Adventures in London Town

Our youngest son lives in London now. I'm not entirely sure how he can suddenly be old enough to do grown up things like move away, but we're always thrilled to visit him there and love his visits home just as much. Which is just what he did last weekend, only I got to travel back with him and spend an exciting 24 hrs in London meeting someone special...

...my lovely Canadian friend Andrea. We 'met' on Instagram back in the day, when we were both doing other things - Andrea was a vet, I was a garden designer - sharing our love for home decor, quilting and fabric (of course).

As I was starting CakeStand Quilts, Andrea opened the Willow Cottage Quilt Company to retail Tilda fabric in North America and it's been a total joy to watch it grow, quite literally with the opening of her amazing studio in 2021. We've been collaborating on block of the month programmes for the last six years, including 2022's London Town Sampler.

Andrea and her family had already been in London a week and had made good progress ticking off all of the sights on the London Town quilt, as well as squeezing in a few excursions to Oxford, the Cotswolds and a day for Andrea to teach at Nicki Franklin's Stitchery Workshop in Northamptonshire.

We met up at their hotel in Piccadilly - and that was quite a hug - before heading down to the V&A in South Kensington. Next stop was the Patchwork Collective Exhibition at Liberty's before circling back to Piccadilly for afternoon tea at Fortnum's.

There may have been some shopping. My lips are sealed...

It really was a dream come true to meet Andrea at long last and I'm happy to report that she and the family ticked off the last sight on the quilt - the Cutty Sark at Greenwich - before heading back to Canada.

Bon voyage my friend,