A Cambridge shop that inspired a sewing passion.

I am not native to Caldecote or Cambridge but my Grandparents on my mother’s side lived in Cambridge and my grandmother continued to live there after my grandfather died.

As a young teenager I used to travel from where we lived to stay with her, sometimes taking my best friend.

As a treat we would go into Cambridge by bus and one of my favorite shops to visit was a fabric shop a called Gordon Thoday on St Andrews Street opposite what was then Robert Sayle Department Store, (now John Lewis).

My grandmother introduced me to lots of beautiful fabrics, particularly the catalogue of silks in the basement.

But also, we would buy gorgeous cotton fabrics to make into patchwork.

I still have the piece of my first patch made from the Gordon Thoday fabrics and went onto buy and work with some of the amazing silks that used to be on show in the basement.

First patch work quilt 1970's with fabric from Gordon Thoday Cambridge.

Patchwork quilt for Double Bed. 1990. Flying Swan pattern with blue quilted border. Hand quilted roses and leaves and buds.

Detail of border, the hand quilting of roses and buds on patchwork quilt.