You may have wondered why I haven’t been talking about my upcoming trip to the States to teach two workshops at the wonderful AhHaa School for the Arts in Telluride, Colorado. Well I’m very sad and very disappointed to say that we have had to cancel them.

While we started the multi-step visa process over six months ago, wait times have drastically increased under the current administration (find an article here with a company that the School have consulted with in the past few weeks). The School applied for premium processing in mid-August to get an answer by the end of the month, but were met with roadblocks and requests for more evidence of cultural uniqueness despite myself and Ah Haa submitting over 20 pages of supporting documentation including testimonials, articles, my CV and copies of my Bachelors and PhD certificates. (This is particularly galling as the first step in the visa process is to get a recommendation from an independent organisation that the workshops and myself as a teacher and artist meet the criteria for being culturally unique.) I don’t have any further evidence to give and, even if we got past this hurdle, the processing time for the final part of the process would take longer than the time we have left before the first class was due to start on the 25th September.

My heart goes out to the the team at the School who have invested so much time (and money) on what should have been a very straightforward process. And to the students we have let down. My art will continue to be exhibited at the School until the end of October but I’m sad that I won’t be able to see it in person. It sucks.

And in other news, because bad news always arrives with a friend, we lost our buyer (again) this week. They were put off by a request from their initial survey to get more specialist surveys. Ho hum. So we have decided to get the surveys done ourself and to get any recommended remedial work done before we put the house back on the market. We’re trying to stay positive …. those ice creams at Nardini’s will taste even sweeter when we do eventually get to Largs! And I’ll use the time to continue making art ……

I’m very excited that my solo exhibition ‘Beneath Our Feet’ at the AhHaa School for the Arts in Telluride, Colorado is now open and will run to the end of October. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm. Telluride (and the School) are well worth a visit with lots of amazing places to visit and events scheduled through the year.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the exhibition in person and will be giving gallery talks on Thursday 25th September and Thursday 2nd October at 5.30pm. The gallery is only small but I love how Ruins 12 fills the end wall. I know it’s a long shot but it would be lovely to meet some of you there!

Where do I start …..

• Thank you to my wonderful friends and students who came to my open studio events. Especially Jane for her lovely gift and Geraldine who bought a very impressive and delicious cake. Thank you for buying art, fabric, jigsaws and books and for raising £63 for The Trussell Trust. And a very big thank you to Sharon who has found a home for those old quilts that would otherwise be heading for the recycling centre.

• Thank you to all the artists who volunteered to demonstrate and help in the Creative Textile Studio at Festival of Quilts. Hazel, Terry and myself really do appreciate the amount of time and cost that you spend to support the Studio. Couldn’t do it without you!

• Thank you to everyone who visited the Creative Textile Studio. I absolutely love introducing so many people to breakdown printing! Great questions, great comments. And thank you for buying my books and fabric from the sales table …. none of us get paid to set up the Studio or to work in the Studio so sales are always welcome.

• Thank you to the quilt judges who awarded Shoreline l (above) 2nd prize in the Art category. Shoreline ll was shortlisted for the awards. Such a positive response to new work is very empowering. I wasn’t sure if the muted colour palette would work but now my head is full of ideas on how to take the series forward.

Phew, it’s been a full on couple of weeks! In other news … we lost our buyer but within a week we had had 4 viewings and 3 offers so the big house move is back on! We’re not going to do any packing for a while which means that I have lots of free time to work in the studio. Time to get some ideas out of my head and onto fabric. Happy days!

A busy few days in the studio as I prepare for two upcoming events! Festival of Quilts and my upcoming workshops in Telluride, Colorado.

Yes it is Festival of Quilts time again. Where did the year go?? I’m not having a stand this year because of the house move but I will be demonstrating in The Creative Textile Studio on the mornings of Thursday 31st July and Friday 1st August and on the afternoon of Sunday 3rd August. This is the fourth year that myself and Hazel and Terry from InStitches have been organising the Studio and we are a well oiled machine! We each have our designated roles and a well tested packing list. I supply all the dyes, print paste, screens, squeegees and other stuff. So I’ve been busy mixing litres of print paste followed by thickened dyes. I’ve made six breakdown printing screens to use when demonstrating. I’ve also been getting some fabric packs ready to sell on the sales table. There won’t be many so if you fancy a Wonky Inspiration Print Pack you might want to visit the Studio early! We have a wonderful collection of artists demonstraing this year. You can find the timetable and more about each artist by clicking here.

(The Studio is a free feature within the show so the ‘book tickets’ button on the page is for buying tickets for the whole show).

Although it isn’t until the end of September I have been making colour blankets to take with me. I bought small quantities of each of the eight US sourced dyes we will be using during the two five day workshops to make them. I selected the colours online, trying to match as closely as possible to the eight colours (6 co-primaries + black + dark brown) that I use in my studio. Hmmm … so the colours on a screen don’t always match the exact colours that you get. I know this. I even have this disclaimer in my online shop. But it is always a pleasant / not so pleasant surprise …..I haven’t rinsed and washed the blankets yet but Houdini Blue is looking distinctly purple. I’m hoping that the colour shifts towards blue after washing in which case I can see why the colour is called Houdini! If not, well it has made some really lovely muted colours……

And finally, on the house move - we lost our buyer this week so it is back to square one. Knowing that this happens all the time and that it is just a delay doesn’t make it any easier. Thankfully we haven’t committed to anything in Scotland yet so we just need to take a deep breathe and get on with life. Which means that, when I get back from Festival, I’ll have time to get back to making art instead of packing. Which is a good thing.

Our house sale is going smoothly and it’s now time to pack up my studio. Which is heartbreaking but I know that I’ll end up with another beautiful studio eventually. That studio however is likely to be smaller than this one and I can’t take everything with me. So, a few months ago, I listed the art that isn’t moving with us on my website at really reduced prices. I’ll be taking the unsold pieces off the website in about 10 days and finding alternate homes for them. So if you haven’t had a look yet please do. You can find them here.

I’d also like to say thank you to those of you who have bought my Simply Screen Printing book from Amazon. If you live outside the UK this can save you a small fortune in shipping costs!

And thank you to TextileArtist.org. My workshop with them is going really well and I may have converted more people to the sheer joy that is breakdown printing.

In other news I will be shipping work for my upcoming exhibition in Telluride, Colorado next week. I thought you might like a peek at one of the new pieces. Here is Ruins 14: Lowrys Chimneys ……

I may have already mentioned that September is going to be an exciting month for me. I have a solo exhibition at the AhHaa School for the Arts in Telluride and will be teaching two five day workshops there.

Telluride is a beautiful town located in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado at 8,750' elevation. It was formed during the Colorado gold rush in the 1870s. Notoriously difficult to access one local legend says the the town was named after the phrase ‘To Hell You Ride’. More likely it was named after the telluride minerals found there. Silver, gold, copper and mercury were mined in the mountains and there were some amazing feats of engineering over the years to aid processing and transport. All the kind of stuff that gets me excited!

Today Telluride is renowned for its skiing in the winter and arts and music festivals in the summer. Ah Haa was founded in 1991, and the state of the art facility was completed in 2021. The School has amazing teaching spaces as well as a gallery. You can find out more here.

My exhibition will be there for the month of September. It is called Beneath Our Feet and will feature some of my coal mining and cotton mill pieces including the 4 metre long Ruins 12: Beneath Our Feet that I made for my exhibition at Salford Museum and Gallery in late 2023. It’s great that this one will get another outing! I’m also creating new pieces for the exhibition including four abstract pieces inspired by Tellurides mining past.

I will be teaching two workshops. The first, Simply Screen Printing, runs from 25th to 29th September and is suitable for beginners. There are still places available and you can find more details here. The second, Luscious Layers, runs from 2nd to 6th October and is aimed at students with prior knowledge of using dyes to add colour to cloth. You can find out more here.

It is very exciting and a little scary. And it will almost certainly coincide with the sale of the house and our move to Scotland but who wants a quiet life!

Artefact 2

First of all, a very big thank you to everybody who came to see me at The Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I feel like I already have a bunch of textile buddies in North Ayrshire and we haven’t even moved yet! And thank you to the judges and sponsors of the open competition. Artefact 2 won gold prize in the new professional makers category and I got my first ever rosette! Absolutely thrilled and the rosette is now pinned to my design wall. The prize money was also very welcome …. I treated myself to some threads and a slap up breakfast at Nardinis in Largs before heading back home.

Back home means yet more sorting as we get the house ready to sell. Two tip runs yesterday and today I am jet spraying the front path before painting the door step, gate etc. Yes it’s an exciting life! Luckily I am getting about 3 hours each day in the studio focused on making art. I’m currently sewing sleeves on Shoreline II and have the potential fabrics for Shoreline III pinned on my design wall. Over the next week or two I will be making screens and printing fabric for the pieces I need to make for my exhibition in Telluride, USA in September. Exciting times!

For the first time since my very first show in 2018 I am actually ready for The Scottish Quilting Show with a few days to spare! Normally I’m busy folding fabric late into the evening before we head off. I could take a few days off. Hmm … that doesn’t sound much like me so instead I’ll be busy sorting more stuff out in the house and doing a bit of printing. I’m loving the better balance I have in my life without the constant string of deadlines associated with running a teaching studio. There is a lot of work still to do before we can put the house (and studio) on the market but there is also plenty of time to work in the studio, to meet up with friends, to roll over in bed for an extra 30 minutes, to settle down with a good book. I’m blessed!

And I am looking forward to seeing some of you at the show. It takes place at the SECC in Glasgow from Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th March. I’m on Stand M19 and will have lots of fabric to sell as well as some quilts that I’d love to find new homes for. I’ll also have my books, dyes, screens etc. I’ll be joined by best friend Ruth Brown who some of you also know.

Even if you can’t make the show you can still take advantage of this years show special - 50% off the cost of my Simply Screen Printing online workshop reducing it from £300 to £150. Please use the code SSP50. The code is valid for the whole month of March!

And I hope you will join me! This is the only show that I’ll be doing this year and it is my favourite. It takes place in Hall 4 of the SECC in Glasgow between Thursday 6th and Saturday 8th March. Opening hours are 10am to 4.30pm. The discount code above will get you (and your friends) cheaper tickets. You can find me on stand M19 which is on the far left hand wall as you enter the show. I’m between the lovely Jo Avery and Uist Strands. And you can find out more about the show here.

I’ve been exhibiting at this show since 2018 and the Scottish Quilting part of it has grown and grown attracting quilting tutors and artists from across the UK. It shares the hall with the Creative Craft Show but what started as a little bit at one end now covers over half the hall. It isn’t on the scale of Festival of Quilts but lots of textile groups have small exhibition spaces and the quality and quantity of competition quilts has improved year on year. I’ve even entered a piece into the new Professional Makers category!

I will be demonstrating screen printing on my stand and will be selling my books, dyes, screens etc and my Wonky Print Inspiration Packs as per normal. But this year I will also have lots of ‘sale’ fabrics. As part of clearing the studio for the big move to Scotland later this year I’ve created 45 Hand Dyed Scrap Bags from the fabric pile below. All hand dyed by me the cotton with pieces range from a few inches square to 10 - 12 inch pieces. At £10 for approx. 200g (1.25 square metre) of hand dyed fabric I think they are a bargain! I’ll also have a box of Randoms - pieces of printed, stamped, resist dyed, discharged (and more) fabrics that I’ve made over the years demonstrating different ways of adding colour to fabric. Most are fat quarter size and I’m selling them for £2 a piece so come and have a rummage!

I’ll be putting any packs / pieces that don’t sell on my online shop after the show for those who can’t make it. But for those of you that can visit the show please stop by and have a natter!