Star Project Award 2024 

Star Project Award text, brightly coloured embroidery and thread

‘Patchworking Motherhood has made Monday mornings something to look forward to!’

(comment from a group member)

The Patchworking Motherhood group is made up of six participants all with babies under 8 months old, alongside myself and Fiona, and two additional staff members to support the mothers and babies. 

The project had a slow start initially, as some of the participants were unable to join the first session. This gave those of us who did attend a chance to get to know each other and for Fiona and myself to trial the format of the group in preparation for when it gets busier. We have been able to sit the group around one large table and hope to keep this layout throughout the project. One of our support staff members has commented on how she really enjoys the sense of community that the group provides. I think sitting together is a big part of this, along with the home-made cake that has become a weekly staple.

During the initial sessions I have been introducing the term matrescence to the group by reading a short piece from the book Matrescence by Lucy Jones. Matrescence is the term used to describe the transition to motherhood and the physical, psychological, and emotional changes that a mother goes through after the birth of a child. I want to draw a connection between the piecing together of textiles pieces through patchworking with the metaphorical re-piecing together of oneself in the process of becoming a mother.

I want participants to reconnect with their own preferences and connect with what they like, as personal taste is associated with our own identity which can feel lost when we become mothers. We talked about colours and patterns that reminded us of moments in our lives. With a pile of fabric offcuts in the middle of the table, I invited the group to select fabrics that they connected with, and this sparked some very personal choices and interesting conversations.

I must give special thanks to all those who donated fabrics for the project. We have a wonderful selection including Liberty’s offcuts, printed cottons and beautiful silks, which provide plenty of colour and pattern for participants to choose from.

The group had varying degrees of hand sewing experience prior to the project. As each participant found their way in both selecting fabrics and piecing them together by hand, their confidence and pace slowly increased. It was magical to experience the group, all chatting and noise one minute, fall into a silence as everyone, including the babies, appeared busy and full of concentration.

The babies have been fantastic. It’s a joy to have them in the room with all the energy they bring. They seem to enjoy laying on the playmat or being held by one of us. One mother appreciates having the extra hands on board saying

It means we can have some much-needed calm, quiet and focused time on what, for me, has become a new hobby’.

The Star Project Award 2024

Star Project Award text, brightly coloured embroidery and thread
Star Project Award

I met Fiona Wilkinson, lead occupational therapist for the Dorset perinatal community health team, at a wild swimming group in Studland, Dorset. Our shared interests in early motherhood, mental health, and my desire to bring textiles practice into this space, sparked the idea to apply for the STAR project award together.

Planning the project, from a simple idea to a proposal for an 8 week course, was incredibly rewarding. By working through the numbers on a spreadsheet, considering amount of participants, number of sessions, cost of materials, room hire, staffing and other costs, we were able to calculate and adjust the plan until we reached a viable project within the funding available. This led us to make decisions on where to focus the funds, and where we might save money, for example borrowing instead of buying.

Since this project is aimed at Dorset Perinatal Mental Health clients, offering the course free of charge was a priority. We also recognised the challenge of balancing caring for young children with engaging in textile craft. So, we budgeted for additional staff to help with children during sessions.

In planning the project, we reflected on whether an outcome was necessary. Creating a finished item is often the assumed goal of a textiles course, however, in my experience, a focus on end result can sometimes interfere with in-the-moment making. I want participants to engage intuitively with the process whilst letting go of expectation. However, we also recognised the value of completing a personal patchwork to keep as a memento of this time.

Our aim is to create a non-judgemental, safe and welcoming space where participants will be invited to focus on themselves for the time that they are with us. This will include plenty of tea, coffee, and maybe even cake! We will encourage a light-hearted and instinctive no rules approach to piecing and stitching, whilst supporting participants to work to their own interest and pace to complete a textiles piece that will feel meaningful to them within the timeframe.

Participants are very welcome to bring any fabrics they would like to use for their patchwork, although this isn’t necessary as we have gathered together a large supply of materials and plenty of embroidery threads for them to rummage through and select from.

I look forward to reporting back once the project is well underway, and would like thank the Textile Study Group for their generous award and for selecting our project, Patchworking Motherhood.

Emma McGinn

This warm and welcoming room as it was set up ready and waiting for the mothers with their children to arrive.

Return to Star Project Award on the TSG website for more information about the award and an application form.

Fragile Forms-Deconstructed

Fragile Forms-Deconstructed

TSG member Jean Draper talks about our recent Continuing Professional Development workshop with Amanda Clayton:


The weekend was doubly important to me because, due to illness and Covid, it was my first face to face meeting with the group for a long time. There had been zoom meetings which, though good, are only a substitute for real contact with friends and colleagues.

Fragile Forms – Deconstructed. With Amanda Clayton

The workshop began on Friday evening with a very informative talk by Mandy in which she outlined her development as an artist from an early age through to the present day. It was very pleasing to hear her mention and acknowledge family members, teachers, other artists and colleagues who influenced her. I was specially interested to learn of her collaborations with medical and academic people to research and provide information on health issues to others, including NHS consultants. The resulting work was published in medical/academic journals.

Amanda Clayton, Loss. Photography: Dawn Jutton



Using the natural forms of our choice as starting points, and using a variety of white and neutral materials, on Saturday our work began with a series of fairly brief, but challenging, ‘tasks’ set by Mandy. Beginning with observation and representation and moving towards abstraction, each task was carefully structured and supported by a full explanation and an informative hand-out which included a possible visual vocabulary. We were encouraged, as we worked with delicate materials, to record our ideas in photographs and notes and to consider the relevance to our personal experience and skills. Each day every member had individual tutorial time with Mandy.

We were treated to an amazing display of Mandy’s beautiful, obsessively hand-stitched work, numerous samples and a huge variety of threads and fabrics to supplement our own. Throughout Mandy generously shared her methods and use of materials.


Jean Draper.

Shelley Rhodes, TSG member, workshop investigation

Summer School 2025

Summer School 2025

The theme for our 2025 Summer School is Materiality.

This is a residential summer school tutored by Textile Study Group members and open to everyone with workshops led by Textile Study Group members Alice Fox, Sue Green and Mandy Pattullo

Summer school is held each July at Hillscourt Hotel, Rose Hill, Rednal, Birmingham B45 8RS.
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 July 2025.

The three workshops will use materiality as the springboard for the creative process. It will be an opportunity to play with materials gathered, explore the touch and feel of old fabrics and experiment with deconstruction and reconstruction ideas.

Your experienced and inspirational tutors will guide and support you in developing your ideas and creating a fun and exciting experience. Choose from the following three workshops:

Here and Now with Alice Fox: The detail that surrounds us can be fascinating, if we just allow ourselves to take it in. This course aims to open our eyes to what is around us, finding the potential in the ordinary. Led by the place and the material available, an experimental approach is encouraged. With a focus on objects and marks collected on short walks from the studio we will explore different techniques, making use of what we find and exploring ways of developing visual ideas on paper and cloth. This will be a chance to explore some alternative approaches to mapping, developing individual personal records of place.

Unmaking-Remaking with Sue Green: This course will explore the concept of ‘unmaking’ using cloth to retell new narratives. Experimental print and stitch processes will be explored responding to traces and memory.

Students should bring along an item of cloth or clothing with a personal connection but not something precious as it will be taken apart to reveal the hidden stories within and used to print from.

Outcomes will be facilitated through individual discussion and will form a series of samples to further develop independently.

Textile Collage with Mandy Pattullo: This gentle hand stitching course encourages you to bring together your own stash of old fabrics, lace and garments, that may be flawed through wear and tear, and transform them through textile collage techniques to find in them a new beauty.

Together we will deconstruct, layer and rearrange materials to create patchworked surfaces, which will be enhanced with stitch. You will develop a personal stitch language which might be based on pattern making with traditional stitches, refer to stitch conventions of other cultures or invent new ways to draw with stitch on to fabric.

Full details are all available on our website and bookings open on 14th October.