting ready for The Scottish Quilt Show at the SEC in Glasgow from 7th to 9th March. You can find details of the show here. I only do a couple of shows a year and this one is actually my favourite. Yes Festival of Quilts is the big earner but it is just so busy and frantic that I never have time to really chat to people let alone visit the galleries. Whereas in Glasgow I get to chat and have a walk round. I also get to see my daughter who lives in Glasgow which is a bonus! So if you plan on visiting the show please stop by! Now I just need to print about 50 metres of fabric …..

I’m delighted (and somewhat relieved) that 2024 workshop sales are going well as I know that a workshop isn’t cheap especially if you have to travel and book accommodation. I really appreciate your support.

I have places left on two of my guest tutor workshops. Amanda J Clayton is a highly recommended tutor. Her workshop ‘Quietly Composed’ is aimed at those artists, embroiderers’ and textile specialists in particular, who wish to explore observational starting points and develop personal ideas through cloth and hand stitch.

‘Enjoy the calming nature of hand stitch whilst absorbing the serendipity of composition. With a pared down palette of neutrals you will explore the techniques of cutwork, darning, applique, layering and inlay using transparent qualities as well as your favourite cloth qualities. You will work towards developing an individual series of work from your own visual language.’ 

Images of her signature inlay technique can be seen above along with items that might provide inspiration during the workshop. The four day workshop runs from the 9th to 12th September and there are two places left. You can find out much more here.

I also have one place left on Clare Bullock’s Versatility of Felt five day workshop. Clare is an incredibly generous and inspiring teacher and during this workshop you will study a different technique each day. By the end of the five days you will have firm knowledge in felt making, a selection of samples and written instructions to guide you on your felting journey.

‘Felt making is like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. This 5 day workshop is designed to make you fall in love with it. Felt is a very versatile fabric, you can make almost anything from it. Clares’ by-line is "If you can think it you can felt it". You are only limited by your imagination’.

Examples of her beautiful pods can be seen below. The five day workshop runs from 20th to 24th May and you can find out much more here.

Artefect 6 - new work for my exhibition Beneath Our Feet

I may have mentioned once or twice that I currently have a solo exhibition called Beneath Our Feet at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The exhibition runs until Sunday 5th May however I will be holding a ‘meet the artist’ event there on Saturday 27th January from 1pm to 2pm. The event is free and you don’t need a ticket, you can just turn up.

There is another exhibition on that some of your might find interesting. It is called Islington Mill - 200 Years in the Making and contains some textile pieces. Islington Mill has been part of my family life at various times over the last 20 years and it is great to see how it has evolved over the years. The museum also has other galleries, a shop and a lovely cafe that serves really good coffee and cake!

I hope that some of you can join me, even if you have met this particular artist once or twice before!

…… because we all deserve some colour in our life during these grey January days!

May I wish you all a very happy and creative 2024 and express my thanks to those of you who have brought my fabric packs! You are definitely worth it ladies!

I thought I would start the year by sharing one of the new pieces I made for my current exhibition (Beneath Our Feet). This isn’t one that was rolling round in my head for ages, instead it popped out as a fully formed idea after seeing an image of a collection of solid coloured vases made by Pilkington Tile & Pottery Company around the turn of the 19th century. Pilkington is one of the inspirations for my Artefact series with all the quilts I have made so far being pale and quite subtle in their colouring. Not this one though …. which is why I have chosen to not call it Artefact 7.

Pigment #1 celebrates the wonderful, brightly coloured glazes developed by the Pilkington chemist Abraham Lomax and others. The development of these glazes was an early example of where scientific advances, in this case in inorganic chemistry, were applied to the art of the potter. Using Dimitri Mendeleev’s newly published Periodic Table as a starting point, the Pilkington chemists carried out hundreds of controlled experiments. Oxides of copper, cobalt and iron were used to add colour to the crystalline, opalescent, eggshell, transmutation and lapis glazes developed by the company.

I selected five colours - golden yellow, rust, dark brown, a turquoise and a green made by mixing turquoise and dark brown dyes. The fabrics were breakdown printed with multiple layers of print to build up the density of marks. I then added a layer of the appropriate colour to both the front and the back of each fabric creating a set of vibrant fabrics. The fabrics were cut into stripes then into different length pieces. I kept all the golden yellow pieces 3 inches long but varied the lengths of the other colours. I then used my usual composition process - I jumbled the fabrics into a big pile, closed my eyes and picked pieces at random. These pieces were laid out in the order I picked them before being sewn together. I did swap out a couple of pieces but that was all.

All good and such fun. I took photos with my camera as I worked so that I could post on Instagram. And something really interesting happened. The image above was taken with my fancy pants camera at 300dpi and is a really good representation of the colours. The image below was taken with my phone at 72dpi …. and the colours look so different even though the lighting conditions were similar. The green is indistinguishable from the blue and the brown looks much more blue than it actually is. Which is really weird. So I used my camera to photograph pieces of the blue and green fabrics with space around the two fabrics (scroll to bottom) and they are very definitely different colours.

The science of colour is fascinating. How we each ‘see’ colour is unique as it depends on the biology of our eyes but also on the interaction of different colours as they are placed side by side. And how we ‘share’ colour is dependent of the devices we use to capture and display colour.

I love it and am looking forward to having a colour filled 2024!

In what will be a bit of a theme for 2024 I have started going through the studio and our home in preparation for our planned move (and downsize) in 2025. I could have started in the cellar which is full of all sorts of stuff (otherwise known as rubbish) that have magically appeared over the last 25 years. Instead I opted for a very pleasant couple of weeks sorting through my boxes of hand printed and dyed fabrics.

Even though I’ve sold lots of Wonky Printed Inspiration Packs and Absolutely Hand Dyed Packs over the last few years I’ve still managed to accumulate lots of fabric often when researching and sampling my books. Certainly more fabric than I will ever use. And then there are the fabrics that have been dyed and printed for series of artworks that I know that I’m not going to go back to. And so I’ve put together lots of fabric packs that I hope to find new homes for! Have a look at my website here.

Now a more commercially savvy person would have got the packs ready for sale in the run up to Christmas as they do make lovely gifts but I was rather tired after the mad panic that was getting ready for my exhibition. Instead I am going with ‘stave off those winter blues / fabric is for life and not just Christmas / because you are worth it ……’

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 ….