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

The files for my new book, Colour Your Palette, are with my printer and I’m expecting my ‘proof’ copy on Wednesday. Wednesday is also my husbands 59th birthday - I know what I’m more excited about!

The ‘proof’ copy is a final check on the 350+ images in the book rather than the words or the layout. The colours we see on a screen are not always the colours we get when we print images. I’ve printed the book on my own laser jet printer but the real test is when the book is printed on the correct paper. I felt physically sick when I got the proof copy of my first book as I had nightmares of having to re-photograph large sections of the book but in the end only changed one image. So this time I am a little more relaxed. And enjoying a few days rest before it arrives.

If all goes well I will place the order for the books at the end of next week and receive them towards the end of the following week, a few days ahead of my planned publication date of 10th November. Phew!

The book will be available for pre-order from the 1st November but I have already added details to my website so if you want a sneaky peek of what is in Colour Your Palette click here.

And, as a reminder, I will be donating £1 for every book ordered between the 1st and the 10th November to The Trussell Trust.

In one section of my upcoming new book I look at how we might extract palettes of colours from a range of different sources of colour inspiration. When developing colours for new projects I sometimes jump straight in, mixing and playing with thickened dyes straight onto my fabric. At other times I need something to get me started, and a simple paper exercise can be just the thing I need to help focus my ideas.

The image above is my (current) collection of Colour Catchers. Colour Catchers are the paper-like laundry aids that prevent colours bleeding. I use them whenever I’m washing freshly dyed or printed fabrics. They capture any stray dye and are brilliant! I snip pieces from them when carrying out a colour study but many people use them in mixed media projects or as a base for embroidery.

Below are images from one of the worked examples in the book …… my starting point was a collection of photos of the beach at Dunure, Scotland, my second favourite place in the world after my studio!

Colour Your Palette will be available to pre-order on my website from the 1st November with shipping expected to start before the 10th November. I am so excited!

I am so very excited that my second book, called ‘Colour Your Palette’ is close to completion. It has been a bit of a slog but I’m just a few more hours work away from sending it to the printers for a ‘proof’ copy so that I can check the colours of the images (all 340 of them!).

It is a book about colour. In it I translate colour theory, which is nearly all written about paints, into colour practice for people, like me, who use dyes to add colour to fabric, thread, yarn etc. Dyes do not behave like paints. They come with some limitations but those limitations are far outweighed by the potential dyes give us to build up layers of colour, mark and shape on our cloth. And they are wash fast!

I take the reader through the creation of a series of colour references that teach us how a huge number of colours can be mixed from a starting set of eight base colours, how the order in which we layer our colours matters, how different fabrics take colour differently and how you can accurately match or reproduce colour irrespective of whether you are using thickened dyes to screen print or powdered dyes to dye fabric in a bucket.

I look at different colour schemes and guide the reader through a series of colour studies which look at different ways collections, or palettes, of colours can be derived from different types of colour inspiration. Although this isn’t a book that focusses on lots of different techniques for adding colour to cloth I do include a section on the tried and tested methods I use in my art and that I teach in my studio. This has turned out to be a big book, over 200 pages! ! I’ll tease you with more details over the coming weeks.

Colour Your Palette will cost £25 + shipping. After a lot of thought I have decided to make it available for pre-order from the 1st November with the first books expected to ship on 10th November (or earlier!). Sometimes pre-order means a discount but I’ve decided (on your behalf!) to donate £1 for each book ordered between the 1st and 10th November to The Trussell Trust, a UK charity that runs food banks and campaigns against food poverty. Since the beginning of the pandemic you guys have helped raise over £400 by buying my charity bookmarks. It would be nice to increase that in the run up to Christmas.

I’m so excited! And just a little bit tired ……

Leah x

I just realised that I have been neglecting this blog! I haven’t even given you a porch update. I’m happy to report that it is because I have been super busy working on my next book and teaching.

The porch is beginning to look like a porch. For a while it was more of a pergola than a porch but it now has a roof and part of two walls. It means we can be Covid-19 safe and work with the studio doors wide open and it doesn’t rain in. It isn’t quite at the stage where it helps keep the studio warm on cold days but the lovely badger, with a little help from bodger, is getting there. Because we are doing this cheaply we haven’t poured a level foundation so there has been a far bit of swearing trying to get everything square! It will be worth it!

Teaching has been going well with some amazing printing this last week. My students are happy with the layout of the studio and the new rules. It is so important to me that we get this right as I don’t want to increase risk for my students or my family. Nine weeks with additional local restrictions hasn’t reduced the numbers and I suspect we will see more restrictions in the coming weeks and months. But we soldier on!

I only have two free spaces left on workshops this autumn. One is on my Creative Surface Design program starting on 21st and 22nd November and the other is on my five day Print, Stitch, Go! workshop on 9th to 13th November. If you are thinking about booking but maybe have some concerns re Covid and local conditions please get in touch here and I’ll do my best to help.

And finally, the book. The content is done. Words, samples, photos. The last few sections will be going out for their final proof reading this week. So now I just have the layout to do. Just. I’m considering adding padding to my table top as I know there will be some serious head banging as I try to remember how to use InDesign. And swearing. I can guarantee there will be swearing! But, just like the porch, it will be worth it!

Walking into a clean and orderly studio set up and waiting for my students to arrive. Quite moments in the evening tidying up and getting ready for the next day. My garden full of fabric and drying screens. The calm after the students leave, when my studio becomes my space again.

And along the way a riot of colour. Seven students across two five day Breakdown Your Palette workshops, each creating their own unique pieces of fabric. Creative, happy days spent in good company. I have missed this so much! Teaching is a bit different in this new normal but just as satisfying.

The new normal means being flexible - plans often change, both mine and my students. I’m having to reschedule the Books for Textile Artists workshops with Ruth Brown for next April and have had to delay the start of my upcoming Creative Surface Design class until November. I currently only have three places left on workshops in 2020. There is one place on my Introduction to Surface Design 1 day a month for 10 months course which starts on Saturday 26th September. There is one place on my Print Your Palette 5 day workshop (Monday 28th September to Friday 2nd October). And there is one place on my Creative Surface Design course which is spread across five weekends with the first weekend being the 21st and 22nd November. I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that next year is better and that we can all plan with a little more certainty.

But until then I have a lot to grateful for. A big thank you to Sharon, Sue, Heather, Judy T, Alison, Judy S and Mandy for keeping me company and inspiring me over the last two weeks!

Many of you will know that I closed the studio a couple of weeks ago when local Covid-19 restrictions were introduced restricting access to peoples homes and gardens covering the area I live in. Although we are in an area with a relatively low and decreasing infection rate not all areas in Greater Manchester are so fortunate so the local lockdown remains in place. HOWEVER …. the government published revised guidance on the 14th August detailing the list of circumstances under which people may enter your family home or garden. Second on the list is ‘for the purposes of education or training’. I contacted my local councillor over the weekend just to be absolutely sure and he has confirmed that bringing students into the studio and garden is allowed!

Phew! I was getting increasingly upset that we might be in and out of lockdown throughout the autumn and winter, that I wouldn’t know if I was coming or going and whether it wouldn’t just be easier not to try to teach. Of course the situation could get far worse and we could end up back in full lockdown with travel restrictions in place. And I appreciate that some students who don’t live locally might not want to travel into the area. But for now I am enjoying some positive news!

The next workshop I run will be my five day Breakdown Your Palette workshop on Monday 31st August to Friday 4th September. This week was rescheduled at short notice so there are a couple of places available. If you are interested you can find more details here.

And the positivity doesn’t stop there …. today we are starting a new build. In order to work in a Covid-19 safe way in the studio we need to keep the doors open allowing lots of air flow. Not a problem on dry, mild days but winter is coming. My favourite builders, son Joe (Bodger) and father in law Bernard (Badger), have a plan! Over the next couple of weeks they are adding a porch to the studio. It will have an opening at the front to allow air flow but will stop the rain getting in and, hopefully, stop the heat getting out. I have been doing my bit by giving the timbers a coat of primer and undercoat. Their aim is to build something that fits with the rest of the studio front. My aim is to try to keep calm and carry on working on the book ….

I’ll post an update soon!

As I mentioned before I’m having to make changes to dates, and individual students are having to make decisions based on their own circumstances so there is a lot of movement on workshop availability over the next couple of months. Below is a list of the workshops with availability. I know that it feels a bit risky signing up for a workshop when things can change overnight but I am refunding and rescheduling when things do change so rest assured on that front.

Yes, I expect the mini-lockdown in place in Greater Manchester to last 2 - 3 weeks and yes, I think there will be further lockdowns as we get into the main flu season. But in-between I am determined to enjoy the company of my lovely students in an environment that is as safe as it can be. A slice of ‘normality’ in these uncertain times.

• Breakdown Your Palette - rescheduled workshop will now take place from Monday 31st August to Friday 4th September. It looks like there will be two spaces - please contact me if you want to be put on the waiting list.

• Breakdown Your Palette 7th to 11th September - 1 space

• Creative Surface Design, first weekend 19th and 20th September - 1 space

• Introduction to Surface Design, first Saturday 26th September - 2 spaces

• Books for Textile Artists with Ruth Brown 10th to 13th October - 2 spaces

Take care,

Leah x

Hidden Message 2 - one of the quilts on display in From There to Now

Those of you who live in the UK will be aware that the government announced new restrictions covering Greater Manchester (where I live) on Thursday evening due to an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases locally. We are no longer able to visit each others homes or gardens. They have not imposed any new restrictions on businesses so I could continue to teach. However, whilst my students never go inside my home, they do use the garden to access the studio, the bathroom and screen wash trough as well as sitting in the garden on sunny days. It is tempting to bend the rules as I know that I, and my family, are being super careful. And I know that the studio is Covid-19 safe. But I’m not going too. If we all bend the rules we will never get free of this disease.

So yesterday I contacted those students who were due in the studio in the next couple of weeks. They have all been so understanding and so lovely and I thank them for making a difficult day easier to bear. I’m trying to reschedule the Breakdown Your Palette workshop for later in the summer and may have a couple of free spaces if it goes ahead.

But life goes on and there is much to celebrate. Beyond The Festival of Quilts launched on Thursday and I have had some fabulous responses to my virtual gallery ‘From There to Now’. Although the official event finishes tomorrow I believe that the galleries are going to be left visible until next years show. I’ve also had a good response to the Helen Parrott and Rosie James workshops in 2021 with half the places taken in a couple of days. They are popular teachers!

And thank you to those who have ordered from my webshop, especially those buying my limited edition bookmarks. As a reminder the 10% discount code FOQ2020 is valid until midnight on Sunday.

Yesterday was horrible but today I have given myself a good talking to and am back working on my book.

Leah x