Safety First, 2024, I repurposed old safety vests and used patterned quilting designs as a way to honour the bodies and minds of forestry workers. The vests used here were donated to me by workers, who I interviewed for my project, ‘The Mill’. Quilting with workers’ clothing has allowed me to embody the conversations we had and to repurpose the materials from  the industry into a function beyond profit or business logics. 

Safety First was presented in a group show at Concordia University in Montréal in 2025. For this exhibition, I paired the quilt with audio of the forestry workers who donated their clothes, speaking about their lives and jobs. The quilt was made during a workshop with Gees Bend quilters China and Mary Ann Pettway at Camp McDowell in Alabama.