This week I heard that Ruins 9 Cottonopolis Revisited will be going to a new home after my solo exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery ends on 5th May. Which is wonderful news although I will miss it. I make art for a couple of reasons; to get ideas and feelings out of my head and into a physical form and for the results to be seen, and hopefully appreciated, by others. Selling my art is a lovely bonus. An affirmation. That I am an Artist with a capital A. It banishes the doubts, the imposter syndrome moments. And makes me more determined than ever to reorganise my life so that I can ma ..read more

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 i ..read more

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 j ..read more

Detail, full image below. You may remember a small quilt (well small for me) that I made last year in response to the Contemporary Quilt Group challenge ‘Uncharted’ called Taming The Wilderness. It’s the long skinny one that is part of my Cadence series. The organisers will be showing all 77 entrants in different groupings at different events over the next 12-18 months. I am absolutely delighted that my quilt has been chosen to be one of the 35 quilts that will be shown at this summers Festival of Quilts (18th to 21st August). It will then travel to Exeter, Glasgow, Birmingham and London betw ..read more

Sample made for my new Artefact series My art goals for 2022 are simple. Make more. Submit more. The need to earn a living and to care for my family are what they are and mean that making art has to fit around them. One of the reasons I left industry and started teaching in my studio was to get a much better balance between these three parts of my life and it was, despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, the best decision I’ve ever made. I now have periods of time, mostly in the winter, when I can work on my art full time and without interruption. This is great for developing new ideas ..read more

Self Portrait by Pippa Wardman I love seeing the fabrics that my students print and dye during workshops - their work is so varied and inspirational. But I don’t often get to see what happens next - how they use their fabrics. I suspect that many pieces are put away in cupboards, but I hope that, at the very least, they get pulled out every so often and stroked lovingly. However earlier this autumn I asked my students to send me photos of work made using fabrics created here at Urban Studio North. And wow! The variety of work is amazing and I’m grateful for their help. I have put together a g ..read more

Although the last posting date is later I’m setting Wednesday 15th December as a cut off for pre-Christmas orders as I plan on taking a long break over Christmas and the New Year. Orders placed later than this will be posted at the start of January. (Unless I get a bit bored and fancy a trip to the Post Office!). I thought you might also like to know that I’ve added a few more new Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my online shop. I have now finished teaching for this year. The bad weather this week meant postponing the last two days teaching but other than that I’m happy, and relieved, to have ..read more

A very big thank you to Rosie James for teaching in my studio this week! I love her work and it was great to see her processes. The students loved it! Here are just a few images of students work. In order: Jan, Janet, Ali, Tracey (x2), Sam, Kate and Sarah ..read more

…. is the working title of the quilt I’ve been working on over the last week or so. It is a new piece in my Cadence series and will probably be titled Cadence 8 once it is finished. It is a piece inspired by those days when my carefully constructed oasis of calm, steady creativity is disrupted by unexpected but often petty interruptions (must remember to lock the studio door from the inside / turn off my phones), by stuff not working properly (I swear that my beloved sewing machine knows when to irritate me!) and by life just getting in the way. The type of day when I might say something a bi ..read more

Taming The Wilderness - detail Or, in my case, make a quilt! I should be in the middle of a busy teaching schedule here in the studio but I’ve find myself with two ‘empty’ weeks. I have been isolating for the last week and have had to cancel next weeks workshop due to students having problems. Why isolating? Well it’s a bit complicated. Our grandson lives part time with us and his dad, our son Joe, and part time with his mum and her parents. Last weekend a person in his mums household tested positive for Covid so everyone in the household was contacted by track and trace and told to isolate ..read more