Stitching Ashbourne began with a simple question: What do you love about Ashbourne? From this, a large-scale community-led textile work grew, shaped by people who live, work, shop or visit Ashbourne. Rather than capturing Ashbourne in a single moment, the project gathers voices, memories and lived experiences, holding them together in cloth.People came together in everyday community spaces, churches, schools, cafés, pubs and local venues, to share stories through appliqué and embroidery. The finished work is shaped by these shared moments and conversations, celebrating the places and experiences that people most value in Ashbourne. You may recognise some of them here, a favourite café, a familiar walk, a school, a church, or places connected to everyday life and community activity.The piece is formed of two connected elements: a central panel depicting community-selected landmarks including St Oswald’s Church, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, theGingerbread Café and Market Square, and surrounding narrative squares filled with personal memories, reflections and stories of everyday life. Look closer and you’ll notice one of the strongest themes to emerge: a shared love of nature, from garden birds and farm animals to the recreation ground and the wide open countryside.Across 24 workshops, more than 200 people took part, aged from 7 to 70 plus. Some picked up a needle for the first time; others brought a lifetime of stitching experience.Together, they created 174 narrative squares, each one holding a voice, a memory or an everyday experience. Everyone who took part became a co-author of this collective work.The stories, stitches and decisions reflect what people chose to share and what they want others to know about their town.At its heart, Stitching Ashbourne is about what happens when people come together to make: how shared making can strengthen connection, build confidence, and create a sense of belonging and pride in place. It offers a positive record of Ashbourne shaped from within the community, and a shared legacy for future generations.