Every artist, maker and crafter has a favourite make so I thought I would share the thing I love to make the most, pincushions. The first piece of patchwork I learned to make was an English Paper Pieced hexagon pincushion from a book my mother in law lent me many years ago. Since then hexagons have been my favourite shape for EPP.

In 2018, I worked alongside textile artist Ruth Singer as part of her Emotional Repair exhibition at Gawthorpe Hall. I ran a series of community workshops in Burnley making pincushions and mini quilts and Ruth showed me how to make a pebble style of pincushion using a circle of fabric gathered around a ball of stuffing which I’ve been making ever since.

I love making pincushions as they’re mainly a hand stitching project and extremely portable. You can work on them in a cafe, on the train and at the British Super Bikes. They’re also a great way to use up small pieces of fabric when you use techniques like EPP or crazy patchwork.

Pincushions have been included in some of my exhibitions like Girls Who Eat Their Feelings and Archive & Other Stories and you can see some more of my pincushions in my portfolio.

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