Jahnavi Inniss – my year in craft

Jahnavi Inniss is a textile-based graphic designer, whose incredible 2025 featured a trip to Alabama, securing a studio and receiving Arts Council funding.

Jahnavi, what were some of the highlights of your year?

My first highlight of the year came in February, when my Black British History quilt was on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge as part of the exhibition Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition. It was a great opportunity to display the names of new people that I have discovered and added to the quilt since first creating it in 2020. It was equally rewarding being able to read more about the lives of some of the people featured on the quilt in the exhibition itself.

I ran quilting workshops alongside the exhibition which enabled me to link the history of quilting to the works on display. The radical history of quilting is what drew me to the craft in the first place, and the core exhibition theme of resistance is central to my quilting practice. That workshop led onto so many other workshops throughout the year, where I was able to teach this radical history of quilting and encourage people to participate in the tradition.

Another major highlight was that I was awarded the Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) fund by the Arts Council, which enabled me to travel to Gee’s Bend in Alabama, the home of well-known Black quilting communities. I was able spend time with the community, learn more about its history, witness their quilt making process and attend the Airing of the Quilts festival.

When I spoke to people in America about my practice, they didn’t know that much about Black British history, which I think is odd considering our school curriculum. We're taught a lot about African American history and civil rights, whereas in the US (as well as the UK), there seems to be a lack of knowledge of Black British history and our cultural movements and influences in Britain. This really affirmed my quilting practice and encouraged me to continue documenting Black British history and sharing our stories.

Have you made any changes/learned new skills/noticed a development in your craft over the last 12 months?

Until this year, I’d never had any formal quilting training, so I joined a short course at Morley College led by Isabel Fletcher, where I learned so many practical skills: borders and sashing, how to read a quilt ruler and the mathematical side of quilting. I learned a whole toolbox of different quilting techniques like Monkey Wrench or Flying Geese or Log Cabin. Those techniques came in handy whilst working on a commission for St Albans Museum in June.

I also was incredibly inspired by the Kerry James Marshall Symposium at the Royal Academy where the Nigerian painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby was speaking.

She honours the Kerry James Marshall-style of painting, as one of the few Black artists painting Black people using black paint. In the traditional school of painting, she was told never to use black as her teachers believed black isn’t a viable colour. It was interesting to hear her speak about how to counter those traditional schools of thought. I find a similar rigidity in quilting sometimes, but going to Gee’s Bend I saw a freedom to it. Njideka brought up the question of how she can make the tradition she is working from reflect her experiences and allow her to tell the stories she chooses.

That spoke to me, because my Black British History quilt doesn’t have a border or any padding, because I’m continually adding to it. I can’t finish the quilt because it's an unfinished artwork and that speaks precisely to the history, yet I’m still honouring the tradition of quilting and the act of making.

Did any other exhibitions or makers particularly inspire you this year?

The Mickalene Thomas exhibition, All About Love, at the Hayward Gallery. What inspired me was seeing how she used sequins in her paintins, creating her own way of making things look visually striking. Her work is unapologetic, making for the purpose of herself and other Black women being able to see themselves. She doesn’t let any pre-assumed ideas infiltrate her work.

Another exhibition I enjoyed was Hawai’i Ma uka to Ma kai: Quilting the Hawaiian Landscape at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. I loved how the Hawaiian quilts looked at the land and how they used a lot of symbols from within their community. It was inspiring to see people honouring their history and keeping it alive through quilting.

Finally, Gee’s Bend: Between History and Memory at the River Gallery, focussing on Dinah Miller, the earliest-known quilter of Gee’s Bend. One of the quilts was made from recycled khaki trousers, which really made me realise it’s possible to communicate an idea through a medium – the trousers don’t need to visually tell the story, but the fact they belonged to someone and are therefore part of the quilt, that’s the story.

What’s one key lesson about craft that you’ve learned this year? What will you be doing differently next year?

Next year I’m going to be rejecting and bending the rules! I’m not going to hold myself to the strict standards of quilting but embrace freedom in creating what I want to create. This is a lesson from Gee’s Bend, where a lot of the women take fabric and start piecing it together, making decisions about what it’s going to become as they go along. I love that freedom. I sometimes find it hard to stop researching and thinking about how I can depict something in a quilt, when instead I should take a step back and just start making.

I also want to look at how I can further use my own materials. I did a dyeing workshop with an artist called Emma Todd at the South London Gallery, alongside the Yto Barrada exhibition that’s on there at the moment. We dyed fabrics using old onion skins I think something I want to do next year is look at how I can make and manipulate my own fabrics and work from those.

What are you most looking forward to in 2026?

I have a studio now! Believe it or not, my 11m quilt was made in my front room, so I’m looking forward to having the time and the space to create more work.

Beyond that, I’m going to be doing some more courses, learning how to use the sewing machine for decorative stitches, hand stitching, screen printing onto fabric and other techniques for dyeing fabric. I then plan to use those fabrics in my quilts. So I’m really looking forward to learning those new techniques to deepen the visual power of my quilts.

As a result of the DYCP funding, I’ve shifted my quilting practice to full-time, and I’m using the next few months to experiment, research and learn new techniques that I can apply to my future projects.

Thanks Jahnavi, wishing you a wonderful festive break and we look forward to seeing your work in 2026!

See more of Jahnavi’s work on her website or her Instagram.