At long, long last we completed the sale of our house and are now spending a quiet week in an AirBnB in Gourock until we get the keys to our new home on Friday. Needless to say there were a few ‘wrinkles’ in the final couple of days that kept our stress levels high but the most important thing, the transfer of funds, happened without any further nonsense from the buyer! Friday was a very long day filled with frustration and joy, I’m going to miss son Joe and grandson Riley enormously but we’ve already planned their first visit in October.

I slept through most of my first day as a Scottish resident but today I had a walk along the Firth of Clyde and could feel my batteries starting to recharge. There are things to do over the next few days but I plan on more walks and some afternoon naps. The work will start again once we get the keys - there is a bright pink bedroom that is definitely not going to stay pink! I never thought I would be excited by the thought of a trip to B&Q to buy paint …..

And in amongst all the madness my new book, Breakdown Printing, is now available on Amazon globally. You might need to search ‘Leah Higgins’ to find it as there are a lot of screen printing based books. It’s available in both book and Kindle form. (If you live in the UK, Breakdown Printing is slightly cheaper when bought directly from my website.) If you buy via Amazon and Iike my book, please consider writing a review. More reviews means the book becomes more visible and hopefully lead to more sales. And I appreciate every single sale xx.

So excited!! - my new book ‘Breakdown Printing’ is now available to pre-order via my website. You can find more information HERE and order HERE. Shipping will be from 30th July.

I will be officially launching the book at Festival of Quilts in two weeks time - you can find me on stand E16. I will be demonstrating how to breakdown print for the full four days so please do stop by to help me celebrate (and maybe buy a book too?).

This is a complete rewrite of my original breakdown book which was written only 6 months after I started teaching. Since then I have taught over 400 students globally and this new book incorporates everything I have learnt from them. Combining all new examples and a greater depth of instruction Breakdown Printing represents how I breakdown print today. There are new recommendations, some changes to recipes and a much greater emphasis on building layers of print. It is worth buying even if you have the original.

With over 400 images spread across 204 beautifully illustrated pages, the book is suitable for absolute beginners as well as experienced printers and cost £25.

(I am mindful that shipping outside the UK is expensive and, in some cases, fraught with difficulty, so the book will be available on Amazon globally from mid-August.)

And now for some of the lovely fabrics featured in my new book ….

This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while because of the prohibitive cost of international shipping and the customs and duties charges faced by European customers.

The book can now be ordered from anywhere and will be printed using Amazon’s print on demand service. Postage will be free for Prime customers. It is also available for instant download as a Kindle book. Just search Amazon books for ‘Simply Screen Printing’ or ‘Leah Higgins’. There is another author called Leah Higgins but you shouldn’t confuse her books with mine. The list price in the US is $45 although Amazon.com are currently showing it with a 12% discount. The Kindle price is $27. Prices in other countries are set by Amazon using their own conversion rates.

In the UK the paperback costs £33.30 and the Kindle version £19.98. However I still have about 100 copies from my last print run and you can buy these directly from me here. I’ve reduced the price to £30 to keep it competitive.

I appreciate that $45 or £33.30 seems pricy but Amazon take a very big chunk … I’ll only be earning approx $7 / £5 per copy sold by Amazon. Which is more than a bit frustrating but Amazon gives me access to markets I couldn’t reach on my own. Needless to say that I earn more money if you buy direct from me but I know how unaffordable this can be outside of the UK.

Even if you already have a copy (thank you!) please go look it up on Amazon - the more people that search for it the more easy it becomes to find! If you do buy a copy (thank you!) please take a moment to leave a review (ideally a good one!). You can also ‘follow me’ via my authors page. And please feel free to spread the word!

And in other news …. we have a buyer. Phew! Largs here we come.

Festival of Quilts starts on Thursday and I am (nearly) ready! I’ve got a bigger stand this year, B50 in Hall 9 (if you stand with your back to the theatre entrance you should be able to see it). We had a great show last year but it was exhausting with just me and best buddy, Ruth, so this year we are going to be joined by my son Joe. Some of you will know him as he’s done shows with me in the past. I’m hoping this gives me a little more time to chat to old friends, meet new friends and possibly look at some of the wonderful galleries. If you don’t have a ticket yet please use the code LEAHHIGGINS23 to get a £2 discount. If you’re at the show please come and say hello!

As well as promoting next years workshops I’m hoping to get some sign-ups to my last 2023 workshop - Simply Screen Printing (the Full Monty) which runs from 2nd to 6th October. I will be offering the workshop at a 20% discount during the show and, because not everyone can make the show, I’m offering it at a 20% discount online from the 1st to 31st August - just use the discount code SSP5DAYDISCOUNT. The workshop normally costs £450 so you’ll save £90.

I will be taking lots of my hand printed and dyed fabric packs (112 Wonky Print + 35 Absolutely Hand Dyed). I’ll have lots of copies of my latest book, Simply Screen Printing along with my book on translating colour theory into colour practice, Colour Your Palette. I will also be taking all the remaining copies of my Breakdown Your Palette book to the show. I only have about 30 left. I’m not going to reprint the book as I’m planning to write a new version either next year or the year after, so once they’re gone they’re gone! (The digital version of the book will still be available). And I’ll be taking Procion dyes, soda etc, screen and squeegees. In fact, I will be taking as much stuff as I can physically get into mine and Joes cars!

And finally, both myself and Ruth will be demonstrating in The Creative Textile Studio which can be found to the left of the theatre. Ruth will be demonstrating different book binding techniques all day Friday, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. I’ll be demonstrating simple screen printing techniques on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I’ll be demonstrating on my stand as well. Phew, I need a lie down and we’ve not even set off yet!

Some weeks are just good. Mine got off to a cracking start with an email from textileartist.org to let me know that their article ‘Discover: The power of print’ had just been published online. I feel honoured (and rather chuffed) to be included in this article on five textile artists who use print in their work. I’m in great company as the article also highlights the work of Amerjeet Nandhra, Sue Hotchkis, Bobbi Baugh and Ross Belton. We all use print in very different ways to create very different styles of art but we all exploit the serendipity of the hand printing process. If you haven’t heard of textileartist.org I really recommend that you take a look at their website and sign up to their newsletter. The breadth and quality of work they feature is amazing and they are a great resource for all textile fans.

On Monday evening I gave a talk ‘Understanding Colour’ to Seaside Stitchers in Blackpool. As always it is an honour to be invited to talk to a group although I could have waffled on about colour for far longer than my allotted hour! They are a lovely group of embroiderers, quilters and textile lovers and I really enjoyed chatting with them after the talk. You can follow the link above to their Facebook page.

Life is challenging for everybody right now and I am grateful to the 172 people who brought my new book Simply Screen Printing in February and March. As a result I have just donated £172 on your behalf to The Trussell Trust. Making a living as an artist is tough and I only get to pay my bills because of your continued support - thank you!

The frustrating bit …. the cost of posting books internationally. Unfortunately, when I started shipping the new book, I discovered that there are no longer any ‘cheap’ options for posting parcels weighing over 2kg outside of the UK. I kept my postage rates the same until the end of March but have now had to increase them. There is still a significant difference between International Economy and International Standard for parcels weighing up to 2kg but once you get above 2kg the difference is much smaller and pricing can vary from day to day. I shop around every time I’m sending out a parcel that weighs over 2kg and, typically, the standard rate will get you delivery via courier within a few days and the economy rate will get you delivery via a courier in 2 - 3 weeks. If I happen to get a rate that is cheaper than you have paid I will refund the difference.

What also made this week a good one was a few days away from home with hubby staying in Morecambe. I’m going to be on a plane to Melbourne on our 40th wedding anniversary so this was an early anniversary present to ourselves. The weather was a bit rubbish but the AirBnB was amazing and had great views across the estuary (when the rain stopped). I took some ‘moody’ grey photos of the horizon line, sand and rocks - inspiration for a project?? Maybe when I get a free moment!

I’m delighted / frankly relieved that my new book Simply Screen Printing has arrived and I’m busy shipping out orders. Thank you to everyone who has ordered online! And although it is a drop in the ocean, £1 from every book sold before the end of March is going to The Trussell Trust, supporting food banks and fighting food poverty. The book will have its physical ‘launch’ this Thursday at the Scottish Quilting Show as the SECC, Glasgow. I will be busy demonstrating some of the screen printing techniques featured in the book.

Why relieved …… well ……. I had organised the heck out of everything with son Joe due to take delivery of the books on Thursday 23rd. I’d printed out orders, ordered book mailers, etc, etc. All before setting off for my annual retreat in the Lake District last Sunday. Good company, good food, stunning surroundings and time to stitch, read and to treat myself to an afternoon nap. I spent time quilting the books cover star, a piece of fabric printed using a string mask on the fabric (see above). As always the retreat worked its magic and all the stress of recent weeks melted away.

A pallet of books arrived at 8.30am on Thursday. Joe rang me with the good news. I asked him to open a few boxes to check that everything was OK. He said he didn’t know what to look for. I said to do it anyway and check for things like pages falling out, uncut pages etc. Ten minutes later he rang me. He had spotted an obvious error …. they weren’t my books! All that stress that had melted away made an unwelcome return ….. my language was a little ripe! Several phone calls later the printer rang me to say that they had located my books and they were on a truck on the way to Fleet in Hampshire (about 200 miles from sunny Manchester) but would be re-routed and would arrive on Friday morning. Which they did. But, boy, I could have done without the drama!

That said I think they look brill and I am rather proud of myself. Not that I think I’ll start work on the next book just yet!

I am very, very delighted to announce that my new book Simply Screen Printing is available to pre-order from today with shipping expected to begin on 1st March.

Simply Screen Printing is a detailed, step-by-step, instructional guide to screen printing textiles at home, or in a studio, using Procion MX dyes and other media in a way that suits your budget and the space you have available to work in. It covers working with an open screen, with loose resists (paper, thread and plastic), with temporary resists (thickened dyes, masking tape and freezer paper) and with semi-permanent resists (flour paste, washable PVA glue and sticky back plastic). I show you how to pull traditional ‘perfect’ prints before exploring the wonderful effects we get when we embrace ‘imperfect’ printing. Yes, we break some rules!

With over 500 images spread over 236 colour pages, it is suitable for absolute beginners and, hopefully, useful to those of you who are already working with screens and dyes. Along the way I talk about colour (obviously!) and share lots of tips to help you achieve the printed fabrics you want to achieve.

The cost is £35 plus postage. You can find out more, see the contents pages, see images from the book and some sample pages by clicking here.

(Unfortunately the book is more expensive than I would like but printing costs have increased by 50% since I published Colour Your Palette in November 2021 and this is a slightly bigger book. If you are going to the Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow or the Sewing for Pleasure show in Birmingham, both in March, you can save on the postage by buying from me at the shows).

As I did when I launched Colour Your Palette in 2021 I will donate £1 to the The Trussell Trust for every book sold before the end of March.

Simply Screen Printing is also available as a kit - Simply Screen Printing Kit in a Bag contains the book, a screen, a squeegee, soda, urea, Manutex RS and 4 Procion MX dyes in a heavy weight cotton tote bag. The kit costs £100 which is a £19 saving compared with buying the contents separately. Again I will donate £1 from the sale of each kit to The Trussell Trust.

I really hope you like the book, it has been a labour of love but now I’m going for a little lie down xx

Printed using an open screen first in different values of turquoise and brown. With additional line and pattern added using a breakdown printing screen.

It’s nearly here! My new book is called Simply Screen Printing and it is a detailed step-by-step guide to screen printing textiles at home or in a studio. Suitable for absolute beginners but, hopefully, useful to those of you who are already printing. More details to follow but for now here is some eye candy!

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Flour paste mask stamped onto fabric, printed using an open screen, adding acid lemon and scarlet thickened dyes directly to the screen to give bands of yummy colour. A little sunshine on a winters day!

I hope not. I’d like to wish you all a Happy and Creative 2023!

The days and weeks are flying by in a bit of a blur as I work my do-da’s off on THE BOOK. I am on track (just) for publication at the end of February and will post lots more photos and details over the next few weeks. In amongst the book writing we’ve had a massive leak in the bogshed (mostly fixed, but I’m still having palpitations!) and Christmas (two Christmas’s actually which was lovely). But mostly I’ve been working and to hit my deadline some things have had to give.

I’ve lowered my already low levels of housekeeping. Dear husband commented that the kitchen flour could do with a clean at one point. I perfected the HARD STARE nearly forty years ago and we have been happily married ever since.

Food needs to be filling and healthy. And cooked in 10 minutes. Or toast, if the day hasn’t gone as expected.

And the studio …. just a teeny tiny bit messier than I’m comfortable with. But I thought I’d share some images. Firstly, there is my sampling and photography area. Yes, this bit is tidy.

But the rest of the studio? Stuff on every surface. Piles of fabric that have been printed but need washing. Piles of fabric that have been washed. Tubs of dyes and a bench full of ‘stuff’ that I need to print samples. A pile of dressmaking patterns and fabric that I dyed about forever ago. Piles of old towels and drop cloths in case the bogshed has another ‘moment’. Curtains that need shortening and thermal liners adding before winter. Didn’t specify which winter. And a sewing machine that could do with a dust.

Ho hum. Nearly there. Honest.