I wanted it to be a richly embroidered piece, something to wear for a very special celebration, joyful and dazzling. The circle has always been a powerful symbol in a wide variety of folk traditions and mythology, representing life, love, sanctity and wholeness. It felt fitting to create a circular skirt to celebrate that love and life that we all share when we embroider together.

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The V &A collection includes a beautiful evening ‘Ensemble’ by Adolpho which recycles a Victorian crazy patchwork quilt as the skirt other pieces created to complete the outfit. This was a good starting point for inspiration.

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I decided that crazy patchwork technique would be the best way of creating such a huge garment (7 feet in diameter)  as people could easily embroider small individual blocks of coloured patches of fabrics which could then be incorporated into the skirt

The blocks were in very specific colourways and I asked people to richly embroider them with threads that would blend into the final piece.  I thought that a rainbow of colour would be striking on a wall, but also represent the diversity of East London and all the people involved in ELTA. The skirt includes work by adults with learning disabilities, people of different genders, backgrounds, heritages and ages.

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As the pieces were completed, they were arranged on the plain background skirt.  I appliqued them all onto it, adding extra pieces of fabric and embroidered motifs to disguise the blocks so that it looks seamless. In all, there were 102 smaller blocks of fabric, but each block comprised about ten patches of fabric so that, including the extra fabric and motifs, there are around 1500 individual pieces of embroidery on the skirt.

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The patchwork blocks were completed between January and May 2025, and then I spent nearly two months arranging and completing the applique work to finish the skirt. It is all entirely hand sewn.

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Traditionally, crazy patchwork quilts often incorporated embroideries made by friends for each other. Old quilts include images of birds, animals, flowers, messages of love and friendship, significant dates, commemoration of loved ones, signatures.  I wanted our embroideries to do the same. Everyone embroidered things that were important to them, ranging from their families’ dates of birth to their love of gardening. The rivers canals and wildlife of East London are featured, including the ubiquitous pigeons and urban foxes.. People wanted to celebrate their heritage and the skirt includes images representing China and Singapore, India and Bangladesh, Jamaica, Dominica, Italy, Ghana and Nigeria, to name but a few. One person embroidered a piece celebrating her Middlesborough roots.  There are embroidered eyes all over the skirt -including those of our family members - in the style of the miniature portraits of eyes that people carried around with them as sentimental tokens during the Georgian and Victorian era. We have some Chinese horoscopes that record the birthdays of entire families. One person whose grandchildren are living in Finland embroidered a piece celebrating their grandchildren’s footballing skills. Another embroidered the view from her window that was comforting when recovering from an operation. Among other images is a very British cup of tea, and a Manchester Bee.  Someone who has learning disabilities included words that he uses in his acting classes. We have pieces that commemorate our loved ones who have passed away. The skirt includes images of our pets, our faiths, our festivals. We added motifs that celebrate charities and religious organisations helping others in the local community, including the Hibiscus association and Celia Hammond Cat rescue charity. We have some wonderful embroidered elephants and fish on the skirt, Scraps of ELTA printed fabrics feature from past projects including toothy smiles, Turtle shell hexagons, a St Barnabas Strawberry and a Harpy.

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We used beads, pieces of fabric from our own family collections, vintage buttons, ribbons and sequins. There are embroidered figures of dancers from India, Africa, China and Europe incorporated into the general melee of colour and celebration.