Quilled Table Decorations

I have been somewhat remiss in keeping up with this blog in these last few weeks. I have been called away on a family medical emergency which is not yet totally resolved. However, I am back home for the time being, and would like to share something with you on a more positive note. I will be attending a brunch on Saturday for my father who is celebrating his 90th birthday. This is an interesting story. I have only known him for the last 10 years. He and my mother were married in 1939, and he went off to the War in 1943, two days after I was born. Their marriage was only one of many war casualties. I didn’t “find’ him again until ten years ago. After all those years, we have reestablished contact and I gained not only a father, but a wonderful brother and a really bright and beautiful niece. What does all of this have to do with quilling? When I received the invitation to this special birthday brunch, I called to see what I could bring. I was asked to do some table decorations. What else could I do but quill something. I really can’t take total credit for the idea because I immediately thought of some of the large scale decorations my friend Molly Smith did for her book The New Paper Quilling . So I ran out to the dollar store and picked up some clear glass vases, went to Michaels to get some clear glass marble thingies, pulled out some wooden shish kebob skewers, and went to work. I usually work with short lengths of quilling strips, sometimes as short as 1”, so this was quite a stretch for me, working with 12” and 24” strips. I used all 3/8” width strips and started making flowers. After the flowers were dry, I turned them upside down and glued the skewers into the centers for stems. (I painted the wood skewers green). To save time, I used green squares of tissue paper for “foliage”, poking the stems through the squares and then scrunching them up and voila! Table decorations!

PS - I will do part 2 of Quilling for the Blind as soon as I get all of the comments you sent compiled.