My next workshop will be my 5-day Luscious Layers workshop at InStitches from 12th to 16th October and there are still a couple of places left.

Luscious Layers is designed for students who have worked with procion dyes before, maybe done a bit of screen printing, fabric painting or mark making but are struggling to get ideas out of their heads and onto fabric. It is a ‘design’ workshop rather than a ‘techniques’ workshop although we don’t follow a set path as I honestly don’t believe that there is a single design process that works for everyone. Instead I get you started then work with you one-on-one to turn your idea or source of inspiration into a coherent collection of fabrics that can be cut and used together, or into pieces of complex art cloth that work just as they are or can be used as a basis for stitch.

We start with a pragmatic discussion about types of inspiration and what we might or might not take from them, along with the advantages / disadvantages of working in a figurative or abstract way. (If you want to create a realistic copy of your inspiration on fabric you are in the wrong workshop!). Because this is a workshop with me, we then focus on finding the ‘right’ colours for your project - it’s how I start when I’m developing a new series.

We then start sampling - different techniques, different combinations of techniques, using masks on our fabrics before adding further layers, adding more colour with dye, taking colour away with discharge agents, adding detail with textile inks - whatever works for you and your source, or sources of inspiration. Some of your samples will be little works of art, some will work as part of a collection of fabrics, others may end up in the bin (or as a quilt backing if you’re not quite ready for that step. Some students ‘sample’ all week, others use what they have learnt from sampling to create art cloth or coherent collections of fabric. Some may even start to cut and collage or stitch …. as I said, there is no one ‘process’ that fits all.

It can take time to develop your own unique creative voice or creative process but I have designed Luscious Layers to give you a little nudge in the right direction!

You can find out more details about the workshop and the InStitches studio here. (And Hazel keeps us very well feed - her pea and tarragon soup is legendary and her cakes are yummy.)

Some of you may remember that I created a short workshop for Textile.org ‘Stitch Club’ last year. That workshop along with about 70 workshops by other textile artists is available to Stitch Club members whenever they want.

My workshop was called Simple Screen Printing for Stitch and it covered how to screen print a small collection of fabrics that provide a perfect background for stitch. With one small screen, two colours and my favourite screen printing technique, breakdown printing, I used things like lollipop sticks, bubble wrap, buttons and paint brushes to print fabrics with small scale marks and textures. Once printed I cut and collaged the fabrics to create a surface for both hand and machine stitch. The workshop comes with a really comprehensive workbook and an e-book of my art that might inspire you.

Textile artists such as Anne Kelly, Amarjeet K Nandhra, Rosie James, Hannah Lamb, Sue Hotchkis, Alice Fox and Jette Clover have already made workshops for Stitch Club members and new workshops are added regularly.

Why am I telling you this? Well Textile.org has started an Artist Partner Scheme so that artists, like me, are rewarded for introducing new members. I like to be honest - I will receive 15% of your membership fee if you join and use the link below. You can join for just a month if you only want to look at my workshop or longer. What’s in it for you? 25% off your first months membership if you also use the discount code STITCH-25.

The link is https://stitchclub.textileartist.org/checkout/stitchclub-gbp?affiliate_code=99e97f

Hope you find this useful, Leah

After a long period of rejection after rejection I’m absolutely delighted to let you know that Shoreline IV (above) has been juried into Quilt Visions 2026! There were 33 pieces selected from 323 entries … which makes it even more special. I did a very happy Happy Dance when I heard! My heartfelt thanks to the jurors Carolyn Ducey, Justin Ming Young and David Van Burkirk.

The early pieces in the Shoreline series were calmer but, as my frustration at the snail like pace of our house sale has grown, the pieces have become striking, more jarring. And no, we still haven’t moved.

If you read my posts regularly you’ll know that I like to keep busy. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching my 3 day Luscious Layers workshop at Little Heath Barn in Bromsgrove a couple of weeks ago. Great students and some amazing work (examples below)! I’ll be teaching the same workshop next year from 30th June to 2nd July. You can’t book online yet but you can find more details and email Liske to register an interest by clicking here.

And finally I gave a talk yesterday to the Scottish Stitch and Textiles Garthering in Perth. I had expected to be making the relatively short drive over from Largs but, because of the retched house sale, I had to make the long drive up from Manchester. So the kind comments after my talk and the sales of lots of my fabric packs were very welcome. I am really hoping that I will be attending next years gathering as a member of a scottish textile group.

So what next …. in May myself, husband and beloved father-in-law are taking a Highland road trip visiting Mull, Iona and Skye and I’m looking forward to walking on lots of stunning beaches, eating well and picking up the odd bottle of locally distilled gin!. Of course we had been expecting to set off from Largs ……ho hum.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my stand at The Scottish Quilt Show in Glasgow last week. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces and to make some new friends. This show is such a pleasure to do and there are an increasing number of quilts on show and quilt focused traders. And Shoreline III won a prize - 2nd place in the Professional Makers Category!

We still haven’t moved to Largs (bah humbug) but I do expect to start teaching at the Barony Centre in West Kilbride in the late autumn. In the meantime I thought I’d let you know where you can find me ……

15th to 17th April 2026: 3-day Luscious Layers at Littleheath Barn, nr Bromsgrove. The workshop is full but please email Liske if you’d like to be put on the waiting list or would be interested in her re-running the workshop at a later date.

1st to 5th June 2026: 5-day Breakdown Your Palette at InStitches, nr Wokingham. This is my post popular workshop as breakdown printing is truly fabulous! There are places available!

12th to 16th October 2026: 5-day Luscious Layers at InStitches, nr Wokingham. This isn’t on their website yet but if you are interested you could always let them know by contacting Hazel via hazel@InStitchesTextileCourse.co.uk

*NEW* 29th January to 1st February 2027: 3-day residential workshop ‘Simply Screen Printing’ at Higham Hall, nr Cockermouth. I’m very excited about this one as, if it is well attended, I’ll be able to teach at Higham Hall regularly and it is a fabulous venue. The retreat isn’t on their website yet but you can have a look at the range of workshops and the facilities on their website. The workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and will include some breakdown printing. If you are interested please ring them on 017687 76276 to register your interest. They will contact you when bookings are opened.

Luscious Layers: This workshop explores what happens when you combine multiple techniques on a piece of fabric, building layers of colour, mark, texture, line and shape? The results - complex beautiful art cloth; fabric that can simply be framed or hung, fabric that can be enhanced by stitch, fabric that can be used in conjuncture with other fabrics to create spectacular wall art, fabric that can be used to make truly unique clothing. This workshop is aimed at those with experience of using Procion MX dyes to add colour to fabric using a range of techniques such as screen printing, mark making, monoprinting, dyeing etc. It is not suitable for beginners as it assumes prior knowledge of multiple surface design techniques.

Breakdown Your Palette: My most popular workshop combines an in-depth exploration of breakdown printing (free-form screen printing technique where thickened dyes act as temporary resists) and colour to create a palette of beautiful, co-ordinated cloth. Working from their own inspirational images or objects students will extract colours to use as they work with a range of breakdown printing techniques. During the workshop students will also investigate the use of discharge paste in breakdown printing and how printed fabrics can be enhanced by other surface design techniques. The workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and assumes no knowledge of screen printing or working with Procion dyes.

Simply Screen Printing: In this workshop you will learn how to predict and control colour when using Procion dyes before experimenting with a range of simple screen printing techniques to create your own palette of fabric from your own source of inspiration. The techniques covered will include open screening for both clean and streaky colour, working with paper, mesh and string resists, working with masking tape resists and breakdown printing where thickened dyes are used as a temporary resist. You will also have the opportunity to use thermofax screens to add detail to your printed fabrics. The workshop is suitable for beginners and for those who want better control of their screen printing outcomes.

If you have any questions about these workshops and venues please email via admin@leahhiggins.co.uk.

Thank you x

…. is the sentence I used throughout last weeks workshop with Claire Benn. I could spout some arty bollyards and say that it was about the weight of the domestic burden on womens empowerment but actually it came from a very happy conversation with my friend, and fellow student, Ruth Brown. Yes it was that conversation about how you always end up with a miss match of tupperware containers and lids. So not a deep and meaningful sentence but one that made me smile all week!

The first day of the workshop progressed at a fast pace with exercise after exercise using pens on copy paper to get us beyond using our usual handwriting style. I really struggled with it and, being honest, felt a bit useless compared with some of the other students. But there were some exercises that acieved what I wanted - completely illegible words and interesting patterns.

On day 2 we moved onto indian ink on heavy weight paper and so another steep learning curve for me. Some stuff I liked but I ended the day feeling frustrated and with a heavy dose of imposter syndrome. Nothing to do with Claires teaching which was inspiring and enabling. Just me. Overnight I remembered that something similar happened when I learnt to screen print all those years ago - hopping from one thing to the next isn’t how I learn. I learn by identifying those techniques that interest me most and focussing on them. After all this is what I did with breakdown printing.

And so the rest of the week went better. I listened to all of Claires demos but didn’t attempt more than a few. The notes she provided were incredibly detailed so I know that I can always refer to them when I’m ready.

Importantly there was ‘enough’ interesting stuff that I’m going to continue studying in my own studio. I’m not seeing a way to combine text as texture with my breakdown printing yet but if I put in the hours / days / weeks / months mastering my newly learnt techniques those ideas will come. Or maybe I’ll create art in a different way, who knows?

Claire will be delivering this workshop for Fibre Arts Take Two next year and I would whole heartedly recommend it. I didn’t make a beautiful, balanced piece of art like some of the students during my five days with Claire but I did find a world of new possibilities.

I have a couple of workshops coming up in the next few weeks. The first, a 3 day Luscious Layers workshop at Little Heath Barn is full. However one space has become available on my 5 day Breakdown your Palette workshop at InStitches near Wokingham. The dates are Monday 27th to Friday 31st October and you can find details here.

Breakdown is my favourite workshop and the InStitches studio is a fabulous space to work in. The course fee includes lunch, biscuits and cakes all made by Hazel. Her cakes are amazing!

I’m going to be teaching at both Little Heath Barn and InStitches again next spring and there are places available on both -

• 3 day Luscious Layers at Little Heath Barn 15th to 17th April 2026, find details here.

• 5 day Breakdown Your Palette at InStitches 1st to 5th June 2026, find details here.

In other studio news I decided to start work on my next book as a way to get past the disappointment of not being able to teach in Telluride. And a way of coping with the stress of the house move. I take a lot of comfort in making my art but writing requires periods of complete focus and that is what I need right now. The book is a complete rewrite, update and expansion of my first book ‘Breakdown Your Palette’. I’m not at all sure when it will be published as the house move, when it eventually happens, will probably interrupt photography but, for now, it gives me somewhere to hide from reality.

And on the house move front … we’ve dropped the price and secured a buyer, a builder, rather than do the remedial work ourselves. Fingers crossed that third time gets us over the line ….

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 ……

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.

I’m delighted to let you know that I have worked with TextileArtist.org to create a workshop for their Stitch Club members that goes live on Monday 30th June.

For those of you who don’t already know TextileArtist.org is a fabulous online resource for all things textile. Their Stitch Club delivers a wide variety of short mostly stitch based workshops with the occasional workshop on adding colour, mark and shape to cloth.

I loved the challenge of creating a short workshop based on breakdown printing (my favourite technique) that included worked samples of how the printed fabrics could be used to create hand stitched and machine stitched outcomes. I tried to keep it simple and, frankly affordable, so it is ideal for those want to try out a little bit of screen printing on their kitchen table without spending a fortune on stuff they might not use again. That said, breakdown printing is addictive!

The workshop is video based, supported by a detailed workbook. There will be an ebook of what I hope are inspirational images of my work. Importantly I will be providing online support for Stitch Club members for the first two weeks after the workshop goes live.

To get the ball rolling TextileArtist.org have posted an interview with me that you can find here.

Exciting times!