everystitchastory

Tickets are now live for the Stitching Ashbourne Unveiling

April 14, 2026 everystitchastory

There’s something really special about reaching this point in a project, the moment where everything comes together and can finally be shared.

After nine months in the making, Stitching Ashbourne is moving into its final stage… and tickets for the unveiling are now live!

This project has been in development since last July and from the outset it was about creating a space for people to come together, to make, to talk, to share stories and to spend time connecting with each other and with this amazing town. What’s been so lovely is seeing that intention become a reality. New friendships have formed, conversations have unfolded, and a real sense of shared ownership has grown around the work.

Over that time, we’ve held 24 workshops across Ashbourne, in schools, cafés, church halls and community spaces. More than 200 people have taken part, contributing over 170 stitched pieces, each one bringing something personal, thoughtful and unique.

And piece by piece, it’s all come together.

What’s been created is a large-scale collaborative artwork that reflects Ashbourne through the people who know it and live it. It feels rooted in the town, its stories, its character and the people who make it what it is.

We’re now preparing for the exhibition and unveiling, an opportunity to bring everyone back together, to see the finished piece for the first time, and to take pride in what’s been created. The event itself has been shaped with the community at its heart and feels like a natural continuation of everything the project has been about.

Tickets are now available, and it would be wonderful to fill the room with everyone who’s been part of the journey, along with anyone who’d like to come and experience the work.

It’s a one-off moment, the first time the artwork will be seen in full.

You can book your place here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/youre-invited-stitching-ashbourne-community-exhibition-unveiling-tickets-1987300427074

Do come along if you can, it would be lovely to share this moment with you!

What’s Coming Up: Stitch, Story and Community

April 7, 2026 everystitchastory

Hello,

The next few months are set to be a busy time of sharing and celebrating some of the incredible work we’ve created together and I wanted to share what’s coming up and invite you to be part of it.

There’s something really special about seeing these pieces out in the world. What begins as individual contributions, small, thoughtful, personal, gradually becomes something much bigger. These projects continue to celebrate the power of community art: how each stitch, each story, each person’s input helps build something meaningful, connective and lasting.

At the heart of it all is storytelling. That’s always been the thread running through my work. Stitch gives us a way to share voices, hold memories and gently explore the narratives that shape our lives and communities. Some of those stories are joyful, some are more tender or complex, but all of them matter – and it’s a privilege to help hold space for them.

Over the coming weeks, there are a number of opportunities to come and see the work, take part, or simply spend a bit of time connecting with it.

The 80 Candles Quilt will be on display at Ashbourne Library from Monday 13th April to Saturday 18th April. On Saturday 18th April at 11am, I’ll be there for a short, informal talk, along with a book signing and a gentle craft activity for children.

The 80 Candles Quilt: Honouring Lives Through Collaborative Sitch will be on sale at book signing events.

In May, I’ll be running Nature Memory Hangings, a workshop in partnership with Derbyshire Mind, set in the beautiful surroundings of Chatsworth House. It’s on Thursday 14th May, and it will be a mindful, reflective session using stitch to connect with memory and place. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, you can book here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nature-memory-hangings-a-mindful-stitch-workshop-tickets-1984559271203

Then on Saturday 16th May, there’s the unveiling of the Stitching Ashbourne exhibition at Trinity Hall at The Link Centre, from 2.30pm to 5pm. This is always a lovely moment—seeing the work come together and shared publicly. Ticket details will be available soon.

The 80 Candles Quilt will also be on display at Mickleover Library from Tuesday 19th May to Saturday 30th May. There’ll be a talk and book signing on Friday 22nd May at 10.30am. It’s a free event, but booking is required, so you’ll need to contact Mickleover Library to reserve a place (01332 647884).

If you’re able to come along to any of these, it would be really lovely to see you. And if you feel like sharing with others who might be interested, that’s always hugely appreciated too. These projects are rooted in the idea that creativity belongs to everyone, and that storytelling—especially through stitch—can bring people together in meaningful ways.

I’ll be sharing updates and details on socials as things unfold, so do keep an eye here:
https://www.facebook.com/EveryStitchAStory

As always, thank you for being part of this. It really does make a difference.

If you’re looking for the details at a glance:

The 80 Candles Quilt – Ashbourne Library
13–18 April
Talk, book signing & children’s activity: 18 April, 11am. No Booking Required.
Nature Memory Hangings Workshop – Chatsworth House
14 May
Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nature-memory-hangings-a-mindful-stitch-workshop-tickets-1984559271203
Stitching Ashbourne Exhibition – Trinity Hall, The Link Centre
16 May, 2.30–5pm
(Booking details coming soon)
The 80 Candles Quilt – Mickleover Library
19–30 May
Talk & book signing: 22 May, 10.30am (booking required via Mickleover Library: 01332 647884)

Beyond Its Beginnings: The 80 Candles Quilt and a Place in History

March 3, 2026 everystitchastory

There are moments in a project when you realise something has moved beyond its beginnings.

A copy of The 80 Candles Quilt: Honouring Individual Lives Through Collaborative Stitch has now been accessioned into the collection of the The Wiener Holocaust Library in London. For those unfamiliar with the library, it is one of the world’s most significant archives dedicated to the study and remembrance of the Holocaust.

For the 80 Candles Quilt project, this moment feels deeply meaningful. When the quilt was first conceived, the intention was to humanise history. Each stitched square represents an individual life affected by the Nazi regime. Participants were invited to research a person, learn something of their story, and translate that connection into a piece of slow stitched textile. The process was intentionally reflective: a quiet act of remembrance, carried out both individually and within community workshops.

Alongside those who researched individuals they had never met, members of the Derbyshire Jewish Community shared something even more personal. They entrusted the project with the stories of their own families, memories of grandparents, great-grandparents and relatives whose lives had been shaped by persecution, loss, survival and displacement.

For many families, these stories exist primarily within personal archives or through oral history, passed down across generations. In some cases the individuals themselves are not widely documented elsewhere. Their lives are remembered through family memory, through the telling and retelling of stories, through photographs, fragments of documents and treasured recollections. To hold those stories, even briefly, felt like a responsibility.

The quilt became a space where those lives could be honoured. Participants took time to sit with the histories they encountered, often finding small but meaningful ways to connect with the person they were remembering. Through thread and fabric, each square became a quiet act of acknowledgement: a life recognised, a story held. The book was created so that those stories could continue to travel beyond the quilt itself.

Knowing that a copy of the book is now held within the collection of the Wiener Holocaust Library means that some of those personal histories now sit within one of the most important repositories of Holocaust documentation in the world. Researchers, educators and future generations will be able to encounter these stories as part of the wider historical record.

For the families who shared them, it means that the lives of their relatives are now held within a place dedicated to remembrance and understanding. And for the project itself, it feels like an extension of its original purpose. The quilt sought to humanise history through collaboration and remembrance. The accessioning of the book ensures that the stories behind those stitched squares will continue to exist within a permanent archive, helping to ensure that the individuals remembered and the families who carry their memory, will not be forgotten.

This moment does not belong to the project alone. It belongs to the members of the Derbyshire Jewish Community who shared their family histories with such openness and trust. It belongs to the participants who spent hours researching individuals they had never met, seeking ways to honour their lives with care and dignity. And it belongs to everyone who contributed their time, thought and compassion to the making of the quilt.

What began as a collaborative act of remembrance has now become part of a lasting historical record.

That feels quietly extraordinary.

If you would like to order a copy details can be found here.

Bringing It All Together: The Final Chapter of Stitching Ashbourne

February 23, 2026 everystitchastory

Today marked our final public workshop for Stitching Ashbourne! A real milestone in what has been an inspiring and genuinely collaborative journey.

From the very beginning, this project has been shaped by generosity. So many people have given their time, skills and knowledge to help bring it to life. One of the most rewarding parts has been watching each person’s expertise step forward at just the right moment, whether through embroidery, workshop support, machine stitching, pressing, problem-solving or those careful finishing touches that make all the difference. If you have taken part at any point along the way, thank you. Your contribution is stitched into this piece in more ways than one.

At our final public session, we were hard at work assembling the two side panels and beginning the binding process and they are looking fantastic. Seeing weeks of individual contributions come together into something cohesive and unified has been incredibly satisfying. It’s hard to believe how much has been achieved in such a short space of time.

We are hugely grateful to Betty’s Sewing Box and Betty’s Vintage Tea Room for providing such a welcoming and supportive creative space over the past month, and for keeping us so well fed and watered throughout. We will all miss those legendary cheese scones! We’re also incredibly thankful to the other local venues who have hosted workshops along the way, your generosity and willingness to open your doors has helped make this project possible.

Although the public workshops have now finished, the work isn’t quite complete. Over the coming weeks, the Central Panel Sewing Circle will be meeting, and beavering away at home, to finish the final elements and a few top-secret details. Then our focus turns fully to planning the grand unveiling, which will take place mid-to-late April at Ashbourne Methodist Church.

As we begin planning this celebration, we would love to hear from anyone who would like to be involved. We’re hoping to showcase locally themed refreshments, ideally provided by Ashbourne businesses, and are also looking for help with planning, setting up, clearing away, serving teas and coffees and possibly even providing some entertainment. If you would like to play a part in bringing the unveiling to life, please do get in touch.

Following the unveiling, the finished piece will tour the town, visiting St Oswald’s Church, Ashbourne Historical Centre, House Of Beer, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, St Oswald’s C of E Primary School, Ashbourne Library and Ashbourne Festival, celebrating the people, places and creativity that make Ashbourne so special.

This project has always been about connection, between stitches, between stories and between people. I can’t wait to share the finished piece with you. Watch this space!

Quilt of Connection – Derby: Our Stories Now in the Museum

January 30, 2026 everystitchastory

After more than a year-long wait, the Quilt of Connection – Derby is now on display at The Museum of Making, and it feels like a truly special moment.

The project began with a simple but powerful question: What is your story, and how would you like it to be told? And, if you could be represented in your local museum, how would you choose to be celebrated? These questions invited people across Derby and Derbyshire to reflect on their lives, their journeys and their connections to this place. What followed was a series of gentle conversations, shared making and moments of connection that slowly grew into a large, collaborative artwork, one made not by a single artist, but by a whole community.

The Quilt of Connection is a slow-stitched textile collage created by the people of Derby and Derbyshire. Each stitched piece carries a personal story, of belonging, migration, memory, resilience, love and community. Together, these fragments form a shared portrait of a living, diverse city. The project was developed in response to History Makers: Unfolded by Derby Museums, which asked visitors to reflect on whose stories are told in museums and whose are still missing. This quilt is a collective response to that question, placing lived experience and community voices at the heart of the museum.

Cloth became a form of memory within the project. Participants repurposed cherished, unwanted, and discarded textiles, stitching their narratives into reclaimed fabrics associated with everyday life and human connection, bed sheets, tablecloths and cloth carrying the traces of use, care and shared history. These materials became vessels for storytelling. Piece by piece, layer by layer, the quilt grew into a tactile collage that holds stories of love, friendship, family, loss, loneliness, migration and belonging.

The process of making was not separate from the artwork; it was the artwork. In my practice, the space created through shared making is always as important as what is eventually produced. This is where the real magic happens: where conversations unfold, relationships form, communities connect and individuals begin to see themselves reflected as part of something bigger. The Quilt grew not only through fabric and thread, but through time spent together, listening, sharing and being present with one another.

Workshops took place across Derby and Derbyshire, including sessions with Maison Foo, Derby Multi-Faith Centre, Women’s Work Derbyshire, and Craft & Chat Ashbourne, alongside open drop-in workshops at Derby Museum & Art Gallery and the Museum of Making. These sessions were supported by the museums’ wonderful volunteers and welcomed people of all ages and abilities. Each person who took part brought something unique, a memory, a piece of cloth, a story, a feeling, and together those contributions now sit side by side, creating something bigger than any one of us.

Seeing the Quilt of Connection displayed at the Museum of Making is deeply moving. It represents a shift, placing community voices, lived experience, and personal histories at the centre of a cultural space. This quilt belongs to everyone who contributed to it, it is their story, now held in the museum. Alongside the quilt, a book of participants’ reflections will soon be displayed, sharing the words and reasons behind each stitched piece.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who shared their stories, time and creativity. This work would not exist without you. And special thanks to Sally Hawley, Hope Slater, and Eilish Clohessy-Dennis for supporting this project and helping bring it into the museum.

If you were part of the project, I hope you’ll come and see your piece in person. And if you’re visiting Derby, I warmly invite you to experience the Quilt of Connection, a work made from real lives, real stories, and real connection.