Festival of Quilts was amazing! A big thank you to everybody that came to visit my stand, it was wonderful to put so many faces to names and to catch up with so many friends. Hello to new subscribers to this blog and new friends on Facebook. Festival really is one big community and I am overwhelmed by all the support I've received for my new life as a full time artist and teacher.

A special thank you to those of you who booked courses and brought fabric - I really didn't know what to expect at the show and was very nervous about making the investment but you have helped me believe that I am doing the right thing.

And to Joe, Ruth and Gwyneth, my gang of helpers. I am a lucky lady. 

This is only a short post as I am just a little bit tired. I will post more about my two new 5 day retreats Breakdown Your Palette and Colour Your Palette, which I launched at Festival and which are now on my website, in the next few days but you might want to look now as there is only one place left on the Breakdown retreat in May! And I will post about my plans for the next 12 months - I am going to be busy, busy, busy!

New work: Process Colour #1

With one day to spare I am all ready for Festival of Quilts. How do I know? Because I have checked everything off my Festival of Quilts 2018 checklist. I love a good checklist! Have I forgotten anything ....

• FoQ paperwork / car pass / Hi-Vis / Exhibitor Passes - check
• Float / Phone / Tablet / Chargers / card reader / power bank - check
• Sack truck - check
• Two table tops (with pre-drilled holes for legs) - check
• Eight legs (in their handmade carrying bags) - check
• Makita drill / small screws / screw driver / spirit level - check
• Two table cloths - check
• One stool (but I will be too busy to use it!) - check
• Small steps (can't reach top of stand) - check
• Quilts for stand (in their handmade bag) - check
• Postcards / stands - check
• Leaflets / stands - check
• Fabric for sale (lots) - check
• Display boxes - check
• Velcro dots - check
• Panel pins - check
• Small hammer - check
• Duck tape and cable ties (thanks for the tip Ruth) - check
• Double sided tape - check
• Invisible tape - check
• Scissors - check
• Wet wipes - check
• Hand fan (hot flushes!) - check
• Notebook - check
• Pens / pencils - check
• Twine - check
• Fabric care slips - check
• Business cards - check
• Labels for quilts - check
• Price labels for fabric - check
• A4 workshop 'adverts' for stand (love laminating!) - check
• 100 snazzy paper bags / labels - check
• Lint roller (for the quilts) - check
• Tape measure - check
• Fine pins - check
• Calculator - check
• Newsletter sign up sheet - check
• Workshop sign up forms - check
• Paypal sign (yes I take PayPal and cards) - check
• Price / availability list for workshops - check
• Joe (oldest son, my gofer, and, he says, ace salesperson) - he is around here somewhere!
• Clothes to wear (by far the hardest decisions!) - check

If you are at Festival please come see me on stand H35 in the main hall! It will be lovely to put faces to names x

And my spare day .... unless it is pouring down I'm taking my grandson to the beach and eating ice cream. 

This time next week Festival of Quilts will be in full swing and the halls at the NEC, Birmingham will be buzzing with 1000's of quilters, embroiderers and textile enthusiasts. There will even be a handful of long suffering husbands and partners ... And I will, hopefully, have lots of visitors to my stand H35. My life plan didn't have me doing this until I was in my early 60's but life is never a straight line and so here I am and I couldn't be happier. I will turn 55 next Thursday and have already given myself the best present ever by deciding to become a full time artist and teacher. 

Deciding to take a stand at Festival at such short notice has meant that I've been working long, long hours in the studio. Being me I marked out my stand full size, decided what size tables would work and spent a really lovely few hours figuring out how to display my hand dyed fabrics. I folded fabric, I printed labels, I wrote and printed wash care slips, I ordered black fabric to use as table cloths, I brought some paper bags, I created a blog subscription sign up sheet and, one that I hope gets used lots, I made a workshop sign up sheet. 

I marked out the three walls of my stand on my design wall and went through my older quilts to see what might fit and look good. Most of my recent work is just too big but I did have a small Ruins piece that never got exhibited so, after fusing on 'urban studio north', this has become the centre piece of my display. I didn't have the right mix in my existing pieces so have had to make two quilts - Off The Grid which is a rather nice example of breakdown printing and Pass The Tequila which showcases a tray dyed piece of fabric. I've also made a funky little 'workshop' quilt. It has been a long time since I worked on anything that wasn't part of a series or destined for an exhibition and really enjoyed making them. It's been fun.

I've also decided to develop a couple of 5 day retreats for 2019. The first one will be called 'Breakdown Your Palette' and will focus on breakdown printing and the benefits of using a limited selection of colours to create a cohesive collection of fabrics that can be used as whole cloth, pieced or used as yardage for clothing. The second will be called 'Colour Your Palette' and will focus on the addition and removal of colour through various dyeing and discharging methods. Again the emphasis will be on creating fabrics that work together. Both will be launched at Festival. 

Oh yes and I also heard last week that I will have a solo gallery at Festival 2019! Super excited! Going to be super busy! The Art gods have been shining on me - I am living my dream!

When I decide to do something I really go for it, I give it my all and I aim to succeed. Determined, ambitious, tenacious - that's me. So I have taken a stand at this summers Festival of Quilts in order to promote Urban Studio North and my workshops to as wide an audience as possible. I will be on stand H35 which is in one of the alleys near the Nancy Crow exhibition. Please, please, please come find me if you are at the show!

My stand is only small (2 metres x 2 metres) but I want it to showcase as many aspects of surface design as possible. After all that is what I teach. As well as showing a couple of my favourite small quilts I will be showing a couple of new pieces. These are 'process' driven - they do not have a specific inspiration but they each show how printed and dyed fabrics can be used. The first one is almost finished. I'm calling it 'Off the Grid', detail below. The cloth went through 3 wet processes - I breakdown printed the first layer, then scraped through colour in the second layer and finally breakdown printed using formosol discharge paste. I will be supporting and encouraging students on my Introduction to Surface Design courses to take their cloth through multiple processes - you get such wonderful, totally unique, depth of colour and texture.

I'm rather nervous about this new venture - it cost quite a bit of money and what if nobody signs up for a workshop! or even worse, what if nobody even stops to talk to me!! But I am also absolutely fizzing with excitement. I love talking about my work and my processes, and I especially love talking about colour. I am looking forward to seeing friends and making new friends. So if you are at Festival (9th to 12th August at the NEC, Birmingham), please stop by!

I'm amazed with the response I've had to my workshops since launching them just over 4 weeks ago but am mindful that social media on it's own is unlikely to provide me with a steady stream of new students. So as well as having the new title of 'teacher' I am pleased as punch to be able to add 'demonstrator' to my list of titles. 

I contacted ICHF about demonstrating with them but expected to have to wait until next year. Which was OK because it would have given me plenty of time to practice demonstrating in front of my students. But fate sometimes does everyone a favour and I am delighted to tell you that I will be demonstrating at their Creative Craft Show at Event City in Manchester on 6th to 8th September. I'm excited and terrified at the same time! This is a great show to be my first - Event City is about one mile away from my home and studio so I won't have to worry about forgetting things. And I know that I'll see some friendly faces amongst the visitors. I'm trying to develop a workshop for the event as well - something that will last either 60 minutes or 90 minutes and can be done in a room where the only water is what can be carried in a bucket. So something that doesn't get too messy. This particular challenge is keeping me awake at night but I'm sure inspiration will strike soon!

I've also started placing adverts and have had new flyers printed. Thanks to the African Fabric Shop and Patchwork Parade for taking some! If you would like some please just contact me - I have lots! Maybe I should give myself another new title 'marketing manager'! Blimey, I think I might need a lie down!

The last 7 days have been exciting and terrifying in equal measure. I hung my latest exhibition with Helen Conway at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery last Tuesday (with an awful lot of help from my son Callum and father-in-law Bernard). On Wednesday I was interviewed by Bethany Armitage of Quilt Now (very nerve-racking, article on the Stockport exhibition in the next issue). On Friday I launched myself as a teacher and on Saturday Helen and I had our preview. 

Definitely an emotional rollercoaster and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the response I've had to my workshops and to the exhibition with Helen. I spend so many hours working away on my own that sometimes I question what I'm doing and why. Affirmation keeps me going, big thank you to everyone that came to the preview, that responded to our posts on Facebook and an especially big thank you to the wonderful women who have booked on to my courses!

After the preview I drove up to Scotland for a weeks holiday in Dunure, my second most favourite place after my studio. The weather here is glorious and the sunsets over Arran are stunning. I have brought work with me to do but the sun is just too enticing ...... 

It is 5 weeks or so until my next exhibition with Helen Conway opens at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday 26th May and the only thing I have left to work on is a collaborative piece with Helen. Now I have written more than once about how I work in series and how I only 'work to the beat of my own drum' so this may come as a bit of a surprise. But maybe not to those who know us well.

Helen and I met several years ago at a local contemporary quilt group and went on to be founder members of the exhibiting group Etcetera. During the groups time Helen and my work evolved rapidly with Helen embracing acrylic paint and mixed media and me developing large, abstract pieces based on breakdown printing. But strangely our work always looked good together. Our colour palettes were similar and Helens wonderfully organic graffiti marks linked nicely with the somewhat random marks made by breakdown printing.

But work that looks nice together is not enough to make a successful collaboration. In my humble opinion it is the fact that we both approach our art practice in the same way that has made it work. We are both professional women in our day jobs and approach our art with the same level of commitment and professionalism. We are ambitious but also pragmatic. We are not precious about who does what; we just get on with stuff. We curate our exhibitions so that they work best for the viewer rather than vying for prime position.

The gallery in Stockport is a huge open space which has been easy to curate. With the exception of the section of wall that faces the double doors leading into the gallery. The wall is framed by two columns and whatever is exhibited there is inevitably going to draw the visitor towards it. So we knew from day one that we had to find some way to share the space. Rather than get distracted by this we both got on with our individual pieces. Knowing what the rest of the exhibition would look like we got together a few weeks ago and decided that we wanted to make a piece that was very obviously inspired by Stockport. Cue a quick scribble on a scrap of paper. I gave Helen some samples of the fabrics I wanted to use. Helen sampled her ideas and sent me photos. They looked great so she did her bit and I got cracking printing fabric. No angst. No worries.

I have about 35 hours of stitching to do to complete the piece but with 5 weeks to go our collaborative piece of art has been as stress free as the rest of our activities. Go team Helen and Leah!

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

It is a weird feeling the day after a preview. My exhibiting partner, Helen Conway, and I put so much hard work into making the artwork, designing the gallery layout and marketing the event that the run up felt like riding a wave. Certainly I was so twitchy that I couldn't settle to anything in the last few days before the preview. The next day I felt like a bedraggled bit of seaweed left on the shore. That could have been caused by the white wine drunk after the event but more likely it was that deflated feeling you get after something big has happened. Like Boxing Day.

It might have been nice to take time out, read a book, have a nap, remind my family who I am but with the prospect of a second exhibition in just over two months that was never going to happen. So it is straight back into the studio. The next exhibition previews on Saturday 26th May at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery. The space is much bigger than the St Helens gallery but Helen and I are consummate art professionals (or mad fools!!) and are absolutely certain that we will have all the new work ready in time. 

And who needs sleep? 

Three weeks to go until my exhibition with Helen Conway at The World of Glass in St Helens and another first for me - prints. In an effort to make my art more affordable I'm going to be selling limited edition prints of two of my new works (Sherdley Road and Ruins 8) along with limited edition prints of two detail shots. The prints are A3 and I'm really happy with the quality of the image (you can see all the stitching and fine detail) and the lovely heavy paper they are printed on. I'll be making them, along with postcards, available on my website from the 17th March when the exhibition opens. After much deliberation I have priced the prints at £55 each. Postcards will be £1 each. Time will tell if this is one of my better ideas!