We're thrilled to bring you this striking new Broken Paperclip Quilt from Edinburgh-based designer Lucy Engels. Lucy produces an exquisite collection of limited edition quilts, accessories and homeware, as well as designing and screen printing her own fabric, all by traditional methods. We're captivated by her strong sense of colour and use of geometric form.
We caught up with Lucy to hear how the design came about:
The inspiration for Broken Paperclip came from a block printing 'one hundred day project' I completed in 2017. Each day I printed a different geometric motif on A6 paper. Paperclip was one of the motifs to emerge from this practice.
I initially used the paperclip design in printed fabric, but I was keen to take it further into a quilt design. Within this quilt design I also wanted to play with colour gradient and Oakshott fabric was the perfect choice for this. Not only is this fabric vibrant and rich in colour but, depending on how the light hits the shot cottons, the secondary tones emerge. This produces what I like to call bonus colours that serve to enhance the gradient effect.
Sewing with Oakshott fabrics in this project was a joy. I'd had slight concerns beforehand about fraying and / or stretch because of the sheer number of curves. So as a precaution I used a touch of starch. But in fact I had absolutely no issues whatsoever. What resulted was a rich quilt top that was exactly how I'd planned it!
Take the fear out of sewing curves
With characteristic modesty, Lucy attributes her immaculately sewn curves to the 'amazing templates' created by Jenny Haynes, Papper, Sax, Sten. Jenny has developed an array of Drunkard's Path templates and in Issue 7 of Curated Quilts she explains how they can remove the fear of sewing curves.
To make the Broken Paperclip Quilt, you can buy the Fabric Pack here and the pattern - with or without templates - from www.lucyengels.com.
Discover more about Lucy Engels and her work at www.lucyengels.com; keep up with her latest news on Instagram and Facebook.
For more on Jenny Haynes, her designs and templates go to Papper, Sax, Sten and follow her @pappersaxsten.
(Imagery courtesy of Lucy Engels.)
I am laughing at myself…I looked at the quilt and thought oh “Safety Pins”, like the ones used on cloth diapers! Then I read the title.
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