I had a wonderful time last Sunday at the Great Northern Textile Show. The organiser, Tracy Fox, did an outstanding job and is probably still laid down in a dark room recovering! I put my exhibition up on the Saturday afternoon so saw the transformation from empty sports hall to a buzzing textile show. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and to meet new textile artists and traders. And the cup cakes were gorgeous! Well done Tracy!

I had printed and dyed quite a lot of fabric for the show and sold lots but I have some left over. So I have added them to my online shop. They include a selection of Wonky Print Inspiration Packs and some Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Packs. You can see them all here.

I’m now in book writing mode so don’t expect to be printing or dyeing more fabric until into the New Year so if you’re looking for Christmas presents or just fancy treating yourself now is the time!

Leah x

Last week I taught my last workshop for 2022 and it was a good one. Three great students, beautiful work, lots of laughter …. even when the handle fell off the studio door and we were locked in! (Big thanks to son Joe for letting us out and to my lovely father-in-law Bernard for fixing the problem - don’t know what I would do without them).

I have a five month gap until I start teaching again. Last year I spent my ‘off’ season making art. This year I will be spending it writing my next book and developing my next online workshop.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be working my way through a series of tasks that help me re-focus away from teaching mode. I have already moved the benches around a bit and taken down the big plastic screens that separate some of the benches. I’ve cleaned the six student trolleys and re-stocked them ready for next spring. I’ve started the process of inspecting, scouring and, if needed, repairing all my screens. I will be bleaching all my drop clothes to strip out some of the colour that has built up on them during the year. Those that remain very coloured will go through a ‘redemption’ bucket of thiox which is a powerful but very smelly discharge agent. Those that are still too coloured will be re-purposed as quilt bags. I will be organising all my teaching samples, giving some of them a wash before packing them away. I have diligently worked my way through the left over studio chocolate bars and will not restock until spring (who am I kidding!). And I have written a big list of the other stuff that needs doing before next spring.

Yes, some of these things could have waited but they really do help me ‘transition’.

This week I will also be getting ready for the Great Northern Textile Show on Sunday 23rd October. I will be exhibiting and will have a stand and hope to see some of you there. Lots of things to do to get ready, including preparing some more Wonky Print Inspiration Packs!

So, realistically I won’t be working on the book for another week or so but I’m itchin’ to get going!

Cadence 8: Flamin’ Nora

In our heads we know that, as artists, we shouldn’t take rejections to heart. It doesn’t mean our art isn’t good, it might just mean that it doesn’t work alongside the selected pieces. And I’ve had a good success rate so far this year so shouldn’t mind a rejection. Or two. But my heart rules my head when it comes to my heart so poo to being pragmatic!

My latest piece, Cadence 8: Flamin’ Nora has just been rejected by Quilt National.

Which is kind of appropriate as the quilt is a celebration of creativity in the face of life and other annoying stuff. I started work on it over a year ago and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and everything that could interrupt production has. So it is dedicated to those days when blobs of dye drip onto your printed masterpiece. Those days when you forgot to add a colour catcher to you wash load. When you measure once and cut wrong. When your bobbin thread runs out 2 inches before the end of the last seam. When you spill coffee. When your beloved decides it’s a beautiful day and you should spend it together. When the phone rings and apparently there is a fault on your broadband. When the phone rings and it’s your mother espousing the benefits of cauliflower cheese. Again. When the parcel arrives and you’ve ordered the wrong colour thread. When your machine breaks down one week before an important deadline and it’s a two week repair. When that deadline is Quilt National and you end up buying a new machine ‘cos you just have to finish the flipping quilt. For the days when you get rejected. Flamin’ Nora!

Despite all this I really love this quilt, it makes me smile and I am so glad that I did get it finished.

I also love Artefact 5, another recent piece, which has just been rejected by Australias’ International Art Textile Biennial. Poo and double poo!

And because bad things come in threes I can also report that my thermal imaging machine has finally died so I’ve withdrawn thermofaxes from my website. Poo, poo and triple poo!

Thankfully I am one of life’s optimists and, with the help of chocolate and gin, I am completely over the bad news! Onwards and upwards!

Artefact 5

It has been a strange couple of weeks here in the UK with so many things paused and general life feeling somewhat subdued. But now things are getting back to normal and I am delighted to let you know that I will be at this wonderful new event, the Great Northern Textile Show and Sunday 23rd October.

I’m honoured to be the featured gallery artist and will be showing a mixture of old and new quilts under the title ‘Beyond Ruins’. You can find out more about the gallery here.

I will also have a stand at the show and will be in very good company. The organiser, Tracy Fox, has done a really good job of gathering a diverse range of traders and you can find out more here. There will be fabric, kits, yarn, spinning equipment, sewing & embroidery machines, dye, fibre & fleece and much more.

You can follow the show on social media using the links below:

https://www.instagram.com/greatnortherntextileshow/

https://www.facebook.com/greatnortherntextileshow

https://twitter.com/GNTextileShow

If you live in the North West I’d love to see you there! This first event is a little acorn but with your support it will grow and grow!

The whirlwind that is Festival of Quilts is over for another year and I am already looking forward to next year! Thank you to everybody who stopped by and made it such a successful show and welcome to all you new subscribers. My biggest thanks though goes to Ruth Brown, friend, book binder, textile artist and all-round superstar. I quite literally could not have done the show without her.

I’m not sure we could have fitted more stuff in my van - lets just say that it is a good thing that both Ruth and me have short legs! Set up went pretty smoothly and I was really pleased with my stand. Lots of fabrics, lots of books, lots of dyes and lots of breakdown screens ready for me to print. The show opened at 9.30am on Thursday and we never stopped! My notes for next years show consist of one word ‘more’. More fabrics, more books, more screens ….. not quite sure how we’ll fit everything into my van but what a wonderful problem to have.

As well as the stand this year I was part of the studio collective running the Creative Textile Studio. This is a live space where a fantastic group of artists and demonstrators share their techniques and their work. Myself, Christine, Hazel and Terry are so grateful for the volunteers who helped set up the studio, who manned the sales table and generally pitched in when needed. If you visited the studio we would love to get some feedback from you.

Myself and Ruth also demonstrated in the studio and I thought I’d share a photo that one of the other demonstrators, Amanda Duke, sent me …. this was taken at about 4pm on the final day and boy do I look tired. Tired but happy! Thank you all again x

You’ll know already that I have a stand at Festival of Quilts (K47) and am involved in running The Creative Textile Studio at the show. This is the biggest quilt / textile event in Europe and the biggest event in my dairy. And getting ready for it is involves lots of lists …. the full packing list for the car along with lots of sub-lists. Lists of the equipment needed to ‘build’ the stand - table tops, table legs, shelf uprights, shelves, cross braces, table cloths, display cases, drill, hammer, screw drivers, screws (and gaffer tape and cable ties just in case, well there isn’t much that can’t be held together with gaffer tape and cable ties). Lists of stuff to go on the walls - which quilts to take (with velcro strips sewn on top and bottom), signage, velcro dots and tapes for sticking stuff up, double sided tape as the emergency back up option. Lists of paperwork. Lists of stuff needed to breakdown print on the stand (must, must, must not forget to make the screens next weekend!).

And that’s before I figure out the stuff that I’ll take to sell. Although it is wonderful to take bookings for workshops whilst I’m at the show the reality is that most people want to check their diaries and think about spending what is quite a lot of money before they book. So the cost of the show really needs to be covered by the sale of fabrics, books, dyes, screens etc. Books, dyes, screens etc are straightforward and don’t take too much time to organise. But my printed and hand dyed fabrics do. Whilst I print and dye quite a lot of fabrics during my workshops there is not enough to cover a show like Festival. So these last few weeks I have been topping up my supplies. And I love it! Printing and dyeing fabric to sell isn’t the same as printing and dyeing fabric for use in my art. There is no deep meaning, no controlled development of a colour palette, no sampling of printed fabrics. Instead I can just go for it! And loose myself in colour and in printing. Hard work but deeply satisfying. And the results - well I hope to have about 60 Wonky Print Inspiration Packs and 40 Absolutely Hand Dyed Fabric Packs ready for the show. That’s a bit more than I’ve taken to previous shows so I’m expecting to put the ones that don’t sell onto my website after the show. Maybe not immediately after …. I’m going to need a bit of a snooze after all the excitement of the show!

I’ve also developed something new for the show. Greeting cards that feature my breakdown printed fabrics. I’ve sold postcards before that were printed from photos of my art but have never felt that they really did justice to the intricate marks you get with breakdown printing. My new greetings cards are A5 and each one is completely unique. Some use fabrics which are very easy on the eye and some use fabrics that are a bit more urban and ‘gritty’. Any one piece of my printed fabrics might be used to make multiple cards but each will be unique as breakdown printing doesn’t give you repeated, uniform patterns. Which is why I love breakdown printing. Although they are greetings cards they could also be framed. Little pieces of affordable art. But I’m not sure what to charge. £2.95 would fit in with what a lot of artists charge for their printed greeting cards but there is a lot more work involved in making these fabric cards. There are a couple of examples below … would love to hear what you think?

It is less than four weeks now until Festival of Quilts, Europe’s biggest quilt show held each year at the NEC, Birmingham and I’m busy getting organised! You can find me on stand K47 opposite the cafe and seating area in Hall 6, near the Theatre and Exhibitors Lounge.

I’ll be breakdown printing on my stand except on Friday and Sunday afternoons when I’ll be demonstrating in The Creative Textile Studio. Artist and friend Ruth Brown will be helping on my stand and demonstrating in The Creative Studio on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Please stop by and say hello!

I’ll have lots of my hand dyed and printed fabrics, books and cards on my stand and will be taking bookings for workshops. I’ll also have dyes, other chemicals, 14x12inch screen printing frames, squeegees and beginners kits for sale. But there is a limit on how much stuff I can get pack into my car and may (hope!) to sell out of somethings. So I’m offering an order now, collect for free at the show service. If you place an order in my online shop please enter the discount code FOQ2022 and your order will be ready for you on my stand.. The code removes the shipping cost. It can only be used on orders over £20. The code is valid until 11.55pm on Friday 12th August. If disaster strikes and you don’t get to the show I’ll get in touch after the show to sort out shipping. Please contact me here if you have any questions.

If you’re planning to go but haven’t got your tickets yet I have a promo code you can use to save you a bit of money. The promo code is CTSA22 which gives a discount on Adult and Concession tickets until midnight on 17th August, making the price £16 for Adults reduced from £17.50 and £14 for concessions reduced from £15.50*. Booking link is https://thefestivalofquilts.seetickets.com/ *T&CS and transaction fees apply.

I’m off to print some more fabric …. hope to see you soon, Leah x

Terry drawing with needle nosed bottles and thickened dyes

The Creative Textile Studio (previously known as the Virtual Studio) has been an integral part of each summers Festival of Quilts from the very first show. It is a space where visitors can watch and interact with a bunch of talented people demonstrating a wide range of textile techniques. Up until now it has been organised by Leslie Morgan and the students of her Committed to Cloth studio. Leslie has now decided that it is time to retire and focus on making her own art.

And I am very proud to tell you that I am part of a new studio collective taking over the reins. The collective is Christine Chester (Studio Eleven), Hazel Ryder and Terry Donaldson (InStitches) and myself here at Urban Studio North. This is a new venture for us and we have big plans! We want to stretch the boundaries of textile art and share with you the widest range of textile and mixed media based techniques. We want to inspire you!

We will all be demonstrating at various times in studio and will be joined by some wonderful artists and textile tutors including Clare Bullock, Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw, Jennifer Collier, Kate Findlay, Ruth Brown and more. As we get closer to the show I will share the studio rota so you can plan a visit. And our logo. Yes we are going to have a logo! But for now you might want to look at our Instagram page foqcreativetextiles

And maybe start following us? Or spreading the word to your friends? Any support is very much appreciated. We’re barely an acorn right now but we want to grow to be a great big creative, colourful, inclusive and inspiring tree!

Detail of Artefact 4,

Making art comes with lots of highs and lots of lows. Those magical days when everything you’ve been working on comes together and you know you’re making good art. The whoop whoop moments when a piece of work is accepted in a juried exhibition. The rarer, whoop whoop whoop moments when a piece wins a prize or sells. In contrast - those weeks when you just can’t get ideas out of your head onto fabric, when everything you print or stitch is somehow wrong. And those, all to common, moments when a piece is rejected. You know you shouldn’t take it personally but you do.

Most of the time though the process of making art brings with it a quiet joy and a deep sense of contentment and well being. There are somethings that are not so much ‘fun’ but that’s OK because they are just one step in an overall process that you love. I print my fabrics with dyes and the rinsing and washing stage is the step I like least. But I end up with a pile of beautiful fabrics ready to use in the next stage of my process which makes it OK.

There is one thing though that I find just boring. And that is stitching sleeves to my quilts. Stitching the facings is OK as this finishes the piece and makes it ready to photograph and to share. But sleeves ….. nobody sees them, they add nothing to the visual impact of my finished art. It is very tempting to not add them until a piece has been accepted into an exhibition ….but then you find yourself working late into the night on a piece that has to be delivered / shipped the next day. Yes, been there, done that!

But this week I have been a good girl and have completely finished the piece that I’ve entered into Festival of Quilts (detail above). As per usual it is a big quilt. And as per usual I’ve added sleeves to both the top and the bottom of the quilt. Thank goodness for good coffee and a good supply of chocolate!