Folded rusted fabrics - Alice Fox

Along with lots of teachers I have had to cancel and postpone workshops whilst we live in these strange and worrying times. In most cases my lovely students have been able to ‘sign up’ for rearranged workshops but not everyone has been able to do that. So I now have places available on two wonderful workshops.

I have places on Rust Marks with Alice Fox in which you will learn about the potential for using found rusty objects for printing and dyeing on paper and fabric. Using an experimental approach and found metal you will explore methods for transferring marks from rusty metal onto papers and fabrics. The new dates are Friday 19th March to Sunday 21st March 2021. The workshop cost is £255 with a £125 deposit needed to book a place.

I also have places on Poetry of Decay with Christine Chester. This mixed media course will introduce you to some materials and processes that will help you to create rich and textured surfaces based on the inspiration found in your own photographs. The new dates are Monday 8th to Friday 12th March 2021. The cost is £425 including a £175 deposit.

Of course none of us know exactly what will be happening over the next few months but I am hoping that we will all be able to be together soon. Much as I love having the studio to myself I am missing the fun, the conversation and the glorious chaos that comes with a full studio!

Stay well, Leah

Interpreting decay - Christine Chester

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!

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.

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)

A couple of weeks ago I taught my Print, Stitch, Go! workshop for the first time. I was rather nervous. The first half of the workshop was spent printing and dyeing fabrics but the second half was all about using those fabrics. Printing, dyeing, splashing about lots of colour is my comfort zone so no problems there. But my approach to using my own printed and dyed fabrics is to keep it simple and let the fabric do the talking. Which is my way of admitting that I just use squares, rectangles and simple strips. I couldn’t get points to match in a mariners compass in a month of Sundays!

Thankfully my lovely students embraced squares, rectangles and simple strips! Phew!

The workshop went really well. The first two days were busy and hectic with printed fabric hanging everywhere. Wednesday was change over day when we washed and ironed our fabrics, converted the studio from a ‘wet’ to a ‘dry’ space and started to decide how to use our fabrics. And the last two days were just lovely. Calmer, but just as filled with colour. Lots of mutual support. Lots of ohhs and ahhs. Great company, amazing work - thank you Barbara, Bernice, Michelle, Sally and Sue.

So here is some eye candy …..

From left: Bernice Hopper, Michelle Barnard and Sally Taylor

From top: Barbara Logan, Sue Morgan and Bernice Hopper

…..for some shameless self promotion! With Christmas only a few weeks away we are being constantly bombarded with adverts encouraging us to indulge ourselves and our loved ones. Those who have been reading my blog for a long time will know that I am about ‘Ba Humbug’ about the whole thing but I now have a business to run. So here I go …..

Looking to fill a rather large flat stocking? Why not pick a good read and buy my book Breakdown Your Palette? Full of lovely images and detailed instructions you can find out more (and purchase) here.

And how about a workshop in the New Year to wipe away those winter blues? I still have one place left on my Creative Surface Design course starting on 1st and 2nd February 2020. The course is spread over 5 weekends and is a design focused course where you will work from your own source or sources of inspiration. You will learn how to combine different surface design techniques to create lovely cloth. You can find more details here.

Due to a cancellation I now have one place available on Alice Fox’s 3 day Rust Marks workshop. Using an experimental approach and found metal you will explore methods for transferring marks from rusty metal onto papers and fabrics. The workshop is on 27th to 29th March 2020 and you can find more details here.

I also have just one place left on my 5 day Print, Stitch, Go! workshop (Monday 17th to Friday 21st February 2020). In the first half of this fun packed 5-day workshop you will use a variety of screen printing techniques to create a collection of fabrics in a limited colour family. You’ll also exchange dye fat quarters in coordinating colours. In the second half of the week you will use your fabrics to design and stitch a small wall hanging or quilt top. I’m teaching this workshop this week and loving getting students to cut into their precious printed and dyed fabrics! Gorgeous work in progress below by Bernice Hopper and Sue Morgan. The workshop will also be run in November next year. You can find more details here.

My Breakdown Your Palette workshops in 2020 are now all full. But don’t despair! I have added new workshop dates for May and June 2021. Yes it’s a long way off but why not have a look and book your place. Or drop a really, really big hint to a loved one! For full details and to purchase please click here.

Can’t wait until 2021 to have a go? Well how about playing at home using my book Breakdown Your Palette as a guide? You guessed it … you can find more details here.

Shameless and blatant self-promotion …… hmm might need to take a shower…….

Seasons greeting everyone xx

I had a wonderful time teaching at this years Contemporary Quilt Summer School at the Hillscourt Hotel near Birmingham. I taught a class called ‘Colour, Colour, Colour!’ in which students learnt how to blend colours from a set of primaries, how to create a colour families from their source of inspiration, how to dye a colour family and how to use screens and thermofax screens to print a couple of pieces of fabric in the same colour family. Not bad for a conference venue that had carpet on the floor, fancy desks instead of useful tables and whose only sink was in a small kitchen one floor down. I do love a challenge!

The students had different levels of understanding of colour theory and knowledge of dyeing / printing but hopefully they all came away knowing something new. They certainly liked my colour wheels! There were 14 students and they each developed a unique colour family. The room was full of colour!

I took lots of photos and was intending to write a post whilst everything was fresh in my mind. But, well stuff happened and I can’t remember clearly who did what so instead they can all take the credit for some wonderful eye candy. Thank you Stella, Frances, Jane, Pat, Alison, Jenny, Liz, Sonia, Sarah, Elizabeth, Marion, Ann, Glenys and Hazel.

A big thank you to everybody who stopped by my stand at last weeks Creative Craft Show in Manchester. As well as giving a workshop once a day I was busy demonstrating breakdown printing on the stand. Always a bit of a challenge to work in a small space without easy access to a sink but the best thing about using dyes is that they don’t clog the screen when they dry out. I was quite pleased with the pieces I printed (above). And all from screens made using turquoise, rust brown and black dyes!

I also demonstrated stamping using textile inks and acrylic shapes. Easy technique and great for kids. And to prove the point my son, Joe, decided to have a go. OK so at 33 he is not exactly a kid any more but he really enjoyed himself printing a bag with stylised Batman and Joker logos. (And yes, I am aware of the copyright issue so my demo and the workshop I’ve developed using this technique did not use other peoples logos or images).

I really couldn’t do shows without Joe's help. So a very, very big thanks to him!