Screen Printing with Lucie

Regular readers of my blog will know that I am a member of the LMQG (London Modern Quilt Guilt) that was founded in January this year. We meet once a months and show and tell, talk, eat, learn and plan events. One of the events that was organized by our fabulous president Amie was a Screen Printing workshop with Lucie Summers. I may have mentioned this over the past week a couple of times on the blog.....

Now I didn't have to think long about whether to join; in fact I thought about it a millisecond only. I have been wanting to learn how to screen print for a long time and being able to learn it from the super talented Mrs Summers is just the best.

So off we girls went last Sunday to Lucie's home. I always thought screen printing is hugely complicated and incredibly messy but it is neither. Although I was temporarily banned from using one particular ink because of an attack of the clumsiness !

We created in preparation designs for our own fabric labels that Lucie then transferred onto screen. She showed us how she made the screens using Thermofax mesh and then taught us how to screen print those onto fabric. And as soon as we mastered those Lucie generously let us loose on some of her larger screens to let us on the secret of double printing. Lu refers to her screens and inks in loving detail such as friendly, naughty or obnoxious.

One can tell that this girl lives and breathes her craft. !!

And now a few images of the wonderful day we had.

Lucie showing us how to apply ink

Ruth, Collette and Atia admiring Atia's fabric

Did I mention that we took over the entire house ?

Some of the larger prints from Lucie's sceens

My label

More output selected from the mountain I printed

Meet 'Lucky Summer'

It was such a pleasure working with 'Summersville' that I couldn't stop myself sewing. So I not only had the quilt finished by last Saturday but also a couple of matching cushions (..... one can never have enough cushions).

Shall we have a look then ?

I almost used the entire layer cake in this postage stamp pattern. The individual squares are 2 inches in size and I used 480 pieces in this quilt.

I placed 4 different layer cake pieces on top of each other and cut four 2 1/2 inch strips from them (totaling to 16 individual strips), then I mixed the strips up and sewed these together to 4 blocks again which I subsequently cut into 4 individual strips again (totaling to 16 strips altogether but this time each has 4 different 2 inch squares).

I then laid out all the strips until I was happy with the look and started piecing them in blocks of four. It sounds a lot more work then it was in the end.

I quilted in straight lines outside the ditch which emphasis the individual squares. Quilting thread was Gueterman Sulky 1072 for the front and a variegated one for the back (the same I am using for my Greek Cross quilt, more on that next week).

 

For the back I used this absolutely fantastic colourful butterfly print from Alexander Henry (featured in this stash Note). It actually mirrors a lot of the colours from the front but adds vibrance and buzz to it.
Look at this print, isn't it amazing ?

The quilt measures 41 by 48 inches (1,01 x 1.22 m)  and I used a Michael Miller print from the 'Pretty Bird' collection called 'Bloomies' for the binding which is the same I already used in another quilt last year. Because the print fabric of the front has a lot of white in it I felt that it needed a strong frame. I think the colours really work well both with the front and back. It is a beautiful tangerine.

And as already mentioned in the beginning I couldn't stop myself sewing so I added a couple of cushions that feature on one side a double pinwheels ( I might just have to make a quilt featuring double pinwheels when I get my hands on more of this fabric !) and on the other a large square in a square.

 

And because I can  here another shot of the whole lot together.
The quilt and pillows are all listed in my Etsy shop !   Sold

Lucky Summer

I hope everybody had a lovely Easter. I went to see my sister in Germany and spend a few wonderful days with her, my brother-in-law and of course my lovely nephew Hauke.

Now I am back home and lucky enough to have the erst of the week of. I will of course spend it sewing (though a little 10 k run will have to be squeezed in too to get rid of the Easter chocolates I indulged in). 
I super lucky last week when the ueber talented Lucie Summers hosted a generous giveaway on her block that featured her first fabric line 'Summersville' for Moda that will hit the shops any moment now.

I was the lucky winner of a layer of this amazing line. This is one of those collections that I have been waiting for patiently since it was revealed at Quilt Market. It is just up my street, utterly contemporary, playful with lots of colour yet it retains a wonderful lightness due to the liberal amounts of white in it.

Now I am the first to admit that I am no good with pre-cuts. I have used them all but I don't go looking for charm packs, jelly rolls and layer cakes. So whilst I was insanely happy to have gotten my greedy hands on some of the fabric before it hit the shops, I also was a bit at a loss of what to do with it. But I really, really wanted to do something with the fabric straight away because I think it would be a crime not to.

I contemplated giant squares, then 5 " squares, then pinwheels but finally settled on a postage stamp quilt because the collection actually has lots and lots of small and smallish patterns that lend themselves to it.

And so this morning I started cutting and sewing......

Oh what bliss.....

P.S. Lucie has a list of retailers that will sell 'Summersville' on the sidebar of her blog, just in cases you feel the urge to add this great line to your stash. ( And I don't know why you wouldn't feel the urge.... just saying...)

P.S.S I will post an update on 'Siblings Together' tomorrow