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Sedbergh Stitchers formed a group in 1993 with the objective of creating a canvas work panel which depicts the landscape, historic buildings and social background of the area.
Our designer produced a plan of the panel with a scale drawing of each building.
15 stitchers then chose a piece to work on at home and decided on colours and stitches for themselves. When the individual pieces were completed we attached them to the larger piece of canvas. We met most Friday afternoons in the home of one of the stitchers and used a quilting frame for the work. Eight people could sit round the frame, stitching, helping each other and catching up with the news.
Trees and vegetation were used as a background and as a way of disguising where the pieces were joined. The fells and sky, some of the figures such as the walker on New Bridge and the spinning lady in Railton Yard were worked directly on to the larger canvas.  Appleton's crewel wool on 10 holes/inch canvas was used for the pieces except for the Cloisters building which was worked on finer canvas.  The coach and horses, the Romany caravan, some of the figures and flowers were worked in silk on fine canvas.
In 2004 the Stitchers decided to create  a second panel. Each member chose a piece they wished to be included and a digital camera was used to take A4 photographs.  The outlines were traced, resized on a photocopier and finally transferred onto canvas.  The photographs were used as a reference and worked in the same way as the first panel.  We hope to complete the second panel by the end of 2009. 
The Stitchers have had grants of £350 towards the total cost of £1,000 for both panels from Cumbria County Council Neighbourhood Forum, Sedbergh Parish Council and  YDNP Sustainable Development through the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust.