- Vendor Highlight -
Of Cakestand Quilts
These past few weeks, we have been busy in studio, focused on our upcoming Block of the Month program, Northern Lights, designed by my lovely friend Nicola of Cakestand Quilts. Nicola and I 'met' on instagram many years ago, well before each of us began our creative businesses. Nicola has not only become a wonderful business connection, whom we collaborate with on a regular basis, but also a dear friend. I thought you'd love to learn more about one of my favourite Brits too.
Hello, I’m Nicola and I live in Shropshire in the UK with my husband, Mark. It’s a rural county near the Welsh border and our home is surrounded by fields, but we’re just a few hours’ train ride away from London and Edinburgh, where our sons now live.
I became smitten with quilting over a decade ago (it seems more like ten minutes, but time flies when you're having fun). Back then I didn't know anyone who quilted, so I started learning to quilt from books, from YouTube and from blogs (never dreaming I’d be writing my own one day). I opened an Instagram account and made gorgeous friends like Andrea, joining a wonderful worldwide guild even before I found a wonderful sewing group in my own village.
I have a background in Conservation Architecture and Garden Design - I don't go anywhere without my sketchbook - so lovely old houses and country gardens are a constant inspiration for my quilts. I design projects for Today's Quilter magazine and the marvellous Moda Bakeshop, as well as for my pattern shop, CakeStand Quilts.
Andrea and I teamed up five years ago to run a summer sew-along for my Spellbound Sampler quilt, which sowed the seed for our block of the month collaboration. Honestly, it’s the best thing I do all year: we have such an amazing group of quilters sew with us, many joining us every year, and we have such fun dreaming up new projects for them!
Thank you, Nicola, for your never ending inspiration, for fulfilling my love of all things England, and for being a dear friend for all these years.
You can see all we have to offer of Nicola's patterns and kits below. While our Northern Lights BOM has sold out, we will be releasing the stand alone pattern next year when the program is complete, so be on the watch for that. In the meantime, you can enjoy one of our previous BOM patterns, such as the massively popular London Town!
