Crafty Ladies: Meet Lucie Summers

This week's Crafty Lady is Lucie Summers of Summersville. 

Lu is a designer and quilter whose work positively pops with colour and pattern. I am always wowed by her quilts, adore her fabric designs and drink tea out of my Summersville mug most days. 
 

-------

 

Hello! 

I’m Lucie Summers, known around the internet and to my friends as Lu. I’m a screen printer, award winning quilter, and now author (!) living in the Suffolk countryside with my farmer husband, two football/cricket mad sons and a large ginger cat, imaginatively called Ginge. I’m pattern mad and like nothing better than planning my next print designs or dreaming about the next quilt to make.

 

Recently I’ve been making… 

I’ve actually just finished piecing quilt number 4 for my second book which is due out next year. In Quilt Improv, the quilts were very much for walls - I hesitate to call what I do as ‘Quilt Art’ because that sounds a bit pretentious - but they were colourful and joyful and definitely meant to be hung and enjoyed. This time around, I’m making bigger quilts for beds and I’m really enjoying myself.

 

I’ve been working on…

When I’m not sewing, I’m designing surface patterns - I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve for some new collections of quilting fabric that I’m really excited about. I recently completed an online surface design course and really enjoyed it - I’d definitely like to take more to brush up on my digital skills.

 

I’ve been blogging about…

I’ll be honest - I’m a terrible blogger! I haven’t updated my blog in such a long time. I’m much more frequent on my Instagam account these days - so I’ve been Istagramming sneak peeks of my new quilts, and some screen print experiments and some little sewing makes like pencil cases and coin purses.

 

I’ve been reading…

When I get downtime, I’m more likely to be found reading books rather than blogs, although I always drop in to read my friend Katy’s blog at I’m a Ginger Monkey to see what she’s been up to. I also enjoy Life Style Etc written by the team at Living Etc magazine. I’ve got lots of creative books I’ve been dipping into lately too - the Orla Kiely Pattern book, Sarah Ahearn Bellemare’s Painted Pages and The Collier Campbell Archive.

I’ve been watching...

I watch a lot of TV while I work, I really enjoy a good mystery, so I love Agatha Christie’s Marple. I watch BBC iPlayer where I discovered Inspector De Luca which was really good to watch, although not so easy while I worked as it had subtitles! I watch lots of Endeavour, Lewis and Inspector Frost.

Lucie’s 3 Top Tips for Making Patchwork

1. Start with something small - that way you’ll get it finished! A piece for the wall or something tiny like coasters or placemats are ideal. I love to make 12” mini quilts.

2. Don’t stress about it - it’s meant to be fun! Don’t worry about matching seams and points - you’re never going to be laying on your deathbed thinking ‘If only I’d matched my seams!’

3. If you think you’ll make more, invest in decent equipment - get yourself a cutting mat, rotary cutter and acrylic ruler and buy the best sewing machine you can afford - if you plan on using it every day, you’ll never regret it!

 -------

Click here to visit Lu's shop, Summersville. You can also find her on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

P.S. I'll be reviewing Lu's fabulous book Quilt Improv as part of a "book week" here on my blog next month!

You'll find all the posts in the Crafty Ladies series HERE.

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links.