I’m busy packing boxes and printing signs ready for Festival of Quilts which opens on Thursday at the NEC, Birmingham. I’ll be on stand QIA - the Cadence quilt above will be on the stand along with Ruins 8:Kilns so I should be easy to spot.

As I said before I am limited in what products I can sell on my stand so am offering an order now, collect at the show option on orders over £20. Just type in the discount code FOQ2021 at checkout and no postage will be added to the order. The deadline for this service is Monday (tomorrow) at 10am so that I have time to get orders ready.

I will also be taking orders at the show for a selection of products from my online shop including dyes and screens for delivery to your home address free of charge after the show. Unfortunately this offer will only apply to UK addresses and again the minimum order will be £20. Postage outside the UK is just too expensive to extend this offer outside the UK.

On my stand I will have my books and my hand dyed and printed fabrics for sale. And, of course, you’ll be able to sign up for workshops in my studio in 2021 and 2022. I’m also giving a Quick & Easy workshop at 1pm on the Saturday called Hand Printed by Me! And I’ll be demonstrating breakdown printing on my stand. I am really looking forward to connecting to people again. Hope to see some of you there!

Yes, I have figured out how to do it!

Although I will have my fabrics and books at Festival I’m not able to sell things like individual dyes, screens or textile inks on my Quilt in Action stand. However I can offer a buy now, collect at Festival service. Which means you can avoid paying for shipping. This is applicable on all orders over £20 and is available from today until 10am on Monday 26th July. Just type in the discount code FOQ2021 at checkout to activate. Click here for my online shop.

You will be able to collect your order from my stand, QIA30 at any time. Please bring a copy of the order confirmation so I can make sure you get the right stuff!

And don’t worry if you circumstances change and you don’t manage to get to Festival - if you live in the UK I will post them FOC to your home after the show. If you live outside the UK and don’t pick up your order I will be in touch after the show, you will be able to either cancel the order or pay the postage for delivery.

And although I won’t have stock of dyes etc at the show I will be taking orders during the show for FOC delivery the following week. Minimum order value will be £20 and, unfortunately will only apply on UK address.

I hate that postage outside the UK is so prohibitive! And that so few of my European friends are likely to make the show …. hopefully 2022 will be a brilliant return to normal!

Thank you, Leah x

This is something I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn’t had the time. Now I have plenty of time so have been busy doodling different ideas. I have ended up with six new tried and tested thermofax designs which I love and hope you will to!

All six designs are available in two sizes - large gives a printed image approximately 17cm x 24cm and small gives a print approximately 10cm x 14cm. For those of you unfamiliar with thermofax screens they are a special type of silk screen that allows you to print fine lines or detailed designs onto fabric or paper using thickened dyes, textile inks or other media. They can be used to print interesting marks and texture all over white fabric before adding layers of colour on top or can be used on top of previously printed or dyed fabrics to add final detail.

Unfortunately I have had to increase my prices by £1 for the large screens and £0.50 for the small screens because of increases in the cost of the plastic frames I use. However I have added a new ‘soft edge’ option that is significantly cheaper. In the soft edge version the edges of the screen mesh are sandwiched between two layers of tape. Screens with soft edges are a bit more fiddly to use but I have made sure that you have a big enough tape surround that you can hold the screen firmly in place when using it.

I’ve also taken the opportunity to change how my thermofax screens are displayed in my webshop which I hope will make it easier to see the full range of designs.

I continue to ship all my products globally but I thought it worth acknowledging that there is currently a lot of confusion and some delays in shipping goods from the UK to the EU. There may be some of my products that are not covered by the new trade agreement and so may attract customs / import duty. However I’ve spent a bit of time looking at the European Commission site covering buying goods online from the UK and customs duty should not be applied to orders below 150 Euros. I’m also applying for an EORI number which should allow parcels to pass through customs more quickly. So, if you are one of my lovely European friends, please feel that you can still order from me!

New soft edge framing option

I am very pleased to announce that Christine Chester will be teaching her five day Poetry of Stitch workshop here at Urban Studio North next September. Christine is a talented artist, popular teacher and runs her own studio in Eastbourne.

Stitching, whether by hand or machine, is usually the final layer on a piece of work and often the process we enjoy the most. But we can get into a routine of using the stitches with which we are most familiar. In this workshop Christine will encourage you to look at ways of stitching that will extend your language of marks. She will look at both hand and machine stitching thinking about the character and the weight of the stitching that we are using and how to apply that to printed work so that the stitch either enhances the printed layer; or creates focus within the print. There will be an emphasis on trying lots of small sample pieces before starting to work on a larger, more considered piece of work.

The five day workshop costs £450 and requires students to bring their own sewing machine. If you want to learn more about Poetry of Stitch please click here.

This is the final announcement about workshops in 2021 - the studio calendar is pretty full and I have all my fingers and toes crossed that we can run without restrictions, hopefully from March onwards. Normally I would now be thinking about workshops in 2022 but, given all the uncertainty in our lives, I’m not planning on making any announcements until Easter.

Before I go …..tis the season of shameless marketing ….. did you know that you can buy Urban Studio North gift cards in my online shop? Available in £20, £50 and £100 values, these digital gift cards can be used on all of the products in my shop including workshops, books, dyes etc and never expire! So if your loved ones don’t know what to get you for Christmas why not suggest a gift card?

Thank you for reading, Leah x

Those of you who follow me on Facebook might know that I have been ill for a few days and had a Covid-19 test on Monday. Which thankfully has come back negative. I wasn’t too surprised when I started to feel extremely tired as I had been pushing myself too hard to finish the book. But then I started dry coughing and was a bit short of breath. Me, husband and son had a long discussion along the lines of ‘you can’t have it’, ‘but I went to the supermarket last Thursday’, ‘but your were masked up and your hands were gelled’, ‘but I had to queue at the checkout for longer than normal’ ‘but you were masked ……. ‘ .The more we talked the more I coughed. So ‘nurse’ Joe took charge and a Covid test was booked. Husband moved stuff into the spare room and I was escorted to our bedroom along with a supply of books, jigsaw, devices, chargers etc. I’m not very good at being ill and I am definitely not very good at being isolated. But it was the right thing to do and I’m grateful for Joe looking after me and for making sure that I couldn’t infect my husband. And I’m grateful for all the kind words from friends and social media buddies!

I have been lucky. My test was negative so I can get back into the studio. Albeit in small doses as I’m still tired.

Which means I can get back to what I was doing before all this. Which was looking at postage rates. I had a little surprise a couple of weeks ago when I shipped a copy of my Breakdown book to Australia and the postage was £3 more than I was used to. I thought it must be a mistake. But no. Royal mail has increased to cost of shipping to locations outside of the UK and Europe by 20 - 30% depending on the location and service. They have also introduced a US only rate which is about the same as the rate to Australia - yes, it now costs more to ship to the US than to Canada. Their UK and EU rates have also increased albeit not as much. A quick check confirmed that international couriers such as UPS, FedEx etc also seem to have put their prices up. I guess because fewer planes are flying there is less capacity.

I also realised that my new book is bigger, and heavier, than my first book so can’t be shipped as a ‘large letter’. I have spent some time looking at different options and used past orders to test different scenerio’s. So I will be taking my website offline for a few hours tomorrow to switch from a postage system based on the cost of the order to one based on the weight of the order. Unfortunately my website doesn’t have the ability to set postage by product type which would have allowed me to separate heavy books from light pots of dye powder.

In the UK there will be three rates - £3.70 up to and including 1kg (which covers the new book), £5.57 up to and including 2kg and £7.79 for anything over 2kg (which is actually cheaper than I was charging as I’ve switched to a different provider). Outside the UK the weight increments are much finer so I won’t list them all! I have been using International Standard but am now going to include the option of International Economy which is very significantly cheaper if you are outside the EU. The downside being that it takes longer for post to arrive.

I am also making the commitment to you that for any order that weighs over 2kg I will check the cost of shipping via other carriers and, if I get it cheaper I will refund you the difference.

I wish that I could absorb these increases as I know that for some outside of Europe the postage may make my new book unaffordable. But, like many, many self-employed people my income has been significantly reduced thanks to that pesky virus. International Economy does provide a much cheaper option as does getting together with a group of friends to place a bigger option.

Apologies for a rather long post but I prefer to be transparent in my pricing.

Stay well, Leah x

I am very pleased to say that I have now started shipping internationally again. Postal services seems to be working better although there may still be delays shipping to some countries as they struggle to cope with Covid 19.

To celebrate I have decided to add my new Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Fabric Packs to my webshop. Each pack contains 6 fat quarters of lovely hand dyed cotton poplin fabrics. Each piece is approximately 50cm x 50cm and the packs contain a mix of textured multi-coloured pieces and ‘nearly solid’ coloured pieces. Each pack is totally unique. These are fabrics that I had been dyeing for sale at this summers Festival of Quilts. With FoQ cancelled and no idea of when I will next be exhibiting at a show I thought I would make them available online.

I have also been busy printing fabric this week and have added some lovely new Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my shop. And, as I promised I would, I have taken some of the yummiest bits of fabric and made bookmarks that I am selling to raise funds for the The Trussell Trust. The work that The Trussell Trust do to support food banks in the UK and to fight food poverty is more important than ever as we face a prolonged period of high unemployment due to the corona virus. I have made 12 bookmarks each in three lovely colourways and am selling them for £5 each. There is no postage on these and every penny will be donated to the charity.

And finally, when I set up my webshop I was only selling my book and set the postage rates accordingly. Since March I have been selling a much wider range of products. Some are heavy, some are light, some can be posted large letter and others need to be posted as parcels. I’ve spent some time looking at what the actual postage has been and tried to figure out a better, fairer system. So, for UK customers, I am pleased to say that I have been able to reduce the postage and packaging rates on larger orders with a cap on postage at £10. Postage and packing rates are unchanged for international shipping but I will review these in a couple of months time.

Stay well, Leah

Intersecting Lines 2

The very good news is that my roll of thermofax mesh has arrived safely from Australia so I can now make screens. Hooray!

But nothing is straight forward at the moment.

The bad news is that I only have 15 large frames and 30 small frames and am struggling to source more. Manufacturers are busy using their perspex supply to make protective screens for supermarket tills etc. I’m currently being quoted at least another 5 - 6 weeks for frames. I did think about waiting until the supply chain was back to normal but I know that some of you are waiting to order. So I have made all the thermofax screens available in my webshop. Hooray!

My webshop isn’t clever enough to total up orders and stop at 15 large or 30 small so I will fill orders as they come in and will make the screens unavailable once I have used all the frames. My apologies up front if I don’t do this soon enough and you are able to place an order that I can’t fill. I’ll issue you a refund.

Of course it could be that I am not clever enough to figure out my own webshop. Surely not!

The other bit of good news - I have now added gift cards to my webshop. Available in £20, £50 and £100 amounts each gift card is a unique code sent to you by email. The code is used by entering it at checkout and is valid for ever.

Stay well, Leah

Scattered Lines 1

Last week my daughter Jess and her pals at Good Press in Glasgow designed and printed bookmarks to sell to support local charities. I thought it was a brilliant idea. So brilliant that I have stolen it! So let me introduce my Limited Edition Fabric Bookmarks which I am selling, via my webshop, to raise funds for The Trussell Trust. The UK has a frankly shocking level of food poverty and this charity supports food banks across the country as well as campaigning for an end to hunger. The Corona virus crisis has made the situation worse so their work is even more important. Hunger is unacceptable anywhere in the world but I have chosen to support a UK charity as I am currently only shipping to UK addresses.

I have made each bookmark by sandwiching a piece of interfacing between two pieces of my hand printed fabrics and have finished with stitch. I selected the yummiest bits from my latest batch of breakdown printed fabrics to create sets of ten bookmarks in each of three colourways. I thought long and hard about pricing and have decided to sell each bookmark for £5. I know that there will be some reading this who are suffering financially right now but I also know that many of you are doing OK and for whom £5 is not too much. I’m not charging for postage on these bookmarks and every penny will go to The Trussell Trust. And I am committing to making more sets of 10 bookmarks each time I print and dye fabrics to sell in my webshop for the duration of this crisis.

As well as the bookmarks I have added my latest batch of Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my webshop. Eleven different colour combinations this time. I hope you like them.

As always, stay well,

Leah

Just a quick post to let you know that I have loaded some more Wonky Print Inspiration Packs onto my online shop. Seven new colour combinations this time. I have already made a bunch of breakdown screens in lots of different colours and will be printing these soon. However I have decided to pause for a moment, and to ‘go quiet’ on social media for a few days whilst I try and get my artistic mojo back. I have been really struggling and honestly don’t want to work on my most recent series but I have some thoughts about how I might respond to this strange and frightening world we find ourselves in. These thoughts may just produce a lot of rubbish fabric and go nowhere but I won’t know until I try.

So I will be back in a bit … either with news of exciting new work … or with some more inspiration packs! Until then, stay well and stay creative, Leah