Barbara creates art in textiles by layering many carefully chosen scraps of fabric, then hand-stitching them together. Self-taught, and with no prior sketching, the images are freely constructed and hint at movement resulting from trimming and shaping as the pictures evolve. From a distance they look like impressionist paintings but close up all the texture and detail of the materials can be seen.

Barbara developed her unique style after experimenting with the leftover scraps from making patchwork quilts. Initially these were made in to collage cards, which then grew in to larger and more dynamic pieces as her artistic skills developed.

Barbara’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries, including the Oxford Museum of Natural History; she has been Artist-in-Residence at two National Trust properties; two of her pictures are in museum collections and a picture was included in an exhibition in the Houses of Parliament. She has appeared on a Children’s TV programme.

On social media Barbara shares what inspires her pictures and, with short demonstrations, encourages others to follow progress of her textile artwork and to try collage too. She is also documenting her arty life and the development of her tiny garden with photographs and short videos. Her posts seem to resonate with people as she now has over 170,000 followers.