Double Figures...

CakeStand Quilts celebrated its tenth birthday on June the 1st. Technically it's probably its eleventh, as it took me the best part of a year to write my first pattern, Jolly Brollies, test it, figure out how to make a PDF (thank you teenagers) and sell them online (thank you PayHip).

I already had more designs in the sketchbook that I wanted to publish. Vintage China and Afternoon Tea both used the cake stand block I'd chosen for my logo, but Homely Joys and my Dolls House mini both used a slightly unusual block to make their roofs and porches: the triangle in a square. I'd developed a placement template technique that made those units a breeze to piece and I wanted to share that information where my customers could easily find it. I needed a website.

So next came the excitement of building said website, writing that tutorial - which meant starting a blog - and just for good measure I wanted to start sending email newsletters too. Originally I sent them seasonally, rather than monthly, but it still seemed like a huge undertaking: I mean, what to say, friends, what to say?... And who to say it to?

As New Year 2016 came around, I submitted a project to the Moda Bakeshop. The Bakeshop blog had been running for about five years, posting free patterns that used pre-cut fabric bundles and they were incredibly supportive to new designers. Thousands of quilters read that blog, including me and I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to have Speedwell accepted. Not only did my email list go from 10 to 100 overnight, but I worked with some amazing fellow designers on Moda's sewalongs and even got to contribute projects to their books. As a life-long booklover that's been a real highlight of the past decade.

In 2017 I decided to exhibit at the Festival of Quilts, because I knew in my heart that I wasn’t going to sell many patterns if no-one actually knew about them. Up until then I'd only sold PDFs, so my next challenge was to get patterns printed - thank you Amanda at BPG, who I've know since Junior School - and packaged (guess who has 200 of the 'wrong' zip-lock bags at the back of a cupboard). As well as the exhilaration of actually getting a stand together, it was wonderful to meet up with my Instagram friends and have some real life customers (I'm still amazed, quite frankly).

While I was at Festival I also met with the editor of Today's Quilter and submitted some projects for the magazine. With deadlines looming I needed to find someone to machine quilt those projects for me, which lead me to the door of Quilter's Trading Post and the beginning of my friendship with the lovely Jayne Brereton. Working for TQ lead to 2018's bonkers adventure: signing up for some live tutorials on Sewing Street TV. As someone who doesn't really like having their photo taken I'm not sure what possessed me really, but I'm so glad I gave it a whirl.

That year also saw my first sewalong with my Canadian Instagram bestie, Andrea, who was busy setting up her new shop, the Willow Cottage Quilt Co. That sewalong lead to us collaborating on a block of the month programme and we launched our first, the Midsummer Sampler, in 2019. They've gone on to be the favourite thing I do each year, along with dreaming up packaging (thanks again Amanda) templates, washi tape, badges, tote bags and all kinds of treats for our BOM friends.

And then 2020 came along. Goodness I made a lot of quilts that year (quite possibly too many), but the upside of drowning the house in little piles of fabric was that we had a studio built in the garden. It was supposed to be Mark's working-from-home office, but I've pretty much taken it over and it transformed how I worked on quilts because I had the luxury of 'going home' - well, walking up the garden path - and leaving projects behind for a few hours. Packing orders and making up kits doesn't happen on the kitchen island any more and I have a quiet and well-lit room to take photos.

In the spring of 2021 I was invited to design the block of the month for TQ. It was an extraordinary honour to be asked and my lovely friends at Moda provided the fabric. It was frantic work getting all of the blocks made and posted off - I've always dreaded things going missing in the post - but Primrose Hill has gone on to be one of my favourite quilts. And the Autumn of that year saw the publication of the Moda compilation book, Did Someone Say Cake, with my project in it. 2021 was fab!

But 2022 had some wonderful treats in store too. It was the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee, so I teamed up with group of British Quilt designers for the first British Sew-a-Row. We've gone on to design two more - the third will be out later this summer - meeting up for sewing retreats and supporting one another through the ups and downs of online business. Which has its moments. Back in the studio, I revamped the website and explored a few new computer programmes to learn how to mock up quilts in different fabrics (a rabbit hole if ever there was one).

By 2023 I felt I'd hit my stride, although juggling deadlines is never straight forward. But nothing ever stands still in a creative business, so in January 2024 I started making video tutorials for the Northern Lights block of the month. Sometimes interrupted by delivery men/heavy rain/noisy lawnmowers I've added filming, editing and uploading to YouTube to the things I didn't dream I'd be doing a decade ago. One of these days I'll figure out how to look at the camera...

And this year? We're already halfway through, but I've learned that new adventures are always waiting just around the corner. Thank you for travelling along with me!