Anita’s love of hand embroidery began at the age of 3 when she was taught simple embroidery on Aida fabric using a large blunt needle. She began to knit at 4, crochet at 6, and began making her own clothes when she was 10. Following a Fashion & Pattern Cutting course at Art College, where she won several prizes including Best Manufacturing for Imbex Menswear Competition, and Most Commercial Glove design, Anita embarked on a successful career in the hand knitwear industry working with major yarn spinners and publishing houses for whom she designed knitwear and wrote knitting patterns. She also worked within the publishing industry as a Section Editor on a craft publication and wrote a book on Ribboncraft, which included some Ribbon Embroidery.

After pursuing a career in administration, she retrained and ran her own Sports Massage clinic. It was at this time that she reconnected with embroidery and, on discovering the RSN, she began to attend the Certificate & Diploma in Technical Hand Embroidery. Feeling like she had ‘come home’, Anita joined the RSN Future Tutors Programme and, following the three years study, graduated in July 2020.

Alongside her Future Tutor studies, Anita has worked on the hand-embroidered textile for The Princess of Wales’s ‘Back to Nature’ garden at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival in 2019.  Then in 2020, she enjoyed working as part of the RSN team restoring a rare Au Bon Marché chair and made a brief appearance on the TV programme, Salvage Hunters: The Restorers.

Her teaching career began during her training on the Future Tutor Programme when she designed and taught Learning Curve classes for the RSN at The Knitting & Stitching Shows, Family Stitch Workshops and on the RSN BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery course. Since her graduation, Anita teaches students of a wide range of age and experience.  She enjoys teaching RSN Day Classes, International Summer School, Summer Intensive programme, and Certificate & Diploma courses, both online, as well as teaching in-person at Hampton Court.

Anita’s work has been exhibited at RSN exhibitions at Hampton Court Palace, and The RSN Exhibition ‘150 Years of the Royal School of Needlework: Crown to Catwalk’ (2022), and The Broderers’ Exhibition: The Art of Embroidery, Bankside Gallery, London.

She loves all forms of embroidery; however, Anita particularly enjoys Jacobean embroidery, Crewelwork, Raised Embroidery, Whitework, Canvaswork and Appliqué.

In 2023, Anita was honoured to be part of the Embroidery Studio team at the Royal School of Needlework who worked on the Anointing Screen for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.