…. after my 18 day adventure in Australia! I arrived home last Wednesday evening after a 38 hour door to door journey. Needless to say I was very tired and the jet lag has been ghastly but I also felt overwhelmed. Overwhelmed that I had been invited to teach a couple of workshops on the other side of the world and overwhelmed by the visual overload from all the places I visited. It’s going to take me a while to come back down to earth!

I shared lots of photos via Instagram and Facebook whilst I was travelling and will write a series of posts over the next couple of weeks sharing lots of them with you. But this first post is a thank you post.

Thank you to the receptionist at my hotel in Melbourne who took one look at me when I arrived late in the evening, gave me my room card and let me check in properly the next day - small kindnesses mean a lot when you can barely stand up straight let alone fill in a form!

Thank you to Glenys Mann and her team for inviting me to teach a five day workshop in the Fibre Arts event in Ballarat. Thank you to my amazingly talented Ballarat students; Julia, Fiona, Gina, Myra, Ange, Leslie, Lisa, Rae, Mardi, Lynne, Lyn and Jeanette. The gin was fabulous darlings! An especially big thank you to Fiona who supplied all the equipment I needed to teach the class, helped me set up before the workshop and helped me clear up afterwards - couldn’t have done it without her!

Thank you to the other tutors and students in Ballarat - I meet so many lovely people from Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Our textile community is a special one.

Thank you to Roz for meeting me at Hobart airport and to Ann and Michael for letting me use their beautiful apartment. It was a great base for my stay in Tasmania although the hill it was on was a killer!

Thank you to Chris and Roz of Stitching and Beyond for inviting me to teach a three day workshop in Hobart and for doing such a good job supplying everything we needed for the workshop. All those sauce bottles! Thank you to another set of talented, enthusiastic students; Chris, Leanne, Karen, Lesley, Margaret, Sue, Robyn, Roz, Jen, Lisa and Sally. You all did an amazing amount of work for a three day class. An especially big thank you to Robyn and Sally for buying the colour references and my printed fabrics and for Jen for passing the money onto local charity Loaves & Fishes.

Thank you to Stephanie at Can Do Books for agreeing to stock my Simply Screen Printing book in Australia which will save buyers lots of money on shipping. You can email her via the website if you want to be put on the waiting list.

And finally, thank you to my family for ‘coping’ while I was away …… it was very nice to come home to clean house.

Leah x

A big thank you to everybody who stopped by my stand at the Sewing for Pleasure show last week and especially to all those who brought a copy of my new book Simply Screen Printing. I am donating £1 from every book sold before the end of March to the Trussell Trust so if you are thinking about buying it, now would be a good time!

And Hello! to all new subscribers to this post. I waffle on about lots of stuff in my posts, I hope you enjoy them.

So. The book is published. The two shows are history. I’ve had two afternoon naps and I’m raring to go. What next? That would be my upcoming trip to Australia to teach a five day workshop in Ballarat and a three workshop in Hobart, Tasmania. I fly out on Saturday 8th April and can’t wait! The flights, accommodation, visa etc are all organised but I still have my workshop preparation to do. The dyes we will be using are, unsurprisingly, slightly different colours to the ones I use in my studio so I’m going to be recreating some of my colour references over the next few days. I also need to pull together notes for the students - the workshops combine elements from three of the workshops I teach in my studio so I have some copy and pasting to do!

And then there are the none studio things that need doing before I travel. Yes, I’m going to have to do some housework. I should probably also do some gardening (but I’m hoping it rains lots over the next couple of weeks). I need to sort out food / supermarket deliveries so that husband doesn’t starve (or order pizza every single evening). I need to buy some new knickers (OK so nobody would ever know but packing a collection of knackered knickers is just tempting fate). And decide which handbag to take - currently thinking a small cross over my body type one for passport, tickets etc and a rather large one as my carry on. It’s a big decision ……….

If you read my posts regularly you will already know that I will be teaching in Ballarart, Australia in April 2023. That workshop is already full and I can’t wait! I’m also hoping to teach in Tasmania the following week …. it is a long way to go so I want to make the most of my trip.

I’ve been working with a wonderful group called Stitching and Beyond. They are a group of over 100 textile artists from Tasmania and beyond. They meet regularly, run a biennial exhibition for members and organise a busy program of workshops with national and international teachers. If you haven’t heard of the group before have a look at their website here.

They haven’t been able to host any international teachers for a couple of years due to the pandemic so I’m doubly delighted to be giving a workshop. It will be a three day workshop from 21st to 23rd April and will be held in the Markers Workshop, Moonah Arts Centre in Moonah. You can find all the details here.

The workshop is called Colour Play. In it we will explore colour and controlling colour when using Procion MX dyes as well as using some simple screen printing techniques to create a collection of beautifully colour co-ordinated cloth. There are places left so please have a look if you live in the region.

Fingers crossed that the workshop gets enough students to go ahead!

Beautiful piece by Elspeth. One piece of breakdown printed fabric brought alive by the insertion of thin strips of hand dyed fabric.

One thing that I hear over and over again is that some fabrics are just too nice to be cut into. It is perfectly OK to stroke fabrics lovingly for a while but screen printed and hand dyed fabrics look even better when they are used. Which is why I developed my 5 day Print, Stitch, Go! workshop. Two days printing and dyeing fabric then three days being brave and cutting into the fabrics. The five students in last weeks workshop did just that. You can see some of their work above and below. Well done ladies!

A simple but effective way of combining printed and dyed fabric by Sue.

Nearly there - Ruth auditioning woven stripes on her quilt.

Sylvia worked small, mirroring the lines in her screen printed fabric by inserting hand dyed strips of fabric.

Gerry’s cut strips ready to start piecing.

I am getting close to the end of my 2022 teaching season. I will be teaching my five day Print Your Palette workshop on 10th to 14th October before switching the studio into writing, photographing and videoing mode for the winter. I still have places on the workshop at the discounted cost of £320 if you want to join me!

After the euphoria of Festival of Quilts and the fabulous news that my workshop in Australia next April has sold out I am back down to earth with a bump.

It may not surprise you to know that I love a spreadsheet. I keep a tight rein on the studio accounts, analyzing patterns of spend so that I can look forward to see what my potential earnings might be. Whilst Festival of Quilts will pay my bills for the next few months the outlook for next year is not great. And I’m not surprised. The news that fuel bills in the UK will go up by 80% from the beginning of October and are expected to go up another 50% in January is frankly terrifying. Sorry to get political here but without significant intervention many families, including those who have always felt reasonably well off, will suffer and worse.

I make my living from my customers and students discretionary spend and I would be very naive not to acknowledge that the cost of a workshop even without travel and accommodation, is going to be more than many people can afford. Or want to commit too when there is so much uncertainty.

So time to focus on more affordable ‘stuff’. I’ve started work on my next book and have set myself a goal of getting it finished in time for Christmas. I will be making an online workshop to go with the book although I don’t think it will be ready for Christmas unless I give up on sleeping. I also have ideas for some shorter online workshops to be available from next spring. And I will be printing and dyeing fabric off and on over the coming months so that I can offer fabric packs on my website.

I have a couple of five day workshops this autumn which are definitely going ahead but still have spaces available. I’ve decided to offer them at a 20% discount bringing the cost down from £400 to £320. The students already signed up will also get the discount as I’m not comfortable with students paying different amounts on the same workshop. The workshops are Print, Stitch, Go! (26 to 30 Sept) and Print Your Palette (10 to 14 October). Short notice but would love to have more ‘bums on seats’ as the saying goes.

It is four years, and one pandemic, since I made the decision to leave industry in order to start teaching. As a family we always knew that it might be ‘challenging’ financially but it is still the best decision I ever made and I’m grateful for all your support. Leah x

This last week I had the pleasure of welcoming Louise Baldwin into my studio. She was here to teach her four day Accidently on Purpose workshop and it was a blast! The students had been asked to bring an eclectic mix of ‘stuff’ such as old bits of packaging, bits of plastic / metal/ ? from that drawer we all have in our kitchens where we put things then forget what they were used for, threads, buttons, wrapping papers, feathers, broken jewellery, scraps of fabric, unfinished bits from other workshops …. and out of the chaos they created and amazing array of samples.

During the first day they worked on paper collages and weavings. On the second day they added stitch to collaged papers then wash away some of the paper. And on the third day they hammered tacks into wood, and focussed on 3D samples. The final day was spent on deeper exploration of the the processes they liked best.

The benches were piled high …… and the results were amazing. The photo above is a work in progress piece by Sue R - she stitched papers to a piece of wool that she had previously printed then washed some of the papers away. Love it. The photos below feature work from Stephanie, Anna, Sylvia, Tracey and Sue.

Big thanks to Louise for a fab workshop!

Very excited that Stewart Kelly will be teaching in my studio next year. Stewart is an award winning, internationally recognised textile artist. His work revolves around observations of the human form. Stitch is integral to his work and is often combined with drawing. Even if you don’t recognise his name you will almost certainly have seen his work. He has a great website which you can find here.

Stewart will be teaching a four day workshop from 12th to 15th September 2023. The course will encourage participants to develop a personal language through the exploration of combining drawing, colour, paper, fabric, and stitched textiles. It will be an experimental course, focusing on exploration, and the process of discovery through making. Stewart has provided a really detailed workshop outline which you can find here.

I’m expecting this workshop to be very popular. If it does sell out I will set up a waiting list so do please get in touch. Thank you, Leah

I am delighted to announce that Rosie James will be returning to Urban Studio North to teach her fabulous five day Drawing With Your Sewing Machine workshop from 8th to 12th May 2023. We had a wonderful time when she was here in 2021 and you can see some images of the students work below.

You can find out more about the workshop here. And you can find out more about Rosie here. The cost is £475 including a £175 deposit with the balance due 6 weeks before the workshop. Any questions, contact me here.

Thank you, Leah

Well that’s my opinion. If you’ve been reading these posts for a while - thank you! - then you will know that I love breakdown printing. With experience you have a level of control over the results but it is that element of serendipity that makes breakdown printing so special. And versatile. There are so many ways of adding colour and mark to a screen and they all give lots of very different looking prints. Breakdown printing forms the basis for my art and is the most popular workshop that I teach.

I had another wonderful group of students last week and you can see a small selection of their work below. Mid-week eye candy!

If you are interested in breakdown printing you could come and see me demonstrating at this summers Festival of Quilts, both on my stand (K47) and in The Creative Textile Studio. Or you could buy my book (details here). Or sign up for my online Breakdown Your Palette workshop. Or join me in the studio. I still have places available for the last five day workshop in 2022, 12th to 16th September. Priced £400, you can find out more details, and book, here.

And I’m very happy to announce dates for my Breakdown Your Palette workshops in 2023. The dates are 15th to 19th May, 12th to 16th June and 10th to 14th July. Unfortunately though I am having to put my prices up having held them for three years. The new cost will be £450 with £150 deposit and the balance payment of £300 due six weeks before each workshop. You can find more details here.

(Or yes and I also offer the 5 day Breakdown Your Palette workshop to private groups of six, giving a 10% discount on the price. Please contact me here if you want to know more.)

Plug over … now time for that eye candy courtesy of Alwyn, Clare, Enid, Jane, Janet and Kerry!