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
when do you add the wadding?
Question: Hi I'm a new quilter making 12" squares. At which point do I add batting? Is it with the individual square or when it's all joined together ? Answer: There are two ways of doing a quilt - by squares - Quilt as you Go (see Carolyn Forster) or making the whole quilt top - which is my preferred method - see Layer Quilt and Bind in the Block of the Month series First Sampler Quilt
Where can you buy an extension table for your machine?
Sometimes sewing machines come with small extension/quilting tables; Velerie's Bernina 1130 did and if you have a Janome with a quilting package then they will too. The table is very useful for keeping the fabric flat and particularly useful when machine quilting. If you don't have one then The Cotton Patch have an efficient and cost effective relationship with a US manufacturer to provide extension tables (in a mixture of sizes) for most machines - older and new. You can contact them at www.cottonpatch.co.uk/?
Update 21st March 2014
Sewing for pleasure is exactly what Valerie and Jennie love [...]