Time has done that weird thing again. The four week gap I had between workshops looked so long and held so much potential for making art …. and it feels like it has gone by in a flash! Don’t you just hate it when that happens!

My studio is nearly ready for tomorrows and next weeks Breakdown Your Palette workshops. I just need to pack away my sewing machine which I can do in the morning. I am determined that before I go to bed tonight I will have finished the straight line quilting on my latest quilt. I had hoped to get this done and the two halves of the piece sewn together but that might be too much to ask. I have a gazillion ends to sew in which I can do in the evenings but I will have to wait two weeks before I can finish the quilt. It is exquisitely frustrating to be close; to know what you want to add to a piece to finish it and to know how you want to start the next piece in a series …… But such is life!

That said I will be spending the next two weeks breakdown printing with the added bonus of having students in my studio! I can live with that.

Leah x

Quilting my new piece is progressing slowly because this week has been a bit of a box ticking week. I’ve been working through the list of ‘stuff’ that I decided to get done before I teach again on the 17th. The most time consuming, and the most fun, has been working through my pile of demo / sample fabrics and making up some new fabric packs for the website. Have a look at the fabric section of my shop. I’ve added a few more Wonky Print Inspiration Packs, this time in Cotton Poplin rather than Plain Cotton, and a few Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Packs. I’ve also added two new types of pack. My new Cool Coordinating Colour Families contain fifteen different coloured pieces of hand dyed fabric. I love working with colour families - using dark, medium and light values of two starting colours you get fifteen pieces of fabric that will always ‘work’ together. And I have introduced a new pack called One of a Kind. These packs contain larger pieces of breakdown printed fabric that are just too good to chop up and use in my Wonky Print packs. Some of the pieces are samples from my Breakdown Your Palette book and some are demo pieces from my Breakdown Your Palette workshops. These new packs are priced individually based on the amount of fabric in each pack. I hope you like them!

I have also added a new gallery page to my website featuring my Print series. OK, so this should have been added 18 months ago but I got distracted! I’m not sure if these pieces will ever get an outing again but at least now they are ‘out there’ in the virtual world!

And I got around to adding three new Thermofax designs to my shop. I designed these for my online version of Breakdown Your Palette and rather love them. I’ve also asked my silk screen manufacturer to make me some square screens (which should have been done a year ago!). They will be 16 inches x 16 inches and I’ll add them to the shop as soon as they are in stock.

Other boxes ticked …. I fixed the toilet seat in the Bog Shed (it’s a glamorous life!). Thanks to the lovely Sue I’ve managed to find an electrician to check the lighting circuit in the studio which is playing up. He can’t visit until early June but at least he answered his phone. I guess electricians are in demand. I brought some plants for the garden which are sheltering in the studio porch because the weather is awful. And I’ve ordered a coat stand for the studio porch. Its turquoise. I’m very excited!

Now back to my quilting …

Another week has passed and I’m feeling really positive about the piece I’m working on! Having got a lovely stack of breakdown printed fabric I spent a couple of hours cutting about half of the fabric into long strips. I cut them in three widths - 2.5inch, 1.5inch and 1inch - without thinking about where the cut landed on the fabric. I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t cherry pick which fabrics to use. The beauty of breakdown printed fabric is the density of mark you get and the fabulous combinations of colour and mark you get when selecting fabric and using fabric in a random way.

I then divided my pile of cut strips into two groups - a darker value group and a lighter value group - albeit a few of the strips sort of sat in the middle and could have gone in either group. And then the real fun began! I took the pile of darker value fabrics, opened up the strips and jumbled them all together. I closed my eyes and started plucking strips from the pile at random. I pinned the strips to my design wall in the order I picked them. I wanted the finished quilt to be about three metres long so needed about 4.5 metres of strips - good job I have a big design wall.

Next I inserted paler sections of fabric of varying length into each strip. Although I selected the fabric pieces at random I based the length of each insertion on a short musical score of twelve notes. The earlier quilts in this new Cadence series were constructed using ‘pleasing’ shapes with no intent other than to enjoy the process of making. But having regained my creative confidence I wanted to link this new piece to ‘cadence’, in this case a musical cadence. Because the width of the strips varied the repeat pattern was not immediately obvious but I know its there.

It is always very tempting at this stage to do some ‘tweaking’; swapping out bits of fabric that maybe don’t have a lot of interesting marks on them or switching fabrics around to avoid two strips cut from the same fabric sitting side by side. But it is often these ‘imperfections’ that pop and create interest in the finished quilt so I resisted temptation and moved onto to constructing the quilt.

Because my sewing machine only has a 7 inch throat I construct large quilts in two halves and put them together as late in the stitching and quilting process as possible. I prepared two pieces of backing fabric and wadding, using basting spray to attach the wadding to the backing fabric. And then I used a stitch and flip method to add my strips, in order, to the wadding / backing. I love this method of construction because it eliminates the basting process .. I am making my ‘quilt sandwich’ as I join the strips. But also because it allows me to keep the long edges of all my strips parallel satisfying the control freak in me! In the photos below you can see that I use a sharpie to draw parallel lines, 2 inches apart, on my wadding. In my Ruins quilts all my strips were 2.5inches wide so each raw long edge lined up with a drawn line. In these Cadence quilts the strip width varies but I can still use the drawn lines as a guide. And so I have spent three days this week stitching and flipping! And as I’ve been sewing I’ve been thinking about the quilting and thinking about the orientation of the finished piece …. wondering what it would look like turned through 90 degrees?

I find myself in the envious position of having four weeks between teaching commitments with very few demands on my time. My online Breakdown Your Palette workshop is ticking along smoothly, there are no hints of impending crisis / distraction on the family front and my ‘bits and bobs’ to do list is pretty short.

So I am free to make ART! I have a ‘Cadence’ quilt in my head that is screaming to get out so the timing is good. This new series is inspired by the joy of process, the joy of making. And it certainly is joyous to be able to immerse myself in it. The fact that spring is here and we’re enjoying a spell of warm, sunny weather just adds to the sense of well-being that comes with making.

Now that I’ve cleared out the drain on my screen washing trough (it’s a glamourous life!) I have been able to spend this last week breakdown printing. I started by making and drying 25 embedded object type breakdown screens. I used the same set of objects over and over again so that there are common shapes and marks on my printed fabrics. I worked with seven of the darker value colours from a colour family and kept each colour separate so have printed a set of mostly monochromatic fabrics. And what a glorious collection of fabrics they are! Ranging from turquoise to a muted grey-purple these are definitely fabrics that make my heart sing. And I have plenty - I printed about 18 square metres this week and have lots of lighter value fabric in the same colourway left over from an earlier printing session.

Next up - cutting the fabrics up then ‘composing’ the quilt! One week down, three to go.

A very big thank you to Judy, Lis, Mandy and Sharon for being the first students back in the studio after a 6 month plus gap and for being the first students on my Colour Your Palette workshop. We had a great five days. It was so good to share my studio with like minded company who’s surname isn’t Higgins! (Not that I don’t love my Higgins boys ….). There was lots of chat, lots of laughter and most importantly, lots and lots of colour!

The workshop is a deep dive into understanding and using colour when working with dyes although large elements of it are equally applicable to other media. I’m a great believer that we learnt best by ‘doing’ and that’s what we did. We mixed and scrapped hundreds of swatches as we explored the impact of the hue bias in each of our co-primary colours and as we looked at the complex colours you get when you start mixing complimentary colours. We explored different colour schemes and considered how our colour choices are determined by our artist styles and our preferred techniques for applying colour to cloth. And we worked through colour studies based on different sources of colour inspiration. Lis and Sharon even found time to print some fabric as well. There are a couple of tweaks needed to my timings and demonstrations but I’m pretty happy with how the five days went and am looking forward to teaching Colour Your Palette again in July and October.

In fact I’m looking forward to all of my workshops scheduled for this spring and summer. My next workshop is Breakdown Your Palette on 17th to 21st May, assuming we ease restrictions on hotels and travel on the 17th as expected. I have one place left on this workshop and am going to start an hour later than normal at 10.30am so that students can travel to me in the morning. I also have a few places left on Breakdown workshops later in the summer. Breakdown is my favourite thing and my favourite workshop so if you fancy joining me please click here.

I also want to thank those of you who tuned into my first live workshop yesterday as part of The Creative Craft Shows Craftfulness Festival. I was a nervous wreck leading up to it - mostly worrying that the technology wouldn’t work but, in the end, everything went well. It did however take half a bottle of red wine and a tub of Ben and Jerries to peal me off the ceiling afterwards!!!

Needless to say that I’m planning a quiet few days ………

The design wall is a sea of colour, the 40 squeezy bottle of thickened dye are ready, the COVID safe screens are back in place and the ‘brew’ area is stocked with a variety of teas, coffees, individually wrapped choccy biscuits and mini-Haribou packs ……… Yes, after a gap of 6 months my studio will open tomorrow! And I am so relieved, happy, nervous and slightly tearful.

I can only teach students who live locally as restrictions will remain in place on travel and hotels until mid-May at the earliest but it is a step in the right direction. Tomorrow I will be teaching Colour Your Palette to four lovely ladies who have all been in the studio before. The workshop is based on my latest book and this will be the first time I have taught it …. and so I am very grateful to my four guinea-pigs. Hopefully the pleasure of learning in person will make up for any blunders on my part!

It feels like we are in a better place than we were when I opened last summer. Most of us ‘older’ people have had at least on jab, social distancing and hand hygiene have become normal behaviour and I can use lateral flow tests every few days to give that extra bit of reassurance. I know that some other studios are opening up from tomorrow and I wish them all well - it has been a long winter!

Bye for now, Leah x

I’m very pleased to announce that I will be giving my very first live workshop at 4pm on Saturday 17th April as part of The Creative Craft Shows ‘Craftfulness Festival’. Like many event organisers ICHF have moved their events online and had a great response. You can find out more about the event here. All the content (50 hours of workshops) is being recorded live on the 17th April but is available to watch until 29th May. Which means if I make a real hash of it I will know that it is ‘out there’ for 6 weeks …. no pressure then!

My workshop is called Printing and Stamping with Textile Inks. Over 90 minutes I will be showing everyone how to use a thermofax screen, simple acrylic shapes and textile inks to decorate both sides of a cotton tote bag. The inks and the techniques are easy and safe to use so are suitable for children / grandchildren. Tutors don’t get paid to give their workshops but most of us have kits available via the ICHF shop - you can find out more about my kits here here. And you can find a show guide here.

The last event I attended was the Scottish Quilt Show at the beginning of March last year. It was a wonderful event and an opportunity to spend time with my daughter who lives in Glasgow. I’ve missed my daughter and being out and about so much but things are looking more hopeful now. At the moment I am planning to be at Festival of Quilts in August and have my fingers and toes crossed that it will go ahead (and that we get to see Jess soon!).

And finally I want to say thank you to the students who signed up to my online Breakdown Your Palette workshop during March. With your help and a small donation I have been able to donate £275 to YoungMinds, a charity that works with children and young people with mental health issues. Thank you.

Leah x

Breakdown printed fabric from my online Breakdown Your Palette workshop

In my last post I mentioned a couple of UK organisations that I’m a member of, The Quilters Guild and the Contemporary Quilt group. I am also a member of SAQA - the Studio Art Quilt Association. This US based but international organisation does an excellent job of promoting art quilts and provides lots of opportunities for textile artists to exhibit their work in galleries and museums around the world. I joined because I want to exhibit my work in the US and was lucky enough to have work selected for one of their exhibitions, ’Layered Voices’ which toured in 2017 -2019. I’ve also had pieces in two of their European touring exhibitions.

SAQA offer a range of membership levels including one called Juried Artist for which you have to submit a portfolio of work as well as an artists statement and resume. It was on my list to apply for several years but ‘stuff’ kept getting in the way. When I had free time last year during lockdown I moved applying to the top of my to-do list. And then found that I no longer had confidence in my work and couldn’t handle the thought of rejection. I think this was all part of the disconnect I felt from my art and my art practice.

But, as you’ll know from previous posts I set aside time towards the end of last year to reconnect with my art. And with my confidence growing I decided to apply.

And this week I heard that I had been accepted! Happy dance! Happy tears! And a massive honour. I now have an artists profile on their website which you can find here. And I have applied to have a piece included in one of their Art Quilt Quarterly magazines.

I also gave my second virtual talk on Understanding Colour to the Contemporary Quilt group this week … just as nerve-wracking as the first time but I’m determined to embrace more virtual opportunities! I have agreed to give my first live workshop in mid-April. I’m still at the ‘I must be mad / panic’ stage in my preparations but will share details soon!

And finally, take up of my first online workshop Breakdown Your Palette has been brilliant. This is an on-demand workshop that you can join at any time. If you have been thinking about joining, a little reminder - for every person that enrols during March I am donating £10 to the charity YoungMinds. They do brilliant work helping children and young people with mental health issues.

Thanks, Leah x

It may still be doom and gloom in the rest of the world but my studio has been buzzing with good vibes all week!

I have had an amazing response to my first online workshop Breakdown Your Palette. A big thank you to my new students! I had a target in my head that I thought would be brilliant to reach by the end of March and I reached it yesterday …. lots of happy tears in the studio. Together we have raised over £200 for the YoungMinds charity. And it has also allowed me to start refunding deposits to those students who can’t make rescheduled studio workshop dates or who don’t want to travel until they’ve had both jabs - which is an enormous weight off my shoulders.

The only technical hitch so far has been a couple of people who couldn’t see the Sample Video - I use Vimeo to host the videos and they don’t support older versions of some web browsers. The solution is to update your browser.

This week I also received my copy of The Quilter magazine featuring an article I wrote about colour. And I gave my first ever Zoom talk to members of the Contemporary Quilt group. It was about colour. Obviously. The CQ group are a specialist group within The Quilters Guild (UK) and The Quilter is the quarterly magazine published by the Guild. I have been a member for approaching twenty years and am a big fan of all the work they do. I also appreciate the opportunities they have given me, and other tutors, to promote our work.

This week also saw me and hubby getting our first Corona virus jabs. The process was flawless with our wonderful NHS staff being support by volunteers. Another weight off my shoulders.

And finally this was the week when I should have been joining 12 very good friends for our annual five day retreat in the Lake District. The retreat has always been a form of respite … 5 days away from work and away from family. I love my family but I love them more for getting the occasional break! We couldn’t be together in person this year so instead organised a 5 day virtual retreat. Although I wasn’t able to avoid ‘work’ it was lovely sitting at my computer listening to the quiet chatter of old friends via Zoom in the background. We had our usual book review (mine were both about colour), our usual quiz (animal based, I came last) and our usual five day challenge. Janet devised five prompts that took us from a piece of white fabric to a finished vessel. We shared our progress each day, it was joyful. I started by dyeing my fabric turquoise and ended up with a vessel that is the perfect size for holding a bottle of wine! Perfect!