About Lucy
Lucy Engels is a Modern Quilter and Visual Artist, Based in Edinburgh.
With a background in Fine Art and a BA (Hons) in Printmaking from Grays School of Art, Lucy has always been creative. But the real world beckoned, so she side-stepped into the world of social work for a good decade of her life. When Lucy moved back to Edinburgh for her partner’s work, this was her opportunity to step back into her artist shoes. She hasn’t looked back!
Lucy feels that her artistic background helps her bring different kinds of knowledge, skill and inspiration to the quilts and patterns that she creates.
You may have seen some of Lucy’s work exhibited at QuiltCon in 2018, 2020, and 2021 – – where she won an award in the appliqué category for my Naive Melody Quilt. She is heavily influenced by music!
Lucy collaborates regularly with industry leaders such as justhands-on.tv, JanomeUK, Aurifil Thread, FIGO Fabrics, Oakshott Fabrics, Purl Soho, and RJR Fabrics. She also teaches online workshops to individuals, groups, and Guilds, as well as in-person workshops in my Edinburgh studio.
According to Lucy, “I create unique, modern quilt patterns that coax out your inner artist by allowing you to put your own personality and stamp on what you’re making. This isn’t quilting by numbers. You don’t have to follow what I do to the letter. Consider it more as a map to guide you towards creating a stunning piece of art that you can curl up under when it’s done.”
To see Lucy’s designs and limited edition fabric collections, visit her website: https://lucyengels.com/
You can watch Lucy make a colourful modern quilt design using a foundation paper piecing technique that she calls, “controlled improv” in this episode of The Makers Studio series.
Signature Technique
Controlled Improv
Top Tips
- Experiment with colour to create movement in your quilt.
- Map out your design on a wall before cutting and sewing.
- Use music as an inspiration for your quilt design.
- Blue tip needles work a treat for paper piecing. Fine and sharp.
- A single line of different colour thread in your quilting creates lift.
- Fold the freezer paper along template lines to help with your foundation paper piecing.
Videos
Patterns
Posts
How to finish an old english patchwork
Answer: I guess your question is geared to the uneven edge of your quilt if you are using paper pieces; and there are two ways of looking at this; the first is to leave the edge uneven and add borders to which the uneven paper pieces are appliqued - this will give the look of the patchwork floating.
The other is to make half templates to fit in the gaps so that the paper pieced patchwork then has straight edges - you can also do this and then add borders by machine.
You would then layer, quilt and bind as usual(see our video on layering if that helps) Just a thought about the quilting - most of my students do this stitching a 1/4" away from the seams - and this can be done by hand or by machine
2nd May 2014
Meet Kate Findlay A teacher and textile artist who has [...]
What did we film? It’s a mystery!
We have a Midsummer Mystery in store for you! More details will be posted in a video promo film later in May; but essentially you will be given instructions each hour throughout the day and as it's the longest day of the year you should still be in daylight! There are 10 parts - the sewing is straightfoward - there will be some rotary cutting but not much - and you will be feed the information piecemeal so that the mystery remains until the end!