My stand at last years Scottish Quilting Show …. can’t believe it has been 12 months!

Tomorrow my son, Joe, and I set off for the Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I’ve nearly finished packing everything ….. Usually I am super organised and have absolutely everything ready days in advance but this year seems to be whizzing by. So I still need to do a couple of things and am trying to ignore that panicky feeling I get when I’m not totally in control. Ho hum!

I really enjoyed the show in Glasgow last year and hope that the show will be a success. I’m delighted to have a substantial gallery space and will be showing a selection of my big quilts from last years exhibition at Festival of Quilts. I’ll be demonstrating breakdown printing in the gallery and will be teaching a 90 minute workshop each day. Please stop by and say hello! (And please congratulate Joe who become engaged on the 29th … yes, his lovely girlfriend Sarah popped the question!)

I also have a stand at the upcoming Fashion and Embroidery Show at the NEC, Birmingham (19th to 22nd March). Just a regular stand this time where I will be demonstrating breakdown printing and will also be giving a 90 minute workshop each day. If you are going to the show you can use the discount code below to get a £3 discount on your ticket.

March is a busy month for me as it also includes a couple of days teaching. And I will be welcoming my first guest tutor, Alice Fox, into the studio at the end of the month. I would love to think that I could get some hours stitching in as well but I think that may be wishful thinking!

Last weekend I had a new group of Creative Surface Design students in the studio which was wonderful as we spend the first weekend of this course focusing on colour. Colour blending, colour exchanges, colour families ….. I love it!

Although you can buy Procion MX dyes in 40 - 50 diffferent colours in the UK I only keep 10 colours in my studio - acid lemon, golden yellow, magenta, scarlet, turquoise, royal blue, black, dark brown, rust brown and petrol green. I could blend rust brown and petrol green myself but buy them pre-blended as I use a lot of them in my own work. The remaining 8 colours I often refer to as my ‘primaries’ - OK they are not all technically primary colours but I use the word to mean a set of colours from which you can blend any colour that you might want. I guess I could call them ‘base’ colours or ‘starting’ colours but the word doesn’t matter. What matters is understanding how they interact as you combine them. For example if you want a vibrant violet purple you need to use magenta as your ‘red’. If you use scarlet as your ‘red’ you will get very frustrated as, when blended with either of my blues (turquoise or royal blue) you will get browny purples not vibrant violets. I love the ohhs and ahhs I get from my students when they understand this and discover how to blend the colours they want. It is so important if you want to control your outcomes when you print with multiple colours of thickened dye.

One of these days I will put together a 5 day workshop on colour but for now here is yet more eye candy courtesy of Amanda, Lesley, Barbara, Tracey, Anna and Cat.

Overprinting a piece of breakdown printed fabric using a screen with a soy wax resist (Susan)

My 2020 teaching schedule got off to a flying start over the last two weekends with days with my Introduction to Surface Design and my Creative Surface Design students. On paper these is a difference between the two workshops. Introduction to Surface Design is technique focused and aimed at people with no or little knowledge of dyeing, printing and other ‘wet’ processes. Creative Surface Design is more design focused and is aimed at people who have some experience in a range of surface design techniques but are struggling to know how to apply those techniques to create their own unique pieces. But, of course, there is lots of overlap and I often find myself adapting each days workshop in response to individual needs. Quickly pulling together a demonstration that I wasn’t planning on or having a discussion on a specific element of design or the design process before I had planned. The lesson plan gets thrown out of the window some days but I love it!. I’ve never responded well to being taught in an regimented environment where I’m told to do A followed by B followed by C when I found B absolutely fascinating and wanted to see what happened if I added a bit of Z. So why would I want to teach like that? Thankfully my students seem to enjoy the deviations!

Top two images - paper lamination (Amanda and Sue). Middle two images - using interfacing stencils (Amanda and Pat). Bottom two images - using thermofax screens on top of previously printed fabrics (Michelle and Pat).

Brushing bleach over hand dyed fabric with soy wax and masking tape resists (Tracey)

Soy wax screen used to overprint pre-dyed fabric (Margarita)

A couple of weeks ago I taught my Print, Stitch, Go! workshop for the first time. I was rather nervous. The first half of the workshop was spent printing and dyeing fabrics but the second half was all about using those fabrics. Printing, dyeing, splashing about lots of colour is my comfort zone so no problems there. But my approach to using my own printed and dyed fabrics is to keep it simple and let the fabric do the talking. Which is my way of admitting that I just use squares, rectangles and simple strips. I couldn’t get points to match in a mariners compass in a month of Sundays!

Thankfully my lovely students embraced squares, rectangles and simple strips! Phew!

The workshop went really well. The first two days were busy and hectic with printed fabric hanging everywhere. Wednesday was change over day when we washed and ironed our fabrics, converted the studio from a ‘wet’ to a ‘dry’ space and started to decide how to use our fabrics. And the last two days were just lovely. Calmer, but just as filled with colour. Lots of mutual support. Lots of ohhs and ahhs. Great company, amazing work - thank you Barbara, Bernice, Michelle, Sally and Sue.

So here is some eye candy …..

From left: Bernice Hopper, Michelle Barnard and Sally Taylor

From top: Barbara Logan, Sue Morgan and Bernice Hopper

…..for some shameless self promotion! With Christmas only a few weeks away we are being constantly bombarded with adverts encouraging us to indulge ourselves and our loved ones. Those who have been reading my blog for a long time will know that I am about ‘Ba Humbug’ about the whole thing but I now have a business to run. So here I go …..

Looking to fill a rather large flat stocking? Why not pick a good read and buy my book Breakdown Your Palette? Full of lovely images and detailed instructions you can find out more (and purchase) here.

And how about a workshop in the New Year to wipe away those winter blues? I still have one place left on my Creative Surface Design course starting on 1st and 2nd February 2020. The course is spread over 5 weekends and is a design focused course where you will work from your own source or sources of inspiration. You will learn how to combine different surface design techniques to create lovely cloth. You can find more details here.

Due to a cancellation I now have one place available on Alice Fox’s 3 day Rust Marks workshop. Using an experimental approach and found metal you will explore methods for transferring marks from rusty metal onto papers and fabrics. The workshop is on 27th to 29th March 2020 and you can find more details here.

I also have just one place left on my 5 day Print, Stitch, Go! workshop (Monday 17th to Friday 21st February 2020). In the first half of this fun packed 5-day workshop you will use a variety of screen printing techniques to create a collection of fabrics in a limited colour family. You’ll also exchange dye fat quarters in coordinating colours. In the second half of the week you will use your fabrics to design and stitch a small wall hanging or quilt top. I’m teaching this workshop this week and loving getting students to cut into their precious printed and dyed fabrics! Gorgeous work in progress below by Bernice Hopper and Sue Morgan. The workshop will also be run in November next year. You can find more details here.

My Breakdown Your Palette workshops in 2020 are now all full. But don’t despair! I have added new workshop dates for May and June 2021. Yes it’s a long way off but why not have a look and book your place. Or drop a really, really big hint to a loved one! For full details and to purchase please click here.

Can’t wait until 2021 to have a go? Well how about playing at home using my book Breakdown Your Palette as a guide? You guessed it … you can find more details here.

Shameless and blatant self-promotion …… hmm might need to take a shower…….

Seasons greeting everyone xx

I had a wonderful time teaching at this years Contemporary Quilt Summer School at the Hillscourt Hotel near Birmingham. I taught a class called ‘Colour, Colour, Colour!’ in which students learnt how to blend colours from a set of primaries, how to create a colour families from their source of inspiration, how to dye a colour family and how to use screens and thermofax screens to print a couple of pieces of fabric in the same colour family. Not bad for a conference venue that had carpet on the floor, fancy desks instead of useful tables and whose only sink was in a small kitchen one floor down. I do love a challenge!

The students had different levels of understanding of colour theory and knowledge of dyeing / printing but hopefully they all came away knowing something new. They certainly liked my colour wheels! There were 14 students and they each developed a unique colour family. The room was full of colour!

I took lots of photos and was intending to write a post whilst everything was fresh in my mind. But, well stuff happened and I can’t remember clearly who did what so instead they can all take the credit for some wonderful eye candy. Thank you Stella, Frances, Jane, Pat, Alison, Jenny, Liz, Sonia, Sarah, Elizabeth, Marion, Ann, Glenys and Hazel.

A big thank you to everybody who stopped by my stand at last weeks Creative Craft Show in Manchester. As well as giving a workshop once a day I was busy demonstrating breakdown printing on the stand. Always a bit of a challenge to work in a small space without easy access to a sink but the best thing about using dyes is that they don’t clog the screen when they dry out. I was quite pleased with the pieces I printed (above). And all from screens made using turquoise, rust brown and black dyes!

I also demonstrated stamping using textile inks and acrylic shapes. Easy technique and great for kids. And to prove the point my son, Joe, decided to have a go. OK so at 33 he is not exactly a kid any more but he really enjoyed himself printing a bag with stylised Batman and Joker logos. (And yes, I am aware of the copyright issue so my demo and the workshop I’ve developed using this technique did not use other peoples logos or images).

I really couldn’t do shows without Joe's help. So a very, very big thanks to him!

It’s been nearly two weeks since Festival of Quilts and life is getting back to normal. I’ve taken the opportunity to have some time off, to have a bit of a sort out in the studio, but also to sit back and consider ‘what next?’

What is actually next is the Introduction to Surface Design group that has their last day in the studio tomorrow so I’ve been busy cleaning and preparing. It will be sad to say goodbye to them but we’ll be celebrating all that they have achieved with lots of cake!

Quite a lot of ‘what next?’ is on a list of ‘workshop prep’ to work through ready for my workshops and other events this autumn. I’ve been neglecting this a little over the last couple of month and it feels good to start ticking some boxes!

In a couple of weeks time I will be demonstrating and giving workshops at the Creative Craft Show at Event City, Manchester. I’ve been working through the big pile of printed and dyed fabric that I have created whilst demonstrating in the studio and at shows over the last year and have started to make up packs to sell. Initially at the show but maybe online as well.

I’ve also taken the time to develop a new mini-workshop for the Creative Craft Show at the NEC at the end of October. Still needs fine tuning but will involve printing both sides of a tote bag using textile inks.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be finishing my preparations for the Contemporary Quilt Summer School where I’m teaching a colour class. Preparation mostly involves figuring out how we can dye fabric and print fabric in a room without sinks! I do like a challenge. And I have things I want to do ahead of my first Creative Surface Design class which begins in September.

But beyond my ‘to-do’ list I’ve also been thinking about how I want the ‘business’ side of me to develop. This is the bit that includes the studio, teaching and writing. I’m striving to keep this from swamping the ‘artist’ side of me but, at the same time, it is the bit that pays the bills. This last year has been so hectic that I know that I need to slow down a little so my plans need to be longer term. And to maybe involve a series of smaller projects rather than the stupidly ambitious challenges I set myself recently. I’m thinking of developing a small online shop that sells some of the dyes, screens and fabrics that I already sell in my studio. But this needs a lot of thought before I jump into it as it probably involves a major revamp of my website. So watch this space.

I’ve also been thinking about ‘what next?’ for me as an artist … but I’ll talk about that next time!

I am very excited to announce that Ruth Brown and Debbie Lyddon will be teaching here at Urban Studio North!

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that Ruth Brown is a good friend who encouraged me to take that leap of faith to become a full time artist and teacher. She also happens to be a textile artist, book binder and experienced and respected teacher. You can find out more about Ruth on her website here. Ruth will be teaching a 4 day workshop at Urban Studio North called Books for Textile Artists in which she combines her two loves - textiles and books. The workshop with take place from 6th to 9th October 2020 and you can find full details here.

Debbie Lyddon is an artist and maker based on the Norfolk coast. Her work includes mixed media cloth, sculpture, installation and drawing. If you don’t already know her amazing work you can find out more on her website here. I am totally in awe of her work and her experimental approach to creating. Debbie is a sought after teacher … her 4 day workshop at Urban Studio North will take place from 23rd to 26th March 2021. Yes, 2021! The workshop is called Decorative Surfaces for 3D Textiles and in it you will explore the construction and decoration of 3D forms. You can find full details here.

As well as adding these two fantastic workshops to my website I have added new dates for some of the courses that I teach. The Creative Surface Design course starting in September only has one place left so I have added new dates starting in February 2020. This workshop is spread over 5 weekends and is intended to support each student as they work from their own source or sources of inspiration and develop their own way of working - their own design process. You can find out more here.

I’ve also added an extra Breakdown Your Palette 5 day workshop on 20th to 24th July 2020 as the other workshops in 2020 are filling up. You can find out more here. In case you haven’t noticed I love breakdown printing!

You can always contact me via my website, or via Messenger if you have any questions!