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)

Well maybe not quite as busy as 2019! A full teaching schedule, writing and publishing my first book, an absolutely amazing solo gallery at Festival of Quilts and unexpected drama on the home front meant 2019 was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. No wonder that I have spent a lot of the Christmas break sleeping!

However I did get into the studio most days even if only for an hour or two and spent my time working on the first two full pieces in my new series. I have given the series a working title of ‘Democracy’. I could have called the series Brexit but I want to make pieces that express my broader concerns about politics, the proliferation of lies and fake news and the way our political leadership is changing. And although the individual quilts may reference events in the UK I hope they will resonated with people in other countries. Despite the rather gloomy subject matter I am thoroughly enjoying working on a series. And, as per usual, I am spending lots of time machine stitching straight lines!

But the holidays are over and it is back to work for me. 2020 got off to a flying start - yesterday I gave a talk to the Manchester Branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild. This was the first of 8 talks I’ll be giving this year and the first of 4 that I’ll be giving to branches of the Embroiderer’s Guild. I arrived with a car boot full of quilts including some of the pieces I’ve exhibited in recent years. And, as you will already know, most of my pieces are big. Really big. Which means that some are quite heavy. So a big thank you to the ladies and gentleman who volunteered to hold them up! The difference in scale between my work and some of the pieces being worked on in the room could not be greater.

I also took along some older quilts and some sketchbooks from the City & Guild’s Diploma I did with the lovely and talented Linda Kemshall many years ago. Whilst doing my diploma I figured out that if you work onto separate sheets rather than directly into a sketchbook you can choose what you share. And you can back engineer a lovely looking sketchbook after you have finished making a quilt. OK, so I learnt that you could cheat. But much, much more importantly I learnt that I didn’t need to work into sketchbooks to produce art. It might not have been the intention of the course but this learning was an big step forward for me.

As well as talks I have a full teaching schedule this year. Most of my classes for the first half of the year are sold out but I still have odd places on my Simply Screen Printing workshop and my Print Your Palette workshop. I will also be welcoming my first three guest tutors into the studio. The workshops with Alice Fox and Christine Chester are sold out but there is still one place left on Ruth Browns Books for Textile Artists.

I will be demonstrating at The Creative Craft shows in Glasgow and Birmingham in March and will have a stand at this summers Festival of Quilts. And I am delighted to have a gallery at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show in August. Phew! There was me thinking it wouldn’t be as busy as 2019!

For those of you who will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow, I wish you a love filled and drama free day. Lots of laughter, good company and happiness. No under cooked turkeys or over cooked sprouts. No ‘tired and emotional’ chefs who started on the cooking sherry a little to early. No children being sick because they ate too much chocolate. No awkward moments when you open a present to find it is the one you gave last year ….. Just lots of happy memories.

With love and best wishes to you all,

Leah x

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.

Understanding and embracing your own creative process is incredibly powerful. It takes away that ‘where do I start moment’. It helps you ride out those days when everything you print looks like a disappointing fuzzy, mucky mess. It increases the chances of printing a fuzzy, mucky mess when that is just what you want. And it allows you to wrap yourself in the gentle warmth that comes from creating. Just what I need right now!

There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to creative process. It’s a deeply personal thing. How many articles have you seen that proclaim that working in a messy, chaotic studio increases creativity? I saw one this week and sighed (again). If you can work in a mess then why would you stop to tidy up? But if a mess distracts you then cleaning up before you move on doesn’t make you less creative. It means you understand your creative process. Some people like to work through their ideas thoroughly in a sketchbook, others just jump straight in and accept that they may make some ugly ducklings before they successfully transfer what is in their head to their cloth. Some artists like to complete one piece of work before starting another; others find it more productive to have multiple pieces on the go. We’re all different.

Those that have been reading this blog for a while will know that once the ideas rattling around in my head have reached ‘critical mass’ and are demanding to find expression I start by experimenting with colour. Once I think I have blended the right colours I print a few metres of fabric using marks that sort of fit with my ideas. I don’t really stress about what I actually print - I am using the process to decide if my colours are good. Colours which look OK as small squares scraped onto white fabric don’t always look OK when used in large areas alongside other colours. More often than not I will then adjust my colours and print some more fabric. In the series that I am currently developing I did this a couple of times before having a big rethink and starting again with a different colour family. My subject / inspiration is the current state of UK politics. Irrespective of where you stand politically this is a pretty dark and depressing subject so my initial colours featured drab blacks and brown colours. Hmmm. Turns out that I just can’t work with dark, depressing and drab colours. And why would I keep working on a series if I’m working with colours that make me miserable? Tortured artist? No thanks.

Fortunately I had found the right colours before our recent domestic hiccup. I don’t think I could have got back into the studio if I was making myself work with colours I didn’t like. Instead, with my colour family selected, I have been able to spend a few hours here and a few hours there printing cloth. I warmed up by just adding colour to cloth using an open screen and some thermofax screens I had already made using newspaper headings from the day after the illegal prorogation of parliament. As I printed I got more ideas. Using block text to create positive and negative shapes. Combing breakdown printing and text. Using my new Brother Scan N Cut to scale up and make stencils of scribbled patterns. Varying scale. Utilising different parts of my colour family to create ‘light’ and ‘dark’ cloth. Using different fabrics such as linen to introduce slightly different textures. Some pieces went through just one process but most had two or three layers of mark. I love every part of this process, even washing out my fabrics and washing up my screens. Happy hands, happy heart. Fabulous!

As I was printed I started to think about construction. I’m a piecer. Although I used wholecloth for my series inspired by coal mining, piecing is my comfort zone. And comfort zone feels good right now. I cut some different size apertures from paper to help me decide what size pieces to work with. I like the idea of letters, words and sentences being partially seen so opted for narrow, long pieces. I cut up about a quarter of each piece of fabric then laid the pieces out on my design table in a random way. No cherry picking allowed!

At this stage I often decide that I need to print more fabric - maybe to adjust the colour balance but not this time. Although I did think it needed the addition of a complimentary colour to help draw the eye in. I found a reel of red thread and experimented stitching letters and words onto some pieces. The text wasn’t visible enough but I loved the colour - a good, solid, socialist red! So I mixed some textile inks to match the thread colour and printed onto some of my ‘white’ fabric pieces. I still want to play around with this but decided to go ahead and stitch my fabrics together.

And I am really happy. I trusted my creative process and it has got me from white fabric to a layered sample that (just!) needs quilting. My lovely husband is doing well; I’m still tired but, once again, my studio and my art practice is helping my heal.

Some of you that read my blog will already know that four weeks ago my husband, Steve, suffered a major heart attack and was admitted to hospital. After a two week stay, a second heart attack and two lots of stents he is now home and doing well. As horrific as it has been, it could have been far worse. Thanks to the paramedics, the doctors, the nurses and all the wonderful NHS staff we have a happy outcome. A reason to celebrate and time together that we won’t be taking for granted. There will be more tests, hospital visits and cardio rehab to keep us both busy for the next couple of months and beyond that we want to spend more time together, more time doing the things that we always seem to put off.

Inevitably this has affected my work and I’m grateful to all those you have been so understanding and supportive when I’ve had to cancel workshops, talks etc. I hate letting people down and their kind words have meant a lot. I will start teaching again in a few weeks time but have put some of my plans on hold. I had been expecting to start work in earnest on an online shop selling dyes, screens etc this month but that will have to wait as will work on my second book. For the next few months I am focusing on teaching and on making art.

Making art. And just ‘being’ in my studio brings me so much solace and a quiet joy. Because the studio is at the end of our garden I have been able to spend time in it whilst Steve snoozes or when I know he’s got company / watching the football / sat reading. A few minutes at a time to begin with but now that I have stopped fussing over him so much I am grabbing the odd hour. I’m working on my new series and having been printing lots of cloth. I had a head full of ideas before the heart attack that I thought were lost but are coming back to me as I loose myself in process. Life is returning to normal and it is glorious!

And, because I really am one very lucky person right now, I heard this morning that my quilt Franklin Gothic Heavy was awarded 1st prize at Quilt=Art=Quilt!

I meant to write this post a few weeks ago but, as per usual, I’ve been busy and didn’t get round to it…. but I’ll put that right now!

During my exhibition at Festival of Quilts I was asked if I was willing to do a ‘meet the artist’ interview for a YouTube channel. I immediately said yes as I was very flattered and publicity is always welcome. It was arranged for the next morning.

Ten minutes later I started getting stressed about being filmed …. what would I say? what would I wear? what if I had a particularly bad hair day? …… Whilst I thoroughly enjoy talking about my art I hate having my photo taken and the thought of being filmed was, frankly, terrifying.

Thankfully Catherine Hill from Arnold’s Attic was brilliant. She said the right things to calm me down and had clearly spent time preparing her questions. She had taken the time the previous day to really look at the exhibition, to read my artists statement and to read the labels for the each piece.

She did a great job of editing the interview and I am absolutely thrilled to have this record of my first solo exhibition. If you have a look please take the time to like and comment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KmBLjnBlAs