Bonds creates quilts and mixed media fiber dolls using fabric, beads, and symbolism to explore issues dealing with human rights, race, women, politics, and the environment.

[1] As a community activist and educator, Bonds advocates for legislation, taught workshops locally and internationally, and attended the Earth Summit Conference on Environment and Development of the United Nations as a delegate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

Her recent projects include her Common Threads quilt,[3] commissioned by the Kansas City Chiefs for their Arrowhead Arts Collection,[4] the Wak’ó Mujeres Phụ nữ Women Mural[5] collaboration, sponsored by the Charlotte Street Foundation's Rocket Grant Program,[6] in Lawrence, Kansas, and her recent cancer project.

Bonds did not realize until later in life that entering school in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement helped shape her as an artist and an activist.

Legislation was being proposed that would allow Browning Ferris Industries to build a landfill on top of the Old Quindaro Cemetery site.

If Da Dirt Could Talk was a collaboration between the playwright, professor, and performance artist Nancy Dawson and the quilter and activist NedRa Bonds.

Funded by the Charlotte Street Foundation's Rocket Grant, Bonds and Dawson created a series of socially-engaged works that discussed the overlooked history of Old Quindaro.

[13] As a part of this project, Bonds traveled to public schools in the Kansas City area, leading workshops on community heroes and local history.

Through quilting and performances, Bonds and Dawson sought to make their communities aware of everyday heroes and the complicated history behind the places that people live.

Her Women's Equity Quilt,[17] a collaborative effort where Kansas City and UMKC community members each made one square for a larger quilt, has been recognized nationally by both the University of Nebraska and the University of Michigan as an "outstanding community effort in addressing social justice".

"[9] Bonds was a long-time educator at various schools in Kansas City, but retired to devote herself full time to her art practice.

[20] Bonds takes symbolism from contemporary political and social issues and cuts it up, pastes it down, and stitches it back together with fabric and beads.

That quilt is called A Kiss from the Ancestors—it incorporates elaborate beaded silhouettes of the faces of a relative and child, with various music symbols, like drums, brass instruments, and the treble clef, which reference Kansas City's important role in the history of Jazz.

"[22] A recent quote from Bonds summarizes her parallel practices of quilting and activism; "I'm 68 but still keep blank placards and marker pens in the back of my car in case I need to stop and picket somebody.