My shop grew out of a life-long love of vibrant Liberty prints. As a child I would pore over my grandmother’s stash of quilting fabrics, savouring the bright delights of each new print.
Having completed a PhD in cancer genetics, I started to rediscover my creativity as a maker and designer of dresses, cushions, bags, childrenswear and quilts. Liberty of London Tana Lawn was a natural choice for my projects, with its fine weave, delicate and inventive patterns, intense long-wearing colours, and its traditional English heritage (many of its fabrics are still printed in the UK).
My shop has grown through my knowledge of Liberty and of stitch culture, sourcing rare, classic and new season prints to provide a range everyone can fall for.
My studio, in a thatched barn in the rolling Cotswold hills, is a riot of colour and texture, with stacks of colour-coded crease and block rolls, drawers packed with fat quarters, inspirational books and magazines, and jars of ribbons and buttons sourced on my travels. Popular new season rolls of limited edition prints are stashed below the vintage cutting table, whose previous life was in one of Liberty’s regional department stores.
I am drawn to the tradition and sense of family fostered by the passing down of quilting skills through the generations. I have a particular passion for creating patterns, taking care to write instructions clear enough to encourage and support new crafters. Combining different prints in a rainbow of colourways is also a pleasurable task; my twenty-piece packs of scraps or fat quarters will add a vibrant pop to any project, and are desirable things in themselves, to stash away for a rainy day.
