Commissions include partnership work with heritage sites, community organisations, museums, archives and schools. Below are some I have devised and led. Get in touch to discuss new commissions.
Threads of Identity (2016)
A project with the Manchester Race Archive and Burnage Academy for Boys to acknowledge 30 years since the murder or Ahmed Iqbal, a young Manchester boy of Bangladeshi heritage.
Sew Near – Sew Far (2017)
Sew Near – Sew Far (2017) was a partnership project with the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The brief, focused on community engagement, drawing in new audiences and exploring places away from the Museum itself. As part of this site-specific initiative, I worked with over 150 people in and around Haworth and Bradford. Each created their own sewn signature, and I then embedded them within the monumental autographs, three pseudonym signatures of the Brontë sisters on the hills of Haworth.
A short film by Peter Spence captures elements of this complex community-based project.
Unfolding Origins – Selby Toll Bridge (2019-22)
This was a partnership with the North Yorkshire County Records Office to uncover and interrogate the vast archives. My focus was Selby Toll Bridge, examining its origins which date back to the 1700’s. I worked with local schools and older citizens were involved in oral histories recording stories of the toll bridge. A series of stitched artworks complement these interventions and celebrate this rich overlooked local history.
Radical Acts (2018-9)
This commission for Tameside Council marked the Representation of the People’s Act, 100 years of votes for women. I worked with women’s groups across Tameside to create the banner made from silk voile and which spells out the iconic phrase ‘Not Just Bread but Roses Too’.
Past commissions
| 2024 | World Well-being Map. An Arts Council funded project exploring stitch and wellbeing with English Learners in Oldham Library. The partnership work will result in a large wellbeing world map made from repurposed materials sourced from the construction industry. |
| 2021 | Safety Net. An Arts Council funded project exploring mental health in the workplace and especially construction. A series of large-scale colourful banners were positioned on building sites in Manchester and Salford – reading ‘There is no health without mental health’. |
| 2019-20 | Scaffolding for Life. A DYCP grant from the Arts Council of the UK to explore ways to destigmatise mental health with focus on the construction industry. |
| 2019-20 | Unfolding Origins. A creative commission for the North Yorkshire County records office. |
| 2018 | Radical Locks. A commission for Tameside council in Greater Manchester to celebrate the centenary of women gaining the right to vote. The cloth, through text also commemorates the life of Hannah Mitchell, an overlooked local suffragette. |
| 2017 | Sew Near – Sew Far. A stitch-based site specific commission on the moors of Haworth for the Brontë Parsonage Museum, re-examining the Brontë sisters’ legacy and drawing in new audiences. |
| 2016 | Threads of Identity. A commission working with Burnage Academy for Boys and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive exploring young identity and belonging. |
| 2016 | Please Sign Here A quilt documenting over two hundred Rochdale citizens embroidered signatures. |
| 2016 | Kotha & Kantha. A collaboration with the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Educational Trust and a group of Bengali-born women based in Manchester. |
| 2014-15 | Nebraska Schools Project. A partnership with refugee children in three middle schools in Lincoln, Nebraska USA. |
| 2013 | Remembering Emily. A celebration of the life of suffragette Emily Davison, one hundred years after her death, involving the donated signatures of one hundred individuals. |
| 2011 | Blackpool Wedding Quilt. An initiative resulting in a royal wedding quilt with groups in Blackpool. |
| 2011 | Rainbow Haven. A project with Rainbow Haven, an asylum seekers and refugee organisation. |
| 2011 | Who Cares. A collaboration with the Whitworth Art Gallery around mental health. |
| 2011 | Sreepur Village. A project with women in Sreepur, Bangladesh celebrating the charity. |
| 2009 | Respect and Protect. A collaborative quilt for World Aids Day 2009 working with science and art students. |
| 2009 | Hulme Sweet Hulme. A public engagement fellowship with communities in Hulme, Manchester. |
| 2008 | Passing Down. A collaboration with poet Helen Clare as part of the Manchester Science Festival. |
| 2007 | The Great Indoors. A large-scale collaborative project for the first Manchester International Festival. |
| 2007 | Design Camp, Ahmadabad, India. Lead artist working with a number of textile-based artisans in Ahmedabad. |
| 2007 | Alma Park School Centenary. The project was to design and make with children, families and carers. |
| 2006 | Stitching Up Oxford Rd. A commission funded by Higher Education Funding Council to draw communities together on Manchester Oxford Rd. |
| 2006 | July-Dec 2006 Banner for Gallery Oldham. This commission was a collaboration with local women (from Asian, West Indian and British backgrounds) to make a contemporary banner for Oldham. |
| 2006 | Garden Of Delights 2003-05. Devised and implemented a series of crafts-based courses at Venture Arts in Hulme, working with adults with learning disabilities. This culminated in Garden of Delights, a community festival. |
| 2006 | Burnley Schools Commission 2004. This project brought together two diverse primary schools in Burnley. The tactile outcomes formed the centrepiece of Burnley Pride Week. |
Posts about my Commissions
- Exhibition. Connecting Threads at fashion textile museum
A few images from the opening of my exhibition, Connecting Threads, at Fashion Textile Museum, London, 2025. - Connecting Threads – tactile social history – new publication Jan 25
My new book, Connecting Threads tactile social history brings together twelve of my textile projects produced between 1981 and 2024. These social history documents provide tactile evidence of untold stories, people and places through stitch and the work is both personal and political. - PhD Study
My PhD at UCA, supervised by Professor Lesley Millar and Simon Olding, explored collaborative stitch’s benefits and tensions. Focusing on “signature cloths”—hand-sewn autographs—it examined community dynamics through case studies at Robin Hood’s Bay Museum, the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Archive, and Burnage Academy, highlighting stitch-based collaboration’s cross-disciplinary potential. - Unfolding Origins
In collaboration with Chrysalis Arts and the North Yorkshire County Records Office, this project explored Selby’s old toll bridge. My research uncovered new insights and culminated in banners celebrating 30 years toll-free, created with local schools. Showcased at Selby Library and other venues, the project preserved untold stories through oral history. - Sew Near – Sew Far
Sew Near – Sew Far is a stitch-based artwork created as part of Meeting Point2, a year-long project by Arts & Heritage. Inspired by the Brontë sisters’ signatures, the piece invites local people to add their own sewn signatures during workshops. Featured in the Brontë Museum guide, the work celebrates the Brontë bicentenaries.