• Common Threads Press

  • Independent publisher putting radical histories of craft and making on your bookshelf.
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Common Threads Press

Independent publisher putting radical histories of craft and making on your bookshelf. Shop

Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting (Second Edition)

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Crafting Resistance: An Evening with Common Threads Press

We are delighted to announce our event with Kettle's Yard, to accompany their new exhibition Here is a Gale Warning: Art, Crisis & Survival. Book tickets

Crafting Resistance: An Evening with Common Threads Press

6 May, 6.30–8.15pm GMT, Kettle's Yard

We are delighted to announce our event with Kettle's Yard, to accompany their new exhibition Here is a Gale Warning: Art, Crisis & Survival.

Join us for a panel discussion on craft as a source of hope and survival. This panel will approach craft from the perspective of three of our authors who work with a diverse range of craft histories, chaired by Laura Moseley, Common Threads Press founder and Assistant Curator of the Women’s Art Collection.

Find out more and book tickets

NEW: Softness: A Meditation on Knitting

PRE-ORDER FOR 17.4.2025

Unravelling the semantics of the ugly jumper, the ratty cardigan and the squishy mittens.

Softness is a poetic reflection on hand-knitting and the neglected objects that give us nourishment. A straggly jumper, shrunken in a hot wash. A frayed sleeve, mended with different wool. A garish sweater, coffee-stained but decidedly unwashed, sent by a loved one to withstand the cold winters.

Punctuated by short key texts from textile studies and feminist theory, Softness tugs at the loose threads of this corner of craft history. This is an ode to the disrepaired, a plea to stem the tide of unloved, mass-produced clothing by rethinking the power of soft things.

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EVENT: Sculpture and Craft at The Hepworth Wakefield

Join us for an evening with Abi Shapiro, Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield.

Abi will be talking us through the sculpture and craft objects in the collection and their current exhibition Elizabeth Fritsch: Otherworldly Vessels, followed by a Q&A session where you can ask questions and chat to Abi.

Book tickets

Fundraising

Fundraising for charities and community groups through our publications, prints and collaborations is something we're most proud of.

£1772 for the Navajo Quilt Project ~ £606 for The Outside Project ~ £468 for the Black Art Library ~ £133 for Leeway Domestic Abuse Services ~ £465 for Norwich Trans Pride ~ £1307 for Medical Aid for Palestinians ~ £930 for Palestine Red Crescent Society

NEW: Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting (Second Edition)

A vital and tender record of the quilts that have shaped history — and the hands that stitched them. 

Throughout history, marginalised communities have turned to the collective intimacies of quilting in moments of need. From the works of Faith Ringgold to social initiatives such as the Navajo Quilting Project, Many Hands Make a Quilt sews together stories of resistance, craft and community in intricate detail, preserving and honouring Black, Indigenous and working-class artistic traditions in naming quilters as artists and activists in their own right.

This second edition contains a new foreword by Elaine Yau, a new chapter, a new design and an expanded bibliography and resource list.

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Testimonials

Each new book from Common Threads Press is cause for celebration.

We are talking about something more than simply informational books, we are talking about a mission-based publisher establishing space for people to make and create, and essentially a furtherance of culture, collaboration and creative work. It is thrilling to see this all emerging from the UK and long may it continue.

Simon Armstrong, Head of Book Sales & Buying at Tate Shops

Common Threads Press craft sharply focused, deeply researched and intimately felt publications that offer rich insights into the often overlooked yet urgent narratives that textiles can reveal. Their beautiful books speak to the histories of power, poetic possibilities and political potential held in fibre and thread; they have offered me inspiration and joy in equal measure.    

Lotte Johnson, curator of 'Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art'

Common Threads Press publications are brilliant: accessible, informative, powerful.

They bring to the fore the universal human stories told by textiles and their making, underscoring the intimate and political power of fabric.

Rachel Dedman, Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the V&A, curator of 'Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery'.

I am such a huge fan of Common Threads Press, who offer a vibrant and vital platform to craft stories that have often been neglected from wider histories. Beautifully produced and exacting in research, these publications show that as with everything, the history of craft is deeply political.

Amber Butchart, curator, writer and history consultant for BBC One's Great British Sewing Bee.

Diasporic Threads platforms a stunning selection of works by contemporary Black women textile artists and is rich in critical insight and historical context.

Ferren Gipson, author of Women's Work: From Feminine Arts to Feminist Arts and The Ultimate Art Museum.

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