Quilling with Whimsiquills

Valentine Card

2012-01-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

I apologize for my absence the last couple of months. The business and family obligations have taken up much of my time; hopefully we will be able to spend more time together now.

Hearts seem to be very popular, the K364 Nothing but Hearts kit I designed for Paplin is one of their best selling kits. Since we are already half way through January, I thought a Valentine card would be timely. Because I planned to use a corner border punch, I trimmed the white base greeting card down to 4”x 5”. (The corner/border combo punches are designed to line up with whole inches rather than fractions.) I cut a 4” x 5”pink rectangle and used the N414312 Framed in Love corner border combo punch to create the border and attached it to the card. I use the Dotto removable adhesive because it is dry as well as repositional and doesn’t leave any “wet” glue marks on the paper. I then cut 3 full strips in half, creating six 12” strips/. I folded all six strips in half using the fold as the point of my heart. I then shaped the six strips into a heart shape (I held the heart with a tweezer while I put a tiny bead of glue on the back and then placed it on the card.)

I made the basic flowers on a work board first so I would be able to place them where I wanted them in the heart. I made two red 1” tight rolls for the centers and then made 12 white 6” marquises for petals. I then wrapped each white petal in red paper and glued them around the center. Once the flowers were dry I lifted them off the work board and glued them onto the card. I made 12 white 6” open hearts which I glued between the flower petals.

I cut two green short lengths (about ¾”) which I shaped into the stems. I made four green 6” marquises for leaves, two 3” open coils and two 1 ½” open coils which I glued to the stems.

2011-10-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here is another fall “Thinking of You” card. While I was working on it, it occurred to me that the scarecrow or the leaves would look cute on place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. We have about 25 people for dinner on Thanksgiving. With that many people in a very small house it sometimes seems like “musical chairs”, so I won’t bother with place cards. I did, however, think of another use for the little cards. Because I, along with my daughter and sister, are “gluten free” and “dairy free”, I have gotten in the habit of labeling the different dishes, especially things like breads and desserts. I think the table will look more festive with these cute little cards (N01331), decorated with quilling.

Here are directions if you would like to make some of your own.

Thinking of You card: I used the leaf punch N244831 starting at the center of a yellow card and then out to each side, I glued a 3/8” strip of brown behind the punched border. The little scarecrow’s head was a 12” tight coil. His legs and arms were 6” marquises, his chest a 6” teardrop pointing up towards his head. I fringed a ¼” straw colored strip and cut and rolled 1” lengths for the “straw” at his hands, feet and neck. (I carefully trimmed a little off the back of the fringed strips before I rolled them) I used a 4” strip to make a square for his hat with a small strip for the brim. I also glued a small dark strip for his belt. I used a marker to make his eyes and mouth.

Leaves: I used a 6” brown strip and made an eccentric teardrop for the single leaf. For the gold and yellow leaves I used 3” marquises, with small curved strips for stems.

Pumpkin card: I used a 12” marquise for the center of the pumpkin. The crescents on either side of the center marquise were also made using 12” strips. I let those coils loosen before I pinched them into crescents so they would kind of wrap around the center marquise. The stem is just a 4” shaped marquise, you might like to add some tendrils around the stem.

I used the leaf punch for the border on the small cards and then glued two 3/8’ strips together so a narrow strip of color shows at the bottom of the border and the wide strip shows through the leaf pattern. I always use the removable Dotto adhesive so I can “play” with the strips until I get them where I want them. Since I didn’t have “gluten free” stickers, I used removable tape to fasten the small cards to a larger piece of card stock and fed them through my laser printer. The computer font is so much nicer than my handwriting!

Thinking of You!

2011-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am experiencing something that I am sure many others are going through as well. I thought I would share with you one of my ways of dealing with a sad situation. My Mom, who is now 88 years old, is living in an assisted living center in Florida. One of my sisters lives quite close by, but I am way up here in Connecticut where my other sister lives as well. She is in a wonderful place where she is well cared for and is very happy, but sadly, my Mom’s memory is failing and she gets very confused very easily. For some reason she continually worries about me, and though we speak on the phone frequently, she forgets that we have spoken. So I have started sending her “thinking of you” cards a couple of times a week. If she has something in her hand that came form me it gives her a little reassurance that I am OK. Her favorite cards are the quilled ones which she displays proudly for all of her caretakers to see. It doesn’t really matter that she doesn’t remember when she got the card, it’s just a way for us to stay connected. Here is the most recent card.

I used a pumpkin card blank (N73148), I glued a 3/8” strip of brown paper down one side of card as shown and then glued a strip of 1/8” rust or light brown in the middle of the 3/8” strip. I then used the Sunburst border punch (N250037) to cut yellow borders for each side of the 3/8” strip. I used Dotto adhesive on the back of the strips because it is repositionable (I’m pretty sure that’s a word) and not nearly as messy as a wet glue. The directions for the flower are as follows:

1 Brown sculptured roll (12”) for center
13 Orange tight rolls (1.5”)
13 Rust teardrops (3”) for petals
1 Green strips (2”) for stem
3 Green marquises (3”) for leaves

1 Green loose scroll (1.5’)

Arrange as shown

Tool Lending Program

2011-09-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

September is here, the schools are open and soon scout, church, and after school programs will be in full swing. I have written about the Whimsiquills tool lending program before, but felt it was worth repeating. We offer teachers an opportunity to teach their students quilling at minimal expense. All they have to do is contact us (by phone, fax, or email) and we will be happy to sign them up for the tool lending program. Most of these groups have a very limited budget (if any at all), so we send them the tools they need for their class at no charge, along with some other goodies like mat blanks, bookmarks, whatever we have on hand. They tell us how many tools they need and we will send them out; when they are finished with the tools, they return them to us so we can send them on to another group. If any of their students decide they want to keep on quilling, they have the option to keep the tool at a discounted price. They can download and print shape charts, instructions/refence materials, and patterns right from our web site http://www.whimsiquills.com/ at no charge; they will get a 10% teacher discount on any supplies they purchase for classes. If you have never taught quilling before there are a number of blog posts to help you get started.

We often send out some bookmarks that can be used for the first class. Here is a design using a few of the basic shapes that would be easy to complete in a first class. I dressed this bookmark up a little by gluing a ½” wide strip of quilling paper up the center of the bookmark and then glued a punched border on both sides of the strip; they set off the quilling nicely.(In the interest of time constraints, I often prepare the punched strips ahead of time) I used 1 ½” strips to make the teardrop petals, tight circles for the flower centers, and for the ring coils (the red flower petals.) I used 3” strips to make the open S-Scrolls. There are lots of seasonal patterns that would be appropriate for gift tags or cards which would also work for a first class. Another option is just to teach the basic shapes and let the students decide what they are going to put on their bookmark or card.

I spoke last week with a teacher who has introduced her students to quilling through this program. She started with ten students, all of whom are have a great time quilling; she just ordered another 16 tools. Hopefully, there will be a whole new group of quillers coming up to keep quilling around for generations to come. That is the goal of this quilling senior citizen.

Sunflowers

2011-08-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

I was at a nursery the other day, and everywhere I looked there were sunflowers in every possible size. They reminded me of this little card. I put an anniversary sticker on it but you could use it for any occasion. The sunflowers are easy to make. For the larger sunflower I started by crimping an 8” brown strip and then rolling it into a tight (not too tight, you don’t want to “undo” the crimp) for the center. I used a 4” strip for the center of the smaller flower. I made 3” marquises for the petals of both sunflowers. I used 17 marquises on the larger flower and 14 on the smaller. These numbers may vary depending on the weight of the paper and how tightly you wind the center. The leaves are made using the alternate side looping technique. The best way I can describe this technique, is to call it husking without pins. Instead of using the board you actually hold the paper in your fingers . . . Make a loop, pass the paper under the starting point and make a loop to one side of the center loop, pass it past the starting point and make a loop on the opposite side . . . hence the name, ASL. For these leaves, I only used three loops and the wrapped the strip around the loops to finish the leaf. This is a little harder to describe without demonstrating, but there is an awesome book, “Quilling, Techniques and Inspiration” by Jane Jenkins, which has great picture tutorials of this technique as well as many others. (I also like to use the ASL technique using different color strips; instead of making the loop with one strip, I use two or three different colors, when you make the loops, pull the different color strips (just a little) so all of the colors show before gluing them. this makeds beautiful flowers and butterflies.)

I used the Sunburst border punch for the border and glued a strip of (½” wide) of yellow to the inside of the card to make the border stand out. The sunflower theme is a very popular one which I have used on other pieces as well. Enjoy!

More paper storage ideas

2011-07-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

Last week, I wrote about storing your strips and directed you to my blog post about the topic. I received some terrific responses and some very novel ideas from some of you, thank you for sharing them with me. Here they are for you to read.

I love this T pin idea. I've tried many tactics to keep the paper explosion under control and this seems like an economical method; nothing to lose by trying. And the portability is one of the best aspects. Thanks a lot.

Maureen

I keep my strips in a #10 (business) envelope. One color per envelope. I seal the envelope then cut the end off. Bending the 24" strips in half I stick the curved bend in the envelope and the end stick out. I put the envelopes by color in a box lid that is about 12" wide that allows for the ends of each color to stick out of the envelope. I don't pack then in tightly so they don't get crushed. I also paste a strip of each color on the envelope so I can see at a glance what colors I have.

Naomi R.

Thanks so much for this :)I quill using a tray while I sit on the sofa while I listen to the TV. I end up surrounded by paper strips, lol. I do use a craft cart that has three drawers. One is for unopened packages of paper, one for wide paper strips and one for opened packages and pieces I store in baggies. My coffee table is covered with bottles of glue, dishes of completed flowers and shapes, patterns, graph paper, you name it along with the three or four current projects. (I can't just work on one at a time) If I used your idea and created a board to store my paper I could use my drawers for all the stuff laying on my coffee table. Plus I will be able to actually FIND the colors I need and know just what I need to buy next before I run out.

Jealith

Pat, I wish I had a room I could store my strips on the wall!!! I don't have it. I do my quilling in my recliner in the living room and I want my strip near by.

What I did was order zip lock bags that are 4x12 from ebay. I have trouble with the ones the strips coming in ripping apart. I take off half of the label and stick it in the zip lock bag and then stick as many bundles of strips as I want in the labeled bag. I then take all the reds...all the blues, greens, white/blacks, yellow/oranges, etc in separate very large 12x18" ziplocks. I keep all the same main color together this way. Then I put the large bags vertically in my wooden chest at my feet so I can see the label at the opening of the large bag indicating the color family. Works for me.

Cathy

When I first started quilling, I was at a loss as to how to store them so they remained in good shape, at budget prices. I got a bright idea, and asked the local pizza parlor for a couple of extra large new pizza boxes. I cut up some cardboard strips and taped them lengthwise to make dividers. Then I could fill each slot with pinks or blues or yellows, etc. It's not as fancy as your idea, but it worked for me. As I gathered more and more quilling papers, I filed the bags in a plastic box - easy to get to, easy to see. But then I don't intend to open a quilling store!

Where did June go?

2011-07-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well, June sure slipped by in a hurry! It’s hard to believe we are halfway through the year! Let me fill you in on what has been happening. Of course it is wedding season, so that has been keeping me busy. I had some of my favorite pieces on display at our local library for the month of June. The library staff was very pleased with the response to the display. A local paper did a really nice story on the display and quilling in general. I am considering having an open house/demo here since so many people expressed interest.

But the best thing that happened was an email I received which said,” I recently read your article "A Brief History of Quilling". My Aunt is Gini Antoine and she is mentioned in your article. She had taught quillig for years, published two of her own pattern books and had her own line of quality quilling paper and kits. She is now in her 80's but no longer teaching quilling and hasn't for years . . . After a couple of emails back and forth, I finally had a delightful phone visit with Gini. Gini is credited with naming the different coils in the 1960’s. I hope to do a more in depth interview with her for the blog, so stay tuned.

Father's Day

2011-06-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of really easy “guy”cards for Father’s Day (or change the stickers and make them birthday cards for the men in your life). For the first one, I made the “borders” by gluing two strips of the 1/8” brown and one 1/8” strip of the dark green I used in the duck. I use a Dotto removable adhesive for the back of the strips so I can reposition them if I don’t get them straight on the first try. For the Mallard’s body, I use a 18” brown shaped teardrop, and a 6’ shaped teardrop for his wing. For his head, I used a tight roll made with ½”black glued to .3/4” white, glued to12” dark green. Then I added a small piece of yellow for his beak.

The cattails are simply brown 1 ½” tight rolls (I used 4 for each cattail). The leaves are 6” strips made into wheat ears which I pinched at the ends. Add three 1 ½” loose scrolls and the Happy Father’s Day sticker and you are done!

The second card has a fern design. I start out by putting a 24” strip of 1/8” paper through my crimper. Then I cut small pieces ½”-3/4”and glue the cut ends together. Then glue them on both sides of a slightly curved 1 ¼” strip to create the fern. I did add a couple of loose scrolls as well. Again the “border” is just 1/8” strips glued to the card.

Here is the fern design in a coaster/paperweight. Hug somebody's father for Father's Day!

2011-05-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple card for all of the graduates in your life. Just change colors and maybe the punch borders to make it a little more feminine for a girl graduate. I used the Upper Crest Border Punch because I wanted something that wouldn’t be too fancy for a guy. I used a removable adhesive to place the two punched strips back to back, then I glued down a 3/8” strip over the seam and centered a 1/8” over that.

My “graduate” owl is easy to make, it only uses two shapes. The owl’s eyes are 6” tight rolls wrapped in a contrasting color. The owl’s “ears” (I know they are not really ears, but they are where they would be if they were ears, confused?) are 6” teardrops. A 3” teardrop is glued point down between the “ears” as shown. Use a 4” teardrop for the beak. The sides of the owl’s face are 6” tight rolls with 3” tight rolls to fill the space next to the beak.

Fringe and glue a 1” strip of 1/8” paper for the tassel. (TIP-if you use a fringer, fringe a 1” strip of ¼” or 3/8” paper and then trim down to 1/8”.) glue tassel to back of head with a tiny piece of string. A triangle cut from 3/8” strip of black makes the top of the “mortar board”.

The “Congratulations “ stickers come in silver or gold

Mother's Day

2011-05-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me, or who have watched the video on my web site, know that I am a tea drinker. When I was growing up, my sisters and I would buy bone china tea cups for my mother for her birthday or Mother’s Day; today I proudly display her tea cup collection in my home. Over the years, my mother and I shared many cups of tea . . . I even managed to find a McCormack teapot like the one she had when we were growing up. (She sent away for it and told me it cost her $1.25). Today, my mother (who is 87) and I still share many cups of tea, but now it is usually over the phone. She lives in a beautiful assisted living center in Florida near one of my sisters, and I live here in Connecticut. We always give each other tea related gifts; in fact, that is what inspired me to make the quilled tea cup featured on the website and here on the blog. This year I am going to get to have tea in person with her in Florida, but I still decided her Mother’s Day card should be tea related. Here are the directions in case you would like to make one.

I started with a Pink card since that is her favorite color. I trimmed the card to exactly 4”x5” so I could use the Quilted Corners combo corner/border punch on it. I cut a piece of light green parchment paper and attached it behind the cover of the card to make the scallop show. Then I quilled a little white teapot. I used two full strips which I rolled together and then formed in to an eccentric circle for the body of the pot. I used a 12” strip to make the half circle for the base. A 12” shaped marquise made the spout, and a 6” open S-scroll made the handle. You will notice I made one side of the S-scroll larger than the other. I then made a 6’ crescent for the top of the pot and flattened a 3” tight roll for the handle.

The flowers in the bottom corner are made with a tiny heart punch. I put a drop of tacky glue on a ¼” hole punch and then fold and arrange the tiny hearts. Once they were dry, I arranged them with a couple of small leaves. I don’t make very many punch flowers, but I love these because they are so delicate. i do have an instruction sheet that includes directions for the little flowers. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

Easter Quilling

2011-04-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I did any “Easter” quilling. I have some eggs I put out at Easter time that I decorated with quilling some twenty years ago. Thses were real eggs that I cut and dyed and then put some Easter/spring quilling inside. Back in 2003, I did some cards and decorated some wooden eggs for Family Circle Magazine, but I don’t think I’ve done any real Easter quilling since then.

While standing on line at the grocery store, I noticed some Easter eggs decorated with what looked like punch flowers and thought maybe it was time to decorate some new eggs. I stopped over at Michaels and found some wooden eggs for $.50 each and brought them home. Here are a couple of designs I came up with . . . pretty basic. These would make cute place setting favors for Easter Dinner.

I first applied the strips to the blue egg. I used my fine tip glue bottle to put a tiny line of glue on 1/8’ white pearl paper, after I finished the vertical strips I glued a horizontal strip around the egg starting and finishing at a vertical strip so the ends would be covered by a flower. I used 1/16” strips to make the flowers since I wanted them to look dainty. For the pink and blue flower on the top of the eggs, I used a 2” tight circle for the center and then glued six teardrops around the centers points facing out. For the blue flowers, I used four closed hearts pointing inward and then glued a 1” tight roll in the center.

For the lavender egg, I glued a ¼” strip around the egg. I think I should probably add something to that strip, but I haven’t decided what yet (and Easter is almost here!) For the center of the design, I rolled a 12” graduated lavender strip and then glued eleven 6” marquises around the center. Next I made eleven raspberry teardrops which I glued (point in) between the marquises. I then added 4” tight rolls which I placed between the teardrops. I used 1/8” strips on this one. I think this one is still a work in progress. I have one more that is almost done but I am taking a time out to have my entire family come and celebrate my husband’s 75th birthday. If I get the third one done, I will post it.

Baby Card

2011-03-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

Does someone in your family have a new baby on the way? Here is a baby card that works for either baby boy or a baby girl. The baby rattle is easy to make and can be done in any combination of colors. I used pink, blue and yellow. The head of the rattle is made by gluing six 6” open hearts in a circle. Using a contrasting color, make six 3” teardrops and glue them into the points of the open heart. Next make eleven 1 ½” tight rolls and glue them all around the open hearts as shown. The handle of the rattle is made by gluing two “double scrolls with flags” back to back (If you are not familiar with this shape, simply fold a 6” strip in half and then roll the open end. As you roll the open ends, the folded end of the strips will open a little bit. Make two of these and glue them back to back.)

The border on this card is made using the Leave it to Weaver border punch. The punch makes 3/8” inch slots, so you can weave 3 1/8” strips through the slots to create the border. Another variation here would be to weave a 3/8” strip through the slots and then weave a 1/8” strips on top of the 3/8” strip. Enjoy!

SPRING!

2011-03-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

I am still thinking spring, even though it is SNOWING in Enfield, CT today. I like having a bunch of quilled cards ready whenever I need them; but if I run out, I need something I can put together in just a few minutes. Here are a couple of simple “spring” cards that only take a few minutes to make.

I started by using a leaf border punch along the bottom of the card, I glued a ¾” wide strip of green along the bottom of the inside of the card to accent the punched border. I made two dark yellow 2” sculptured rolls for the centers of the flowers. I then arranged six light yellow 3”shaped teardrops around one of the sculptured rolls (rounded side toward the center). To make the smaller daffodil, I put the sculptured roll on its side and glued four 3” shaped teardrops along the bottom of the sculptured roll (this time pointed side toward sculptured roll.)The leaves are wheat ears (I used 3 loops) and single strips of finger curved paper makes the stems. Quick and easy!

Even though daisies don’t bloom in Connecticut until June, they say “spring” to me. I used the Isabella multiple shaper punch for the back ground behind the daisies. I put a 6” strip of yellow paper through crimper and then rolled it to make a center for the larger daisy. I then arranged ten white 6” marquises around the center. For the center of the smaller daisy, I crimped and then rolled a 3” strip of yellow, squeezing it into an oval. I used four white 6" marquises for the smaller flower. I finger curved two green 1 ½” strips for the stems and then used two 4” open scrolls to put on either side of the stems. Happy Spring!

Tool Lending Program

2011-03-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Are you considering teaching a quilling class; or do you know someone who is? Then read on, perhaps I can help you.

As a long time quiller, and one of the original members of the group that went on to become the North American Quilling Guild, one of my goals has been to ensure that this beautiful art form we all love is passed on to future generations. This was the reason I started this blog, to pass my experience on to other (hopefully much younger) quillers. Over the years, I have taught many people to quill, giving classes, workshops, and demonstrations. Now that I am running Whimsiquills and still doing custom orders for customers, I no longer have time for classes so I decided it was time to help others teach. More teachers mean more students . . . which mean more quillers . . . it’s a “no brainer”.

I have come up with a program which I think is pretty unique, a tool lending program. (I have to thank the people at Paplin Products who are working closely with me to make this possible.) This is how it works; when I talk to someone, a scout leader or teacher who is planning to teach a group to quill, I tell them about our tool lending program. Most of these groups have a very limited budget (if any at all), so we send them the tools they need for their class at no charge, along with some other goodies like mat blanks, bookmarks, whatever we have on hand. When they are finished with the tools, they return them to us so we can send them on to another group. If any of their students decide they want to keep on quilling, they have the option to keep the tool at a discounted price.

We try to keep the costs of teaching as low as possible, suggesting students bring scissors and tweezers from home, using corrugated cardboard or Styrofoam covered with waxed paper as a work board, the old “white glue on a piece of waxed paper with a toothpick trick “etc. We give teachers a discount on any supplies they decide to purchase.. We also make sure they have links to our free patterns and instructional sheets which include things like a basic shapes chart and are all free and downloadable. We also encourage them to visit our blog www.quillingwithwhimsiquills.blogspot.com where we have all kinds of helpful info like teaching quilling which is a four part series. Our hope is that some of the students will decide to continue quilling. We have had an excellent response to this program; if you know someone who might be interested, please feel free to pass this information on.

Just in time for St Patrick's Day

2011-03-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Just in time for St Patricks Day, here are a couple of really simple designs you can use on greeting cards, place cards or table decorations.

The first card is made by arranging nine 5” black squares to make the hat. A black strip folded over makes the “brim” and a small strip of yellow is added for the hat band. A 1 ½” ring coil folded into a square makes the ‘buckle’ for the hat band. The shamrocks are simply 6” open hearts arranged on the short stems. I used the Marta Multi-shaper punch for the border.

The second card has a shamrock made using the alternate side looping technique. I worked with three strips at a time so there would be more “loops’ inside the shamrock. The stem was a 9’ shaped teardrop. I used the Marta Multi-shaper punch for the back ground on this card.

The shamrocks on the third card were made using 9“ heart shapes and 6” shaped teardrops for stems. I used the Quilted Corners corner/border punch for the border on this card. Of course any of these designs can be made larger or smaller by changing the length of the strips used.

Think Spring!

2011-02-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

I don’t know about you, but I am SO done with this winter . . . so I am thinking butterflies. I like to make realistc looking butterflies. I don’t use a pattern for those, I just look at the pictures in the Audubon book and try to duplicate the look with quilling,, but I also make “fun’ butterflies.

This is a very simple quilled butterfly made with ring coils. You can make a ring coil by wrapping a strip several times around anything round (ballpoint pen, the handle of a wooden spoon etc.) or you can use one of the many quilling templates available. There is also a cute little item called a circle sizer which serves the same purpose as a template (it’s just smaller.) Once you’ve made your ring coils, pinch them into the shapes you want for the wings. Make a 6” marquis for the body, a 11/2” tight roll (squeezed into an oval shape) for the head, and a 2” open heart for the antenna. I used a new Fiskars butterfly border punch on the card and glued the little “fall” butterflies around the ring coil butterfly. On the inside of the card I glued a strip of 1/8” quilling paper and a wider strip of colored paper which I also punched.

The next card is made using a different technique. It is called alternate side looping. I used three strips for the wing and back half of the butterfly. The body is a 6” marquise. The head is a 1 ½” tight roll. The antenna is a 1” strip folded in half and both ends curled in the same direction. The daisy has a 3” tight roll for a center, flattened into an oval. The Petals are 6” teardrops. The stem is just a 2” strip finger curled with 3’ open coils on either side. Enjoy!

Another Quilled Heart

2011-02-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

Have you made your Valentine cards yet? No? Well, here is one more Valentine pattern for you. Once again, I started with a lightly pencil drawn heart outline to follow. I then arranged 5” open S scrolls around the outline to be sure I could get the “fit” right. After gluing the S scrolls down, I added 2” tight rolls on both sides where the S scrolls meet. I added a 5” teardrop at the bottom of the heart. To finish the card, I used a heart border punch on both sides of the card and backed it with a contrasting color. I decided to do this card in pastels rather than the traditional red, I think it is too pretty to use just for Valentines Day. Enjoy!

FYI Heart border punches (the one shown as well as the circle heart punch and the heart corner/border punch) are on sale until February 11th)

A Special Quilled Heart

2011-02-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

I promised you a different kind of heart this week. This couldn’t be any more “out of the box” than our typical quilled hearts.This week I’d like to introduce you to Sarah Yakawonis. She contacted me after seeing the picture of the 3-D quilled scull that Kim Wallace sent me that was posted on this blog. Sarah said that she had done a two dimensional scull and would like to try a 3-D scull. I checked out her blog (http://yakawonis.blogspot.com/ )and was amazed at her anatomical quilling. I asked her permission to feature her here and share her work with you. She graciously accepted.

Sarah is a graduate of the Maine College of Art and works as a graphic artist in a publication design studio in Portland, Maine. “We make books, it's really fulfilling because I love everything about books.”

I asked her how she learned to quill. “, I learned quilling on my own. But I used the skills like flawless glue work from school. My teachers were really hard about stuff like glue showing, it taught me to hold everything I make up to a level of scrutiny I would have never know existed if I hadn't gone to art school. . . . I fell in love with quilling early last summer and played around with a lot of the traditional quilling motifs. While I did learn the techniques of quilling by doing this, none of the traditional themes held my interest for very long. I was looking for a subject that would. I guess I was looking for a something that was more macabre than the traditional flowers and letterforms. I came up with the idea of anatomical quilling while in the wilderness of Maine; it just kind of came to me like being hit by a lightning bolt of inspiration! I did a few pieces and knew I'd do a lot more. I really love repetitive tasks, and I enjoy how long each one takes. For example my quilled heart took about 33 hours to complete. Each part of the body is so complex! I love figuring out how to take the illustration I work from and translate it into quilling! It's so much fun and so satisfying to see the finished work!”

I asked Sarah if she planned to “market” her work, she replied,” I'm trying to figure out how to get my work into galleries. I'm preparing to approach galleries in Portland and nation wide, First Friday is a big art day in Portland so I'm waiting for gallery Curators to be a little less busy when I approach them. I hope it's a fruitful endeavor!

I may start selling them online, I'm looking for the best platform to showcase my work. I also have to figure out how to price my work, no small task when there is nothing out there to compare it to.

Be sure to stop by Sarah's blog to see some great close ups of her work. Good luck Sarah! I’m happy to have made your acquaintance.!

Valentine Pattern

2011-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Since Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, I thought I would share another Valentine’s pattern with you. This one is a white filigree heart with a bouquet of roses in the center. I started out by drawing (or tracing) a heart shape. I covered the outline with 6” marquises. The number you need will be determined by the size of the heart you draw. I used 34 including the extra six I placed at the bottom and top of the heart. When gluing the marquises down I start at both the center top and center bottom and then work my way up/down the sides of the heart. (The last inch or so before the sides meet I lay them in dry so I can make whatever spacing adjustments are necessary.) Next, I made enough 3” tight rolls to place on both sides of the heart everywhere the marquises meet; a very simple, but pretty filigree border.

For the bouquet of roses in the center I made tiny folded roses using 1/8’ paper. I used floral wire for stems. I dipped the end of the wire in glue and put in into the bottom of the roses and let them dry before I assembled them. Add a simple bow and you have a pretty card you could use for other occasions a well; anniversary, engagement etc.

I have also used a very similar border on a piece I did for a 40th wedding anniversary. Since the color for the 40th is a garnet/red, I made the roses using a deep red 3/8th” paper. I also placed pale pink buds in between the red roses and a pale pink rose in the center. The piece I sold also had a tiny paper ribbon with the couple's name and "Happy 40th Anniversary on it. These are my “trademark” roses; each petal is a separate piece of paper. Here is a link to instructions for the roses in case you are interested. Enjoy!

FYI My next post will be about a very different kind of heart.

Meet Sandra White

2011-01-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

This week I would like to introduce you to Sandra White, a quiller from New Hampshire. I’ve admired Sandy’s work for years. I used to sell some of my work through a shop in North Conway, New Hampshire. On my trips up there, (I LOVE the White Mountains and everything about New Hampshire . . . It has always been a secret dream of mine to live in a cabin in the White Mountains), I enjoyed poking around in the shops in and just enjoying being up there. I first saw Sandy’s work in a shop run by the League of NH Craftsmen. I almost missed it. They were pictures of birds and wild flowers (did I tell you I love wild flowers and have bird feeders right outside the Whimsiquills window?) The interesting thing about these pictures was the outline of the birds/flowers was cut out and the actual quilling was behind the cut out. Recently, I came across Sandy’s blog http://www.quillingbysandrawhite.blogspot.com/ and read about how she came up with this idea “by accident”. I contacted her and she has given me permission to share her story.

“I started quilling in 1973. I went to a craft shop and came home with quilling paper to frame and embellish my girlfriend’s wedding invitation. I made all kinds of tiny little flowers. When I went back to the craft shop , I showed the girl and she said “you didn’t even have a quilling tool!” She showed me the tool with the slot, I took it home and have not stopped quilling. It was so easy with the tool that I haven’t stopped.”

“In the mid 80’s …………that sounds so long ago………my mother-in-law Dona was making cut and pierced lampshades to sell in the League of NH Craftsmen shops with my father –in-law Dick’s turned wooden lamps…..very beautiful, I even have a couple.

We had thought that perhaps a little quilling on the shades might be pretty. So I made up some flowers and we tried to place them on the shade. We had envisioned that the flowers would show nicely when the lamp was turned on. But it did not. Instead, the flowers slipped behind a cut-out in the shade, and it happened to be that of a loon. And the accident was born. Quilling my way. When the lamp was tuned on, all you could see was a blob of something. But when it was off, the quilling showed very well behind the opening. That’s where the idea of quilling behind a cut-out was born. A happy Accident. So much for quilled lampshades…………I did make flowers for a few lampshades with Dona completing them. And I did sell a couple……………but my interest was in the birds and ducks…………..and on to wildflowers and other wildlife. Quilling, My Way, developed from that little accident……………I do have a lampshade with quilled flowers on it as shown below. I am unable, perhaps unwilling is a little more honest, to make any more, as I do not have any interest in making the shade itself. Too tedious ………like quilling isn’t tedious.”

If you would like to see more of Sandra’s work check out her web site http://www.quillingbysandrawhite.com/

Be my Valentine

2011-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Do you remember being in elementary school and making Valentines for your classmates? I do . . . I remember cutting out hearts from construction paper and decorating them with Valentine stickers. I remember my Mom helping me to make heart shaped cookies and writing classmates’ names on them with frosting. I remember buying “punch out” Valentines with cute little critters and cute little sayings. I also remember those awful tasting little candy hearts that said ‘be mine” or “love”. Too bad I didn’t know how to quill back then; I don’t make too many Valentines now . . . but here are some ideas in case you are planning on being creative this year.

The heart on this card was made with a technique called bandaging. I stacked 1/8” inch strips together (I think I used six) and then wrapped them with the contrasting color. I wrapped the bandaged strips around a cardboard cut out for the heart shape and removed it from the work board (and the cut out) once it was dry. The directions for the little “heart” petals follow.

6 Pink hearts (3”) for flower petals

Wrap red paper around three of the pink hearts

3 Red hearts (3”) for petals

3 Green strips (1.5”) for stems

3 Loose scrolls (2”) for filigree

Arrange as shown

For those of you who have visited my web site Whimsiquills.com , you know I like to use border punches when I make my cards. Here are some that are perfect for Valentines Day. Heart border punch I used for the bottom of the card, here is a Circle Heart Border punch. , and last but not least "Framed in Love" a corner border punch. I hope these give you some ideas.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to a happy healthy 2011. It’s hard to believe it is January although the temperature and the snow on the ground are pretty good indications. I’m one of those strange people who love the winter! I actually enjoy walking my dogs more when it is 15 degrees out than I do when it is 85 degrees. So in honor of winter I created a new snowflake (no easy task when you have made as many snowflakes as I have over the years) This time I combined husking with traditional quilling, although I used a quilling comb (aka onion holder) instead of wrapping the strips around pins on a work board. In case you would like to try this one, I used the following sized strips for this snowflake

8 ½” strips for the “husked” arms of the snowflakes,

4” strips for the open hearts which I placed between the six arms of the snowflakes.

4” teardrops

2” tight rolls

Once again, I plan to feature other quilling artists, starting with Sandra White a New Hampshire quiller I plan to touch base with some of the quillers I have already featured, just to see what they are doing this year.

For those of you who may not know, I have set up a Whimsiquills “fan” page on Facebook. (Just do a search for Whimsiquills/Facebook and the page comes right up).I thought it might be a fun way for us to have “discussions” about quilling topics. Two threads I have started include getting quilling into schools ( I have not yet been successful here) and making greeting cards. I hope you will stop by and add your thoughts and let me know what you are interested in discussing with other quillers.

2010-12-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

I don’t know about you, but I actually enjoy the ritual of sitting down and writing out Christmas cards. I put on some Christmas music, light a “Christmasy” candle, make a cup of tea, and get to work. I enjoy taking the opportunity for a short visit with old friends and family. A few years ago, I started making my own cards, especially for special occasions. Since I send many Christmas cards, I try to keep the design fairly simple. Last year’s card had a small snowflake.

This year I decided to use a poinsettia. I made the poinsettia using the alternate side looping technique. I usually use this technique when I am using two toned or graduated papers, but I decided that this quick, fun technique would be something a little different.

I used a Christmas green greeting card and punched a 4” circle with my Fiskars dancing daisies circle punch. I used white pearlized paper for the circle. I measured to find the center of the circle and glued the center of my poinsettia there. The petals and leaves were all done ”free hand”. I didn’t measure the strips so the petals and leaves are not exactly the same size.

For the greeting inside the card, I printed Merry Christmas in red on regular computer paper and then used a holly border punch on the top and bottom. I attached everything to the card with removable Dotto adhesive so the card can be recycled or the little circle with the poinsettia can be use as an ornament or package decoration.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had about 25 people, friends and family, together at my house. (this is just half of the happy group) It’s kind of hard to believe that we are just around the corner from another new year. In spite of all the “doom and gloom” and dire predictions on the news, we still have much to be thankful for. Yesterday, surrounded by my family, I felt very fortunate indeed.. and I am still doing what I love to do . . . quilling. You would think that after 35 years, I would be tired of quilling, but I’m not. There is always another challenge. This summer I quilled lots of wedding invitations, some are pretty routine, but I even enjoy doing those. I can just “veg out” while I am making roses or the dozens of teardrops for flower petals. I still get a kick out of seeing a design come together.

Often, people ask me where I get the ideas for my designs. Sometimes they come easily. You just look at it and there it is, other times it can be a real challenge. A customer will call and say “I have a wedding invitation, but it’s kind of different . . . I don’t know what you will be able to do with it”. There’s the anticipation of waiting to see what it will look like. I had one like that this summer. The shape and size of the invitation was anything BUT routine; a horizontal, long, and narrow invitation and it was a beach wedding! So I just started making shapes and sea shells and then finally figured out how I was going to put it all together. I actually loved the finished piece and wished I had made a copy of the invite so I could make another for a sample. I did take a picture though, even though purples aren’t my favorite colors, I absolutely love the way they all work together.

Another piece that ended up being a challenge was a floral bouquet I did that was going to be given as a gift to the leader of a Bible study group. There was a deadline and we did everything over the phone and emails. Because it was long distance, it really became a challenge. I was only doing the quilling which is kind of unusual. Usually I determine the size, cut the mat, do the framing etc. The mat was going to have a Bible verse in calligraphy that went all the way around the mat. The calligrapher did the verse so the mat had to be horizontal in order to read the saying, so all of my plans for long graceful flower stems went out the window. Fortunately, I made the flowers but didn’t start gluing anything down until the very last minute. So the bouquet became a basket of flowers since there was no room for stems. The finished piece actually looked quite nice although I didn’t get a picture of the mat with the calligraphy. Inspiration comes in many forms

Things are back to normal

2010-11-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

Just in case you are wondering what that strange sound is coming from northern Connecticut . . . it’s me cheering because the problem with my blog http://www.quillingwithwhimsiquills.blogspot.com/ has been resolved. I started this blog because so many quillers were contacting me with questions about teaching, framing, matting, selling their work etc. that I thought the blog would be a way to put all of that information out there for anyone who might be interested. I’ve put up 78 posts with reference materials and features I’ve done on other quillers; including pictures of their work and links to other quillers, my web site, and free patterns etc. I’ve had such a wonderful response to the blog so naturally I was devastated when that warning popped up. Thankfully some of my readers alerted me to the problem right away. Then the whole nightmare process of figuring out “what went wrong” began. I thought I would share this with you just in case you ever find yourself in this position.

When I saw the RED warning at the top of my blog (which is hosted by Google), I was directed to Webmaster Tools. The web master tools suggested that my site was “suspicious” and might contain “malware”. Unfortunately, Google didn’t tell me where the offending malware was located on my blog. I went through all of the comments and did find one that was “strange”, I deleted it immediately; but that did not solve the problem. Google suggested that I quarantine my blog, but I was unable to learn exactly how to do that. I did end up getting professional help because I was so “lost” trying to clear the whole thing up (after all, I am a quilling artist NOT a computer expert). After much research, I found a site called http://www.unmaskparasites.com/ Google had made references to them in several of its “help” articles and apparently they have been written up in several computer magazines. They did a ”security report” which rated every link on my site and found the culprit. I then ran www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic/site= for the offending site, and sure enough it told me that this site was hosting malicious software which had allowed it to act as intermediary for the infection of 37 other sites (including mine). I have deleted all references/links to that site which apparently had also been “hacked” by another site which had infected more than 1800 sites. I will now run any links through Google’s safe browsing diagnostic before I put it up on my site. I have contacted the other quiller who was hacked to let her know what has happened. I can’t even tell you how many hours I spent on this problem, but the good news is that no one else was affected; the offending link has been removed and Google has given the “all clear”. Now I can get back to writing about quilling!

Another Inspirational Story

2010-10-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

Back in the end of August, I received this email in response to the blog I did about Anna Krow, who is an avid quiller in spite of her struggle with Parkinson's Disease. Antonieta shared her story about how quilling helped her after a brain injury. She agreed to let me share her story with you.

Dear Pat:
My name is Antonieta Velazquez. Some years ago I am in quillpictures yahoo groups.
I admire all your work and other quillers. I read in your blog about a person with Parkinson´s disease that started quilling. I want to tell you about how quilling saved my mind.

In 1994 I had an accident with my head in a library of my working center, I fell from stairs. That day I was looking for information about some chemical process for my master degree in this place. I am a chemical engineer and I was working in a scientific government company. The accident was very bad and my brain was damaged. In the next months I fell into a nervous depression. The words in my mind were lost, this accident affected my work. Then I took many pills for my brain.

One day I was watching TV and learned about a woman making quilling in Mexico City. Then I got a book on the internet (Malinda Johnston) and started quilling. It was fascinating because my brain started to improve and depression left. At that time I was married and I had a little child. (Today my child is 12 years old), and I was surprised because through quilling, I recovered my words and my brain´s abilities. I think I was better for 1999. In that time then I was a recognized quiller in my city, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. I appeared in TV programs and my quilling was shown in handcrafts magazines. But I started a little worried about my chemical engineer career... my mind only wants quilling and quilling and quilling!!!!

In 2002 my child entered school and I entered again my chemical world. For now I have a little business of handmade soap. I think the quilling saved my mind, my brain...and my life. Now I am more creative with my work; I also have another career in education. I think the quilling "opened" my mind to the creative work, included handmade soap and chemical process. I don’t know how I can explain this, but I think the quilling stimulated my brain to work better in all senses.

I returned to chemical engineering, but I think the quilling helped me so much with my brain accident. Today I am not quilling, but I enjoyed so much to see all the beautiful works including yours. Your tea cup is really wonderful. I remembered those beautiful quilling days. I am sending you my first project (fence), when it was shown in an English magazine called "Simply Quilling". I was 30 years old when I sent to this magazine my project. The magazine published my work and I was very happy about it. Then another Mexican handcrafts magazine published other projects of my creation.

I want the people with brain disease and nervous problems to know they can be health with a handcraft like paper quilling. I think paper quilling and another handcrafts should be studied by neurology-scientists because they really help to recover the brain from some problems. I don’t know the process in the brain... but it works!!!
Quilling works better than pills. I think the quilling developed the language area of my brain and recovered it.This area was damaged with the accident, but the mathematic area was not damaged, because I was able to do equations. Then I think the impact of the quilling was in the writing-reading-creative area.
It is hard for me to explain you in English, but I know you understand me.

I am 40 years old now, and I am a very happy chemical engineer making soap. My time for now is very busy. But I hope one day I will return to quilling. Anyway I want give you and another quillers thanks for sharing your creations.

Inspiration - Quilling with Anna Krow

2010-08-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Here is another inspirational story of a quiller who won’t give up. Anna is a sweet lady who buys her quilling supplies from us here at Whimsiquills. When she places an order she always takes a few minutes to “visits” on the phone with Debbie or myself and tells us all about her newest projects. She told me she likes doing business with us because she gets to talk to “real people”. I was surprised when I learned she is quilling while battling Parkinson’s disease. When she told me her local newspaper was doing a story about her, I asked her to send me a copy so I could share it with other quillers. Here it is:

Nobody tells Anna Krow she can’t do something.

Krow, 78, a Parkinson’s disease patient, spends days in her senior citizen apartment on Ashburg Drive in Mechanicsburg, coiling thin strips of paper into hundreds of beautiful pictures. Quilling, also called paper filigree, is a meticulous art that involves twisting and gluing paper, sometimes the thickness of 1/8 inch, into patterned designs. The craft involves immense patience and dexterity from an average person, let alone someone with a neurological disorder.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s 13 years ago Krow uses a wheelchair, her motor skills impaired to a degree that brushing her teeth and making a bed are at times, impossible. Still, she works with intensity on portraits of flowers and farm animals for her three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “You can counteract Parkinson’s symptoms to some degree by willpower” said Mike Lawler, owner of Honor Healthcare Group, which provides services to elderly or disabled people living at home. “It’s like wearing a suit of armor all the time. It’s so fatiguing, but she mentally overrides it.” Lawler met Krow a year ago. It’s common for nurses with his company to walk in on Krow hunched over a table in her kitchen, multicolored pieces of paper strewn about the apartment as she works on her next masterpiece. Her pieces have won first – and second-place ribbons in the Dillsburg Community Fair.

Krow fell in love with the art 30 years ago when a friend gave her a quilled picture for Christmas that still hangs in her bathroom. She didn’t take up quilling again until a few years ago, Her disease symptoms left Krow sitting in a lounge chair most of the day when her husband Karl, surprised her with a bag of quilling materials. “I was tired of the four walls and the ceiling. I couldn’t do anything,” Krow said. “I love doing this. I could sit here all day.” She’s created a wedding picture frame for her great-niece. Roses are her favorite flower to make. The small patterns, she can do in one day.
“I like to play,” she said. “When someone tells me I can’t do something, I do it.”

The End of an Era (Quilling)

2010-07-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

The End of an Era (Quilling)

I am always glad to meet new quilling friends; through Whimsiquills I meet so many more than I would have otherwise. Yesterday I had a rather poignant phone “visit” with a quiller named Jeanne who lives in Vermont. She learned to quill in 1972 when her sister-in-law who was from Vietnam came for a visit, she had been taught to quill by French nuns. Jeanne told me that the two of them sat cross-legged on her bed while her sister-in-law gave her a needle and a tiny strip of paper and told her she was going to teach her to “filigree”. She was immediately hooked (as so many of us are), she packed away her knitting needles and crochet hooks and concentrated on quilling. She loved doing miniature plants and flowers. Over the years, as she raised her four children, she enjoyed making them so much that she ended up selling them at craft shows, as she said to get them out of the house.

Sadly, she is now experiencing problems with her vision and arthritis in her right hand and is no longer able to quill. She called me to ask if I would be able to help her find someone who might be interested in buying her supplies . . . this has been a tough decision for her. She has been holding on to these supplies in the hope that she will be able to quill again. She shared with me that each time she has tried to quill; her efforts have brought her to tears. It is now time to pass these things on to someone else, whom will experience the same pleasure from using them. She doesn’t want to put them up on EBay, but wants them to go to someone who will actually use them.

Included in the supplies are at least 50 packages of strips, tools, work board, and some old kits. Some of these are vintage papers and I am sure, include colors that are no longer available. If you or someone you know would enjoy having Jeanne’s quilling supplies, you may contact Jeanne directly. You can email her at amahjeanne@gmail.com or phone her at 802 773 5030.

Quilling Journal vs. Quilling Blog

2010-07-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Journal vs. Blog

Writing a blog is a strange kind of pastime. For years, I kept a journal, which I filled with my innermost thoughts, fears, and hopes. It was, for me, a way of letting go of things that bothered me, and it was very private. I have read some blogs that are much like my journal and often wonder how people are able to open themselves up to strangers so easily. When I learned about blogs, I thought a blog might be a way for me to reach out to other quillers and share some of my thoughts and quilling experiences, in this case, I wanted others to read these thoughts and learn from them and perhaps get to know me a little better. I find that I am putting a little more of “me” out there than I originally thought I would, but that’s okay. In return, I have met some wonderful readers who are willing to share their stories with me. Here is one I recently received.

<em>I just want to say Thank You so very much for the free patterns you have posted on your site. I have many health issues and I don't leave the house very much any more. Two years ago I was looking thru some craft sites and I kept seeing the word "quilling". I had no idea what that meant! So, I did some research! I found every single website that gave any free info about quilling...and I learned. :o) I spent an entire winter teaching myself, buying some paper, kits, and supplies. I liked the fact that it's not an expensive craft. I actually did the exact same thing w tea bag folding...I really enjoy that too! :o) In the past 2 years I have also taught myself how to make and sell beautiful stretchy glass and gem bracelets, and I have enjoyed rubber stamping and card making for years, and this year my hubby bought me a Cricut! :o) So, I have gotten sidetracked from quilling. I've actually had some requests from friends and my mom to start quilling again because it is so unique and "special". In this heat I'm not feeling energetic enough to get out of bed, so I thought I should start quilling again. That is an activity that I can do in bed, which is 1 thing that attracted me to it in the 1st place! I have purchased some books over the past couple of years that have been very helpful, but I must say...I am in love w your website! I've been looking at Patricia's wedding announcements, etc. They were so beautiful and personal and special, I cried! For the past couple of years I've wanted to make something very special for my mom, something that I could frame...but I just wasn't able to figure out what to do or how to go about doing it. This past Jan 21st my parents’ house burned to the ground. Praise God they were tucked safely away in FL at the time! This has been such a terrible crisis for them, so heartbreaking to lose so many special things that can never be replaced. Just this past weekend as I was showing her some of my new card creations, she said.."I kept every single card you ever made me, and they're gone." she was so sad. I told her it was no biggie, there will be other cards!! Plus the ones that burned were just my "beginners"... :o) I'm much better now! My parents are in the midst of building a new house and mom wants to have all of us kids come home for Thanksgiving, but celebrate Christmas at that time so that they can go back to FL when they feel ready to leave. So... I've decided it's time! For their 1st holiday in their new home, I want to make them something very special. I'm thinking maybe something w all the seasons... I have a frame w 3 windows, so I could do Spring/Summer, Fall, Winter. I absolutely LOVE your new free fall patterns!! I had been looking for a tree either last year or the year before, I love this one, and it’s the perfect size!! Maybe I will use some type of poem, or maybe some Bible verses the way you used the wedding invitations... Hmmm...

Thanks again for being so generous! :o)
Mindy

Butterfly project

2010-03-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago I read an article in our local newspaper, by William Denton, about a synagogue here in Connecticut that was collecting handmade paper butterflies to send to the Holocaust Museum Houston. The museum “is preparing an exhibit of 1.5 million butterflies to represent the number of children who perished in the Holocaust.” The exhibit is currently scheduled for spring of 2013 and according to the article the museum currently has 400,000 butterflies. The article went on to quote a poem “The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedman, who was born in Prague in 1921, deported to Terezin ghetto and concentration camp in 1942 and later to Auschwitz, where he died in 1944. In the poem he describes seeing a single butterfly.

The last, the very last.
So richly, brightly, dazzling yellow . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high . . .
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto . . .
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live here, in the ghetto.

I love butterflies, I always have. I think they show us just how beautiful and fragile life can be. So I am sending some quilled butterflies to the museum. The butterflies I made are from 2-4” across and I used ¼” and 3/8” strips. I did spray them with Stiffen Stuff to make them a little sturdier (is that a word?) since I don’t know how they will be displayed. I put a note in my calendar book to start checking back with the museum’s web site in spring 2013. I can’t even imagine how great this exhibit will be with 1.5 million paper butterflies, but more importantly those butterflies will help us remember the children they represent. Perhaps some of you will also be inspired to send some along as well, please let me know if you do. The web site for the museum is www.hmh.org , here is a link for the Butterfly Project . The address for the museum is Holocaust Museum Houston, Butterfly Project, Education Department , 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004 If you live in Connecticut, you may send your butterflies (by June 30) to Temple B’nai Israel, P O Box 61, Willimantic, CT 06226 where they will be displayed at the temple and then sent on to the Holocaust Museum.

Quilling Die Cuts?

2010-02-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

I have been reading the chatter on line about the quilling die that Cuttlebug by Provocraft showed at the CHA this year. I just couldn’t imagine how a die cut system had could produce something you could use for quilling; that is, unless it was going to cut the strips. Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer and decided to take a look. I watched the video and finally realized what they were talking about. The Cuttlebug will cut a long strip of “petals” which can then be rolled up (like a quilling strip) to produce a flower. Now I have watched quillers cut these petals by hand and have even tried it myself. I didn’t like my results at all. Somehow I managed to space the petals so when I rolled them up they were kind of on top of one another and didn’t look that terrific when I spread them apart. The Cuttlebug seems to have the spacing right, but the finished product doesn’t look too much like quilling to me, maybe a little more like a punch flower. Watch the video and see for yourself. Of course there is still the debate about whether or not things like ribbons, punch flowers, or beads/pearls should be added to quillwork. (Although pictures of some antique quilling show cut flowers, wire, and chips of wax, and frequently crushed mica back grounds.) Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, people are talking about QUILLING!

I think it is very interesting that, after years of quilling being “in the closet”, when only a few of us even knew what it was, that quilling has BURST upon the arts & crafts scene as though it was just “discovered”. All of a sudden we are seeing it in magazines, videos on YouTube, quilling blogs, and web sites devoted to quilling. It’s even in home school curricula. How neat is that! Those of us, who founded the North American Quilling Guild, made it our mission to promote the art of quilling and pass it on to future generations. Well it looks like that isn’t going to be much of an issue anymore, I am seeing it everywhere. My Mom even sent me a commercial greeting card that had a picture of quilling on the front. While quilling may never catch on like scrapbooking, it seems to have found a niche in the crafting community. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this resurgence!

Quilling Serendipity in 2010

2010-01-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

I guess you could call it serendipity. When I submitted a couple of pictures of my work to the local newspaper, I had no idea if they would publish them. They only use “art” on the cover of the “itown” section and, as quilling artists, we all know about that art vs. craft thingie. I was pleasantly surprised when I came home from the hospital on January 3rd to see my quilled teacup and saucer on the cover page. I received several nice phone calls and emails from people who had seen it. It was a really nice “pick-me-up” after a crummy start to the New Year.

On Monday, Debbie took a call from someone named Linda, who wanted to talk to me about doing an interview. I was still not feeling well on Monday so I didn’t get to talk to Linda until Tuesday. She told me about her blog Gratituderising.blogspot.com and said she was fascinated by the quilling she saw in the paper and could she come and visit. We set a date for Friday. When she came over, we chatted a little bit about my work. She liked the fact that I have this huge window in the studio where I can watch the birds while I work, and the way the property backs up to the woods. It is very peaceful. Then she asked me if I meditate. I laughed and said “I’m working on it” and told her about the previous weekend when I had lost vision in one eye and was rushed to the hospital. (Fortunately, I did not actually have a stroke and my vision returned, although for a while I saw two of everything, I told the nurses that I wouldn’t go home with TWO husbands, one was quite enough!) So we talked about meditation and Yoga and how they would make me feel so much better etc. Eventually we got around to the interview. I hadn’t realized she was going to do a video, but that’s what she did. She had it up on YouTube in no time at all. Then she wrote about the interview and put it up on her blog. The best part about the whole thing was that I got to meet a really neat person, who took the time to pick up the phone so she could share with others something that had moved her. The front page of her blog says that it is “A place to be reminded that there is always something to be grateful for and that beauty and goodness can be found wherever we look.” How true that is; and yet many times we let the days go by without reflecting on that beauty and goodness; I know I do. I am very grateful to Linda for reminding me of that “beauty and goodness”. Later that day she stopped by to drop off a guided meditation CD for me . . . maybe 2010 is going to be better than I thought.

PS For those of you who might not recognize them, the teacup critters and the quilled clown at the beginning of the video are not my work. My very talented quilling friends Sherry Rodehaver (the tea cup critters) and Jinny Alexander (the quilled clown) made those.

Last Minute Quilling - Quilled Trinket Boxes

2009-12-18T08:28:00.001-08:00

Here is a cute idea for a last minute gift, and you probably have all of the supplies to make it right in your quilling supplies. You will need a whole package of 1/8” strips to make the top and bottom of this little quilled trinket box. Start by making a tight coil using a full strip, add a second strip by slipping it into the coil about 6” from the end of the first strip, continuing to add strips until the coil is the size that you want. (I use approximately 20 full strips to make a 2” tight roll for the bottom.) Glue the end of the last strip down and flatten the coil and coat the bottom with glue. (I like to coat the bottom, where is doesn’t show, so the paper doesn’t get a “shiny” look). Repeat the process to make a top for your trinket box, then gently shape the top into a sculptured roll and coat the inside of the top with glue. I like to do the top and bottom of my boxes in the same color and then use a contrasting color for the “sides” of the box. I use a strip of paper about 11” long and 1 ½” wide for the sides: I usually cut a strip from one of the accessory packs, but any paper will work. Roll the strip into a ring coil, glue the end of the strip down and then glue to the bottom of the box. I make the sides a little smaller than the bottom so a lip shows. I also make a ring coil to glue in the top of the box using a 1/8” strip, this ring coil is slightly smaller than the ring coil used for the sides. This is just to keep the top from slipping off the box. You can add a small tight roll to the top of the box for a handle. Now you can have fun decorating your box, adding quilled designs to the sides and top. These would make adorable hostess gifts or table favors; they would also make great shower or wedding favors.
If you have problems with large tight rolls, there is a tool called the curling coach which is helpful, although with a little practice you can do them just using your fingers. I learned the technique of adding strips as I was rolling from Jane Jenkins. I was surprised at how easy it is. When I first started making large tight rolls, it was to make a chess set from a kit. This was probably 25 years ago. It was suggested to glue the strips end to end. I can’t even tell you how much harder that was. I would get six or seven strips rolled and somehow loosen my grip on the whole thing and end up with a twelve foot tendril! Try rolling that up again! Sliding the strips in as you roll makes the whole process so much easier and the resulting coil is nice and smooth, not lumpy.

Pat's Quilled 3D Christmas Tree & "Pattern"

2009-12-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

We’ve had a lot of inquiries lately about the quilled Christmas tree on the web site. The tree is at least 20 years old by now but always causes people to stop and look at it. I thought it was time for me to write down some general instructions for those of you who would like to make one. When I first started making Christmas trees the only green available was the bright Christmas green. I prefer a darker green, like a forest green or hunter green, but that is a matter of personal taste. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how much paper you will need because it will be determined by the size of the tree and how loose (or tight) your quills are Just be sure you have plenty of green so all of your paper is from the same dye lot. (I actually spray painted one of my trees because the greens didn’t match. YUK!) The tree is very simple to make. I started with a 4” circle cut from card stock for the base; I would normally use a dark color for the base but have started one on a white base to make it easier to see. My first row of quills was 6” teardrops which I glued (pointy side out) around the circumference of the base. My next row was 3” tight rolls which are glued on top (toward the back) of the teardrops. The rest is easy . . . just keep alternating rows of teardrops and tight rolls. Each row is glued farther back than the one before; the shape of the tree just comes naturally. You can make the tree in any size; mine are usually about 6” high. If you want a smaller tree, start with a smaller circle; for a larger tree use a bigger circle. The tree “trunk” is tight rolls (I use at four full strips to make them sturdy) stacked and glued together. You can make these with 3/8” strips so you don’t have to stack so many. Glue the “trunk” to the middle of the card stock base and then glue to whatever you are using for the base of the finished piece. (Mine is on a wood base that came with a glass dome.) I made my trunk about 1 ¾” high because I put little paper packages and quilled figures under the tree. The fun part is decorating the tree. I made lots of tiny bows from 1/16” wide paper. The candles are tight rolls made from ¼” paper strips about 1/12” long. Glue a bow to the candle base and put a 1” shaped teardrop for the flame. I use 12” strips to make little bells from silver paper (the new metallics are much prettier than what I used) and glue a bow to the top and a matching “clapper” inside. I also added some little yellow stars (using 5 one inch teardrops), Christmas balls (using 18” of paper is different colors), folded roses, and made red and white candy sticks by twisting the two colors into tendrils. This is my favorite type of tree, although I have also made some Victorian trees and decorated them with fans, hearts, roses, candles, and bells. Hmmm . . . maybe it’s time for new tree!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T05:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with family, friends, and of course, lots of good food. It is my favorite holiday; a day spent with those we love without all of the “hoopla” of some of the other holidays. This year I have been reflecting about the special people in my life. My children, who are my biggest fans; my husband, who willingly shares his home with “Whimsiquills”, (it’s not a very big house!); Debbie, without whom I couldn’t run the business and of course our friends and families. But I am also thinking about the quillers I have met over the years and how they have changed my life. Malinda Johnston, (former owner of Lake City Crafts) has been a kind of mentor over the years. She encouraged me to start selling supplies, published some of my work in her books, and still stays in touch even though she has retired and moved on. I am grateful for a special group of quillers (Mary Alice, Ev, Donna, Bobbye, Kay, Gerta, Rita, Rick, Jinny, and Malinda), who were, and still are, so dedicated to this beautiful art form that they formed the North American Quilling Guild so American quillers have a way to stay in touch and learn from each other. I am thankful for my friend Andy Papineau (Paplin Products) who has worked so closely with us here at Whimsiquills. He has worked with us to develop tools (like fringers and crimpers) that were truly scarce just a few short years ago, and he has brought in all of the colors I’ve asked for as well as specialty papers. He also prods me to keep working on new quilling kits, which I never would have done on my own. I am also grateful to countless numbers of quillers, many of whom I have never met, who have written to me over the years, sending pictures of their work as well as those who have let me feature them is this blog. I have a great deal to be thankful for; I get to work at something I love and I enjoy all of the quillers I work with. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a happy healthy holiday season.

Quilling Can Be Therapeutic

2009-11-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

Quilling can be therapeutic . . . thank goodness for that! Of all of the things I enjoy doing: walking, gardening, reading, playing the piano, and quilling . . . quilling is the one thing I can do even when I am exhausted and unable to focus. Just the simple task of rolling shapes to be used in making flowers or snowflakes, something very routine, seems to calm my mind. There are times when I just make teddy bears or roses or shapes for several hours at a time; it helps to still my mind while keeping my fingers busy. I mention this because the last month has been a very tough one for me, personally. I have not been able to find the time, or collect my thoughts enough to put together a post for this blog. I have just come back from Florida where I spent a week helping my sisters move my mother and her husband into an assisted living facility. At 86 & 83 years of age, both of them are in failing health; he has had multiple strokes and my Mom is very frail and is having serious memory issues. My family has been trying to convince them that they needed to be in a safe place, but naturally, the actual move was precipitated by a crisis. While all of this was going on, my 96 year old mother-in-law fell and broke her hip necessitating several trips to New Jersey. One of my sons was hospitalized with a kidney stone, and to top it all off my daughter’s house was totally flooded due to a plumbing problem. Her house has been totally gutted and she is living in temporary housing for the next several months. So what does all of this have to do with quilling? Well, I came back home to Connecticut last week, took a look around and just didn’t know where to start to “pick up where I left off”. (Thank goodness, Debbie was here most of the time . . . that is until everyone in her house got sick!) Since my brain seems to be non-functional at this time, I finally sat down and started quilling. I just started making marquises . . . I figured I could use them for daisy petals at some point in the future. While I was tranquilly rolling them, I started thinking about the upcoming holidays and decided I could use those marquises to make snowflakes; before long I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot about how "frazzled" I was feeling. So while I was trying to clear the fog from my brain I played around and made a bunch of Christmas cards. Quilling is definitely better than Valium . . .

Directions for snowflake card: (in case you are interested)
I used the new Snow Bubbles punch on a white Paplin fold over greeting card. I then cut a 3’x4” rectangle from an accessory pack and used the border punch. I attached it to the front of the cart using a Dotto removable adhesive (so I could reposition it if necessary. I found the center of the punched rectangle by measuring diagonally across the rectangle. The snowflake was made from six 6” marquises which I glued into six 4” open V’s. I then made six 2” teardrops and assembled the snowflake right on the card. The tiny snowflakes in the corners were the “falls” from the punch. Quick and easy. Directions for Christmas ornament:
I used the Antique Elegance Circle Border Punch for the green background, positioned it the red card with Dotto removable adhesive. Then I positioned a white circle die cut (2 ¼”) on the punched background. I marked the center of the die cut and put a green 3” tight roll in the center. I placed six 3” tight rolls around the center. I made six green 3’ teardrops which I alternated with six 3” marquises around the tight rolls. For the border around the die cut I used eighteen 3” marquises and eighteen green 3” tight rolls between the marquises.

Meet Alise!

2009-10-05T18:06:00.001-07:00

Today I would like to write about a new quilling friend. As you all know the tea cup has kind of become my personal “logo” if you will. I can’t tell you how many people have written to me about getting directions for the tea cup. I don’t work with patterns, but was able to provide general instructions as to how I created the tea cup. It is always fun for me to see the results. I’d like you to meet Alise:

“My name is Alise and I am 15 years old. I’ve been quilling for 5 years. I contacted you about how you quilled the teacup on your website and you gave me wonderful instructions. I added some sugar cubes and candy. I entered in our local fair and won a blue ribbon. I made a Christmas Faberge Egg for this year’s fair. I enclosed a picture of these projects and a framed picture that I also made.”

Of course I was delighted to see her work as you will be. I wrote back and asked permission to show her work on my blog and to get a little more information from her.

“I am fifteen years old, in the tenth grade and from Lynn, MA. I began quilling in the fifth grade after taking a class that was being offered at a local Michael’s store. I only know basic quilling but with that I found you can do so much. I’ve given many quilled gifts at Christmas and to my teachers. For the past four summers, during vacation, I’ve challenged myself to do bigger quilled pieces for our local agricultural fair – the Topsfield Fair and I have happily won four blue ribbons. I like to embellish my pieces with pearls, beads and especially Australian crystal rhinestones. The tea cup and saucer that was displayed on your website was my first attempt at a three dimensional piece. Although it was very challenging, I really loved the finished product. Besides quilling, I like to knit, play tennis and play my violin.”

In this age of “instant gratification” it is truly refreshing to see a young person willing to take the time to create. Thank goodness we have Alise to carry on our beautiful art.

Quilling with the Visually Impaired & Evangeline (Part 2)

2009-09-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

In my August 7th post (Evangeline Enns & Quilling with the blind), I told you that Evangeline Enns was going to be working with some visually impaired people who wanted to learn to quill. We got a lot of feedback from that post, and I thought I would take a few minutes to update you on how it was going. I spoke with Evangeline yesterday. She has had two classes already and was busy preparing for her next class. She made shape charts for her “students” by gluing the actual quilled shapes to the chart (instead of printed shapes). This would give the new quillers a point of reference, they could feel the shape she was teaching them, and then make one of their own. She has her group finger rolling and said they seem to be pretty comfortable with that. They are working with ¼” wide strips and they are measuring and cutting them on their own. At their first session, (I forgot to ask how long each class is), she had them making teardrop shapes for flower petals, and they learned how to shape short strips to use as stems. At the next meeting she had them make marquises so they could add leaves to their flowers. She says they are an enthusiastic group and some of them want to make snowflakes! We talked about how they could do that with no visual pattern . . . but decided that if it were a simple snowflake to start, they would be able to feel the different shapes used . . . but the placement? I know many sighted quillers do use a pattern to get their snowflakes nice and even and suggested copying the patterns and then using a ball point pen or an embossing tool to go over the lines of the pattern. That would make a raised pattern on the back side of the paper. Most quillers that I know, who do use patterns, put a sheet of waxed paper or Mylar over the pattern and then lay their pieces on the pattern. I would think that using a piece of plastic food wrap instead of the waxed paper would allow them to “feel” the pattern through the plastic wrap. Once again I am asking for any suggestions or feedback from you, the readers, this is definitely a “learn as you go” project, but a very exciting one.

I also spoke with a quilling friend of mine who is legally blind, and who had put her quilling away when she lost her sight. When I told her about Evangeline’s classes, she decided to give it a try, once again. I will let you know how she makes out. We talked about the necessity for good organization for the blind . . . for those of us who are blessed with sight; we can have a messy workspace and just pick out the appropriate color strip from the pile on our tabletop. Perhaps organizing strips by color could be done by using the label makers available in office supply stores to label the front of plastic drawers or the top of the bags the strips come in. Once again, I am open for any suggestions.

Quilling Tool Lending Program/Quilling Teachers

2009-09-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven’t noticed . . . I love quilling. I am fascinated by “all things quilled”. I was so impressed with the “simple” designs quillers created for the Accord Calendar project a couple of years ago. Simple is in quotes because the projects were anything but. It took a great deal of creativity to create designs that used no more than 108” of quilling paper. I was blown away when I saw my first reliquary the year we had our quilling conference in Rochester, NY. My personal goals included creating my own quilling and helping to promote this little known art form. That’s why I worked towards organizing American quillers so many years ago helped in organizing what today has become the North American Quilling Guild. Of course, now I have Whimsiquills, the business that has taken over my home and a large portion of my life. I am still selling my work and of course selling supplies as well, but I find I don’t have much time left over. I don’t get to teach or demonstrate much anymore (unless we have a visiting quiller here at the studio). So how do I keep promoting the art?

We have come up with a program that I think is pretty unique, a lending program. When I talk to a scout leader or teacher who is planning to teach a group to quill . . . I tell them about our tool lending program. Most of these groups have a very limited budget (if any at all), so we send them the tools they need for their class at no charge, along with some other goodies (sometimes bookmarks or mat boards, whatever we have on hand). We also make sure they have links to our free patterns and instructional sheets which include things like a basic shapes chart and are all free and downloadable. We also encourage them to visit our blog http://www.quillingwithwhimsiquills.blogspot.com/ where we have all kinds of helpful info like teaching quilling. We have had an excellent response to this program.

Meeting Fellow Quillers in the Stranger Sitting Next To You

2009-09-04T08:47:00.001-07:00

What are the odds of two strangers sitting next to each other on a bus and finding out that they are both quillers? Well I am no mathematician, but considering how few quillers there are in the world, I would assume the odds of that happening were very small. It happened in July. I had to spend some time with my mother and her husband who was recovering from multiple strokes. They live in The Villages, FL, which is an awesome retirement community (if you like Florida, which I do not, especially in July . . . UGH) When it was time for me to head back to Connecticut, I took a shuttle bus from the Villages to the Orlando airport. I was sitting on the bus reading, waiting to leave when a woman came over and asked if she could sit next to me. We got to chatting and I told her that I was going back home and needed to get back to work. She asked me what I did . . . (don’t you just hate that question, cause then you have to explain what quilling is to someone who never heard of it. Oh I just roll little bits of paper up and then pinch them into etc., etc., etc.-you know, you’ve all been there) Well, imagine how shocked I was when I told her I was a quiller and she responded that she was too! We spent a delightful hour and a half on the shuttle talking about quilling, how she got started quilling and how I got started. We talked about selling our work, and making quilled cards, who her teacher was, finding other quillers, the North American Quilling Guild and so on. You know the kinds of conversations quillers always have when they find each other. We exchanged email addresses and when I handed her my business card, she got so excited because she was visiting with Whimsiquills! So then the conversation shifted to my web site, and the blog and the different things I’ve done since starting Whimsiquills. When we got to the airport, we continued to “hang out” while we waited for our flights. She was heading to Long island, NY, so I let her know that the 2010 NAQGCON was going to be held there; she had missed the Tampa NAQGCON due to illness. One of the many things we talked about was a quilled doll she had made. I asked her to send me a picture because it sounded like a novel idea and I would like to post a picture on my blog. She said she used needlework canvas for the dress and placed the quilling on that. We’ve stayed in touch through emails and Facebook, and every time we “speak” we laugh about how we found each other. I guess it was just serendipity.

BTW I do have a page on Facebook and I have started a quillers group as well.

Quilling in Magazines

2009-08-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Just imagine strolling down the aisle of your local supermarket or drugstore and then looking over at the magazines next to the checkout counter . . . there staring back at you on the cover of a women’s magazine (not a craft magazine) is a beautiful quilled design. How exciting that would be! Beautiful quilling, right out there for everyone to see and “ooh and aah” over. There is such a magazine, but unfortunately it is not here in the United States.

My quilling friend, Malinda Johnston, (yes that Malinda Johnston, the one who authored so many quilling books and founded Lake City Crafts) gave me a call after she came back from her trip to Paris. While in France she took a side trip to the Netherlands to visit her friend Trees Tra, who is also a quiller. (Some of you may have some of Trees Tra’s quilling books.) At any rate, she gave Malinda a copy of a Dutch women’s magazine called Libelle. The cover of the magazine shown here was covered with a delightful quilled design. Malinda was kind enough to send me the magazine; not only was there quilling on the cover but many of the article titles were done in quilling. If the whole title wasn’t quilled the capital letters were. While I am sure copy write laws would prohibit showing you all of these pages, I can tell you they were awesome. An article about Club Tropicana had the letters CLUB quilled with tropical palm trees coming out of the letters. What a boost for the art of quilling! The style looked kind of familiar to me; I went through the magazine to see if the artist was listed. When I couldn’t find any reference to her, I emailed the magazine to inquire who the artist was. (I used the Google translator since my knowledge of the Dutch language is non-existent. I can read some German and was able to get the general idea of some of the articles, but certainly couldn’t make an inquiry in anything other than English. Isn’t the internet awesome?) I did get a reply, and as I expected the artist was Yulia Brodskaya. I am sure many of you have heard of her, her work has been the subject of many quilling blogs. Her web site says “Yulia Brodskaya was born in Russia (Moscow); prior to moving to the UK in 2004 she was interested in diverse creative practices ranging from Textile Painting, Origami and Collage to more traditional Fine Art practices. Following an MA in Graphic Communication (2006, University of Hertfordshire) she has continued to experiment and explore ways of bringing together all the things she likes most: typography, paper, and highly detailed hand-made craft objects.” Here is a link to her web site http://www.artyulia.com/ When you get there click on Illustration and then PAPERgraphic to see some of her awesome work.

Quilling with Allen Girvin

2009-08-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

One of the things that make my business so interesting is the contact I have with so many different quillers all over the world. Quillers are generous people who are always willing to share their ideas. Experienced quillers all know that when it comes to glue in quilling “less is best” and each of us has our own way of limiting the amount of glue we use on our work so we don’t get that pesky glue shine showing behind our quills. I recently spoke with a gentleman in his 90’s who told me he had developed a glue well which kept his glue moist and allowed him to use just the tiniest bit at a time. The sample he sent me was a square piece of Corian (you know the stuff that they make countertops from) He has drilled a hole in it and inserted a plastic cap. The glue gets squirted into the plastic cap and is then covered with a piece of masking or painter’s tape, (the tape is what keeps the glue from drying up)

Evangeline Enns & Quilling with the Blind

2009-08-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sayings is “life is what happens while you are making other plans” . . . well that is the story of my life! The last month or so has been absolute chaos. I had to spend more than a week in Florida, staying with my mom and her ailing husband, came back to CT and got busy with wedding orders, had a colossal flood, and then had to be in NJ for my Dad’s 90th birthday. WHEW! No wonder I’m tired. Those are my excuses for not keeping up with the blog! But . . . I’m back in the swing of things . . . sort of.

Several weeks ago I did a blog about teaching quilling to the visually impaired. Lots of responses and suggestions came in which I have not had time to compile. However, I did make copies of everything you all sent and forwarded them to Evangeline Enns, the Canadian quiller who is taking on this project. I am posting the letter she sent to me regarding all of your hints and tips. I will post some of the suggestions at a later date.

For Pat Caputo from Evangeline Enns RE: Teaching the blind to Quill.

Thanks to all who blogged & gave me the encouragement I needed. It arrived just in time too…the (C.N.I.B.) Canadian National Institute for the Blind; Edmonton chapter has a very good activity director who wants to add quilling to her array of classes given. Each of your notes had good ideas for me & I now feel it is possible. I feel that the people I will be working with have capabilities that will solve my questions as we go along.
I have quilled for 25 years. I started using an opened out paper clip. The knurled edge helped keep the paper in place. I discovered the tool only to be told by the English when I showed a piece in the England in the 90’s that I must go without it. I now do what each piece needs. I did not know until I read Dorah’s blog that I was rolling tool without watching or seeing through fingers and had been for years. Now I’m paying attention to what I feel as I use my tool.
I lay the paper flat between my left thumb and index finger. The paper is completely covered. With my right hand holding the tool, slide it on to the paper by wiggling the tool. When it is on, the thumb can be a “wall” to wiggle to, and then roll. Don’t forget to use your finger nail to prepare paper first.
Our first meeting in September will cover marquises, for a flower, a tight circle for the center, a couple of flowers and stems using ¼” strips. The activity director is going to shadow box each one so they will feel successful. This lady is quite sure this is possible, after she made a simple fridge magnet. She knows her people and their capabilities. As you know a flower in a box has more class than a fridge magnet with the same flower. At the end of the day I will probably be in shock.
After this we’ll know who are really interested in starting to learn the basics and make a sampler. I can show the way but they will show me how it can be done one class at a time.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. Keep in touch.
Evangeline Enns

Quilled Table Decorations

2009-07-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Quilling for the blind?

2009-07-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

I had a very interesting phone call the other day from one of my quilling friends. She had been contacted by an agency that works with the blind; they wanted to know if she would teach a quilling class. She wanted to know if I knew any blind quillers. I do know a couple of legally blind quillers who are able to quill using the magnifier closed circuit TV devise (I am not sure of the actual name of these devises; I know they are very helpful for those who are not completely blind) I am writing this blog in the hopes that some of you may have some other ideas, or may know someone who works with the blind. I suggested she might want to talk to someone who works with the blind, possibly one of the schools for the blind.I know they teach other handwork and thought some of those techniques might be applied to quilling. We brainstormed on the phone for a while . . . here are some of the thoughts we had.

Making some of the various shapes and then letting the student “feel” the shapes is a possible way of demonstrating the kinds of shapes that can be made. It would seem to me that finger rolling would be the best way to go rather than trying to “thread “a slotted tool. I am also thinking that starting with wider strips might make sense since the pieces would be larger and perhaps easier to handle. Of course you wouldn’t be able to “show” this technique, but by feeling a straight strip, and then explaining that the strip should be run over the fingernail to “soften” it and start it curling. Once the curl at the tip is started, it is fairly simple to continue to roll the strip into a loose coil. I would suggest using a fine tip glue bottle to glue the end of the strip down so the glue can be placed exactly where it is needed. (I find the glue bottle less messy than working with a toothpick and spot of glue). Once rolled and glued it would be fairly simple to pinch the coil into the desired shape.

Then we have the issue of colors etc. Many sighted quiller store their strips in the original packaging, If the packages were marked in Braille it would be helpful in keeping colors organized. My thought would be to put finished shapes into something like the cups of a styrofoam egg carton. The edges of the cups could be marked in Braille with the color and shapes. Another option would be to store shapes in small strips in the plastic chests used to store nuts and bolts etc. That is how I store my quilled flowers, small strips and extra shapes. I do organize them by color and either have a small strip of the color or the name of the color taped to the front of the drawer, again this could be marked in Braille. As I think about it, I think the chests might work better than the egg carton idea; they wouldn’t get knocked over or tipped as easily.
When it comes to actual designs, I am kind of stumped. Perhaps letting the students feel some different designs would give them some ideas. Arranging pieces would be determined by feeling the shapes. These were just a few of my thoughts. I think a blind quiller would have to be much better organized than I am. (No piles of bits of strips and shapes like there are on my work table) It is a challenging question. I would love to hear your thoughts and will be happy to share them in a future post. You can comment on the blog or email me directly at Whimsiquills@cox.net

Differences in Quilling Papers/Strips - Updated

2009-06-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

I spent some time reviewing previous blog posts and realized that it was time to update my post about the differences in quilling strips. When I first started selling strips, Lake City was the main American supplier, now Paplin Products has a wonderful line of papers, as well as Quilled Creations. J&J Quilling (English) still leads the pack with some wonderful novelty papers, gilded edges, pearl edges; holofoil edges . . . read on to learn more about how these all differ and how they are alike.

A frequently asked question, especially from new quillers, concerns the differences in quilling strips. How are English strips different from American strips etc? Probably, the most obvious difference is in the length of the strips. In the 1970's, 24" was the standard length for quilling strips. That is no longer the case. Lake City papers are 24” long with the exception of their watercolors, which are 12". Paplin papers, another American paper, are generally 23" long, their graduated and two toned strips (which by the way are actually “printed”) are 12” long. Quilled Creations, another American company, strips are about 18" long; their graduated papers are about 12" long. English strips are about 17” long with graduated strips coming in at 12”. The English also have some wonderful novelty (specialty) papers such as graduated strips where the colors darkens as it goes up the strip, dark center strips which go from white to color to white again, two – toned papers which have different colors on each side of the papers, pearlized on edge papers, & holofoil and gilded edged papers which are absolutely beautiful. Not to be “outdone”, the American companies (Paplin and Lake City) have both come out with lines of pearlized and metallic papers, which have a pearlized or metallic finish on both sides of the strips. Paplin has some beautiful pastel pearlized colors, and both companies have some very rich “jewel toned” metallic’s, deep green, blue, and a deep wine color. I have used these papers for some very special effects. I recommend that you use tacky glue on these strips as they have a different finish (almost slippery) than standard strips.

Both papers (American & English) work well together although with today’s economy and with the difference between the dollar and the British pound the English strips are more expensive. We continue to bring in English colors that are not available here in the states. The weights of the different papers vary, some of the darker colors are a heavier weight (I have been told that the heavier weight has something to do with being able to take the darker dye, although the Paplin black is a nice easy weight to work with). Specialty papers, like parchment, tend to be a lighter weight. Some of the "quilling" paper sold in scrapbooking stores, (especially the tube paper sold as "quillstix") is very heavy, almost as heavy as cardstock. Unfortunately, some members of the scrapbooking community are saying this is the only weight that will hold up in a scrapbook. Those of us who have been quilling for a while know that this is not accurate. Regular quilling paper is incredibly strong when rolled and placed on edge. Since we carry so many different kinds of papers here at Whimsiquills, I have tried them all. I don't like working with the heavy "card stock" like papers, and find them difficult to finger roll without getting unwanted creases. If I have to roll a heavier paper, I generally use a tool to keep tension even.

All of the choices now available can cause some confusion for new quillers. I find that all of the papers can work pretty well together if you are just careful to measure the strips you cut from the different brands. For example: if you are using an English yellow for the center of a flower, but an American orchid for the petals, you will want to start out with the same length strips. If you are using a heavier weight paper for a flower center, you will either have to make the strip a little shorter to compensate for the larger size center, or perhaps make a couple of extra petals for your flower.

In some English kits and books, directions are given as using 1/4, 1/8 of a strip. Obviously, if you are using papers of different lengths, you will have to go back to the tried and true method of measuring out your strips. I hope this has answered some of the questions about the many papers available.
Here is an added note of interest for those of you who might be combining quilling with card making or scrapbooking. Paplin offer every one of its colors in 8 ½ x 11 sheets and will do special cuts ½”, or 1” strips to be used for punched flowers/leaves or borders. They also offer a line of color greeting cards which match some of their most popular colors.

Quilling with Rick Whitman

2009-06-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

It is my pleasure to introduce Rick Whitman as this week’s featured quiller. I know Rick pretty well and I am proud to say I gave Rick her first quilling lessons. I remember her sitting in the class and saying that she had just retired from her job and was looking to learn something new. She wasn’t at all sure that quilling was for her, but after her first class, I was convinced! I generally teach the basic shapes for my first class and then let the new quillers use those shapes to create a design of their own. When Rick came back for her second class, she showed us a tiny Madonna and child that she had created. Her pattern was a tiny line drawing that she found in a newspaper. From then on there was no stopping her! She quilled a tiny bouquet of flowers to match the ones her niece carried as a flower girl. Rick also does counted cross stitch. She often does bible verses which we mat (I help with the matting) and then she quills on the mat. She loves to do tiny, tiny flowers and has an incredible imagination. In addition, Rick and her husband Wil are super nice people. We always enjoy a visit with them here at Whimsiquills.

When I agreed to coordinate the first Accord Quilling Calendar (1997), I had a little trouble getting quillers to participate; some felt they couldn’t create small, “simple’ designs that could be included in the calendar/kit. Rick came up with 27 designs including a horse drawn sleigh,

garden tools,

and a tiny woven basket with fruit.

Her designs for the 2008 calendar (N2008) were also outstanding. I’ve included just a few of the pictures here.

When Accord decided not to publish the 2009 calendar, we were all disappointed. Rick had done some adorable nursery rhyme characters. Since they weren’t going to be used for the calendar she had to figure out a way to use them. She used that great imagination again. Here is what she did with them. She told me her nephew helped her with the computer generated backgrounds; these are the pieces she brought to display at this year’s NAQGCON. (North American Quilling Guild Conference 2009)

But two of my favorite pieces of Rick’s (although I love them all), are this three dimensional hummer, and this tiny replica of her own wedding cake . . . and this from someone who wasn’t sure she could learn to quill!

Quilling with Delphene

2009-05-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Whenever I get some downtime, I enjoy seeking out other quillers on the net. It is always fun to see what others are doing with their quilling skills, often I am pleasantly surprised. Actually, Delphene, who is Dutch and French, found me! She emailed me and told me how much she enjoyed the Whimsiquills site, and told me a little bit about herself. When I saw Delphene’s web site, which is in French, Dutch and English, I contacted her and asked her if I could feature her on my blog. As it turned out, she was moving to Orlando, FL so I sent her information about the NAQGCON (North American Quilling Guild Conference), and she was able to attend. She asked me to wait until after the conference to publish her “interview” because she planned on showing her quilled lingerie, (yes, you read that right!), at the conference. We have put a few pictures of her work here in the blog, but be sure to take a few minutes to visit her site; she has some really neat work to share with you. Here is a link http://dequillingworldwifeeo.com because English is a second language, Delphene has given me permission to do some editing, but most of her story is in her own words.

“I started quilling at the age of 8 or 10. My sister had won a craft kit at a Saint Nicholas (November 5th) feast given by the Dutch embassy in Paris. This kit included a simple quilling pattern with a few strips of paper, since she took no interest in it, I finally made it. It was flowers with a bird. Though it looks quite awful, I really enjoyed making it and was proud of it at that time. I always kept it as a reminder, but it is somewhere in a box in France and I don't have a picture of it to show you.

Anyway, from that moment, I never stopped quilling. I was lucky to have an aunt in the Netherlands who was loved crafts (she even worked later in a craft shop) and though she never enjoyed quilling herself, she helped me purchase the paper strips and my first books (I was also lucky that quilling was in at the moment in the Netherlands, because it is now almost impossible to find any quilling supplies and there was no internet then). In the first years I mostly made cards for birthdays, Christmas... following the patterns. When I mastered the basic shapes, the flowers.... I made bigger patterns still following the books. I actually made all the patterns from Malinda Johnson book: Decoratief Papierfiligraan (in Dutch): the panda, the alphabets... which is my very favorite book.

At that time, I had less time with my study and my job, and became bored by the book patterns. So when I had more time during a holiday, 5 years ago maybe, I made my first personal designs. From that moment I kept receiving orders from friends and family, since I told them that you can do everything in quilling, and it is always a new challenge. I also sold a few of my creations in a shop in Paris owned by a guy who made the most amazing origami lamps I've ever seen. Since he had to close the shop (he's now selling on internet) and I was to move to the US anyway I had the idea to create my website: in English and Dutch to make contact with other quillers, in French to promote quilling in France where it is completely unknown. I never took pictures of my creations before I started selling them. And when I created my website I have been asking around for pictures of the quilling I have given away, and most of them are now in my picture gallery, there are just a few creations missing.

I make flowers and frames when I am asked for them, but they are not my favorite (I might have made too many of them earlier!). I enjoy making designs who are the main object of decoration. I tried modern techniques like 3D and husking, but I have a preference for traditional quilling. I use almost no tools, and I coil the strips with my fingers; I used to work with 3 mm strips, but I now often use smaller ones.

I like using the traditional basic shapes in a new context. I particularly enjoyed making the umbrella, and I am currently making lampshades in the same way. I also like making fantastic animals, working on the shapes and colors, the eye expressions. My lingerie designs have a huge success, and I intend to make a whole collection. I have a lot of other projects, and my problem is not a lack of inspiration but a lack of time!!

After high school I studied law, and worked as a student in kitchens. After a few years I decided to turn myself to bakery and pastry; Though I do love my job as a pastry cook, I really envy you for being able to quill full time; and I would love to teach quilling because the persons I tried to interest in it never had the required patience for quilling! . I will love to have some feedback from anyone who visits my site.”

Quilling with Malinda Johnston

2009-05-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I wrote to Malinda Johnston to introduce myself to her as the American representative of the English Quilling Guild, back in 1990. I had no idea, at the time, I was writing to THE Malinda Johnston. For those of you who don’t know Malinda, she is the founder and former owner of Lake City Crafts. We “visit” (that’s Malinda’s term) on the phone every once in a while to catch up on mutual quilling friends. I asked Malinda how she had gotten started. She told me she bought a quilling kit at a local craft store, she enjoyed doing the kit and went back to the store and “volunteered” to teach quilling . . . the first step in a long journey. Malinda said once you learn to make the basic shapes, the rest is easy! She started making patterns and little kits for her students in the craft store, and then in 1974, she took a really big step and launched Lake City Crafts. She started her company with her first instructional book, Gallery of Quilling, and “that year, she expanded her line to include four kits, and quickly added six more kits and 18 colors of paper”. The quote is from the 20th anniversary edition of the Lake City Gazette. In many ways the Lake City Gazette was responsible for American quillers organizing and eventually becoming the North American Quilling Guild. It was her newsletter that let us lonely American quillers know there was a quilling guild and that there were other American quillers!

For a long time Lake City Crafts was almost the only game in town. Once Barbara Maddox’ Quill Art was sold and Hazel Pearson just seemed to disappear there were only a few places to buy quilling papers and they were all mail order. When I say mail order, I mean MAIL ORDER!! There was no internet, so the only option was to write or call for a catalogue and wait. As I said earlier, once we American quillers ‘found’ each other, there was no stopping us . . . and Malinda was there every step of the way. When a small group of American quillers decided to go to England for the first International Festival of Quilling, Malinda was in attendance. When that group decided to have a “reunion” meeting in New Jersey the following June, she was there. That’s when I first met her face to face. Malinda is a delightful person and totally down to earth. I remember when she was working on her book “The Book of Paper Quilling” (published in 1994), she said it was kind of like having a baby; it took so long! I was honored that she asked me to submit some of my designs for her book. It was the first of its kind, lots of tutorials, instructions and patterns for more than 50 projects, and designs submitted by thirteen different quillers. There was little bit of everything. For years, many quillers have regarded this book as the quiller’s bible. Her second book “The Weekend Crafter Paper Quilling” was similar, with lots of projects by many different quillers. Over the years, she has been my mentor and has played a major role in the resurgence of quilling, and now is enjoying a well deserved retirement. At this writing, she is enjoying a visit to Paris with her daughters. She told me she was going to bring her sketch books and pretend to be an artist on the left bank. You go girl!!

About Me Part 2-The Story of Whimsiquills

2009-05-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

This week I am continuing the “story of Whimsiquills”. If you missed part one, here is a link to the previous post.

I actually took a break from my quilling for a couple of years. I took a full time job as a child support investigator with the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement and continued with my child support advocacy work at the same time. The job, plus three kids at home kept me pretty busy. But even though Whimsiquills was tucked away, I didn’t forget it. I finally quit my job with the state and got back to quilling.

I was buying papers from Lake City Crafts and read about the English Quilling Guild in their little newsletter “The Lake City Gazette”. I was so excited to find out that there was actually a quilling guild. So I joined and became the regional representative for the United States. Sounds pretty important, but there were only sixteen American members (spread out over 12 states) of the guild at the time. In May of 1990, I wrote an introductory letter to all sixteen members, asking them if they knew of suppliers, and whether they sold their work or taught quilling. I also sent out press releases about the English quilling guild. Through my introductory letters, I met other quillers for the first time, and we decided to stay in touch. If you are a member of the North American Quilling Guild you can actually read those early letters on the www.naqg.org web site. Log in, go to the member’s corner and click on the newsletter archive. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page you can read the first letters I sent out to those American Quillers. I continued to write “newsletters” to American Quillers for about ten years. Eventually I called the newsletter “Quill America”, and when the North American quillers decided to form an official quilling guild in 2000, Quill America became the official newsletter. (That meant I didn’t have to write it anymore! But that’s another story)

Back in 1990, I was teaching quilling in LeeWards (now Michaels), doing craft shows, and selling my work through a few shops. When I decided that quilling was going to be my full time business, I attended several small business seminars held by the SBA and learned about networking, tax numbers, business cards, brochures, etc. all of that neat stuff. I had professional pictures taken of some of my wedding designs and had color brochures done which I could use to promote my business, boy was that an expensive proposition! My focus at that time was on selling my finished pieces although Malinda Johnston (Lake City Craft owner) really encouraged me to start selling supplies. Since I was still teaching, (and having trouble finding supplies), I decided to take Malinda’s advice and started carrying Lake City Papers.

In 1994, my husband took time off between jobs to go to framing school. We then invested in professional mat cutting and framing equipment and I learned everything he learned at framing school. My husband made custom frames for my work. We started found a frame we could market to Whimsiquills customers which was easy to use and attractive. Unfortunately after 10 years or so, the company who was making the frames for us decided we were too small for them. We were ordering 500-700 frames a year but they decided to drop us and the moulding. At one point I had my work in nine different craft malls. For those of you who might not be familiar with craft malls, you actually rent space in the store and display your work. The rent covers your space and the store staff sells your work for you and then the store sends you a check. I found these craft malls worked better for me than craft shows since the items I liked to make (framed pieces) didn’t sell real well at the shows. The time factor was another reason I gave up doing shows. Making inventory in advance, packaging, pricing etc. then a day to pack up, the time of the actual show (1 or 2 days), and then unpacking after the show. It just took too much time away from actually quilling.

I think we put the first web site up in 1996 or 1997; the web site has continued to evolve over the years. I added English quilling papers to our line, and now we carry all of Paplin’s papers, tools and kits (I design the kits for Paplin). We’ve also added all of Quilled Creations tools, and kits, as well as books from the USA, England, Australia, and the Netherlands. Today, www.Whimsiquills.com is a way for us to reach other quillers, share our knowledge and experience, and sell a huge assortment of quilling supplies. If you haven’t visited, stop in and browse through our gallery of finished work, instruction sheets, free patterns and supplies. And here I am, thirty plus years later . . . writing a blog! Two years ago, I didn’t even know what blog was! Go figure!

About Me!

2009-05-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

I was working on a couple of interviews with long time quillers Betty Christy and Malinda Johnston and I started thinking about how quilling had changed MY life. I have always been “crafty” and loved doing anything with my hands. I graduated from college with a degree in classical languages (Latin and Greek); my plan was to go on for a graduate degree and then teach. Like so many young women in the sixties, the expectation was to marry and have kids, rather than graduate school and jobs. I caved. When I moved to Connecticut in 1973, I was divorced with a two year old and a five year old and the love of my life. Ross had two children from his previous marriage, plus my two, and then we had our daughter. So we were kind of like the Brady bunch.

I started quilling in the early 1970”s. At that point I was a stay at home mom, heading up a child support advocacy group, and active in the local Junior Women’s Club and. Several of us learned to quill and made little place cards for a membership tea. I really liked quilling; I remember making quilled snowflakes for everyone in my family. I did some quilled borders and little flower arrangements on wooden plaques my husband made for me in his workroom. I had no idea just what could be done with quilling, like many quillers, I learned by buying books to learn and get ideas. Back then there were a lot of small family owned craft stores; most carried some quilling supplies and instruction booklets. I found multi-color paper packs by Mangelsen’s, kits by Quill Art (Barbara Maddox), and a really neat tool called the “Quill Quiky” by Hazel Pearson.

I bought a booklet called “Dimensional Quilling Instructions” (1974) put out by Mangelsen. The designer, Betty Nelson, stacked some of her quills to give additional depth. She had one design that combined quilled flowers, statice and small seashells. I loved that design and used something similar as a border on a lot of my early wedding pieces. I still have a much worn copy of Hazel Pearson’s “New Designs for Quilling” (1974) which included things like quilled borders, mushrooms. I learned to make spider mums and stacked zinnias from Hazel Pearson’s booklet “Classic Quills” (1977). I discovered you could make miniature flowers when I found Betty Christy and Doris Tracy’s booklet “Miniature Quilled Flowers” (1976). I made tiny flower pots full of flowers and then put them in pastel colored eggs, and gave them to my family at Easter time. I would gently tap a hole in the side of and egg and empty it (to make French toast or scrambled eggs), then I would cut an oval opening, wash and clean the egg shell. Once I had a group of shells I would dye them with food coloring. Talk about recycling!

(Remember this was long before Whimsiquills). One of my all time favorite booklets was “Wide Quill Flowers”, a Mangelsen’s publication by a woman named Ruth Freeman. I didn’t know you could make roses!!!! I bet I made every design that was in that booklet. I loved it! The very first real book I bought was one by Doris Tracy and Betty Christy. It was called “Quilling, Paper Art for Everyone”. I still have my original dog eared copy (actually my copy is more than dog eared, one of my puppies left some very distinctive teeth marks as he attempted to get it off my book shelf). This book has the most comprehensive history of quilling I have found anywhere: Two hundred pages of terrific information, lots of “how to’s” and pictures of finished pieces by many different quillers. I wish the pictures were in color but even in black and white they were fascinating. It wasn’t very long before people started asking me to make things for them.

In 1981, I decided to try and earn some money selling some of my work. I wrote to all of the companies listed in the back of Betty Christy’s book trying to find supplies. I made up a bunch of samples and started showing them at “home parties”, (kind of like Tupperware parties). I would go and do a demonstration so people would know what quilling was and how it was done and then show my samples and take orders. The hostess would get a credit (20% of the total party order) so she could order whatever she wanted. Then I would go home and quill like crazy to fill all of the orders. I called my new business Whimsiquills. Stay tuned for the next installment of this “saga”.

Sentiments with Stickers

2009-05-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve written about the fact that I am making all of my own cards before, but I just wanted to share with you something else I’ve found that makes the whole process a little easier and quicker. As I’ve said, I like to make the cards so the “sentiment” or written part inside the card can easily be removed and the card “recycled” or sent on to someone else. I’ve been using the corner/border punches to give the insert (the part where the sentiment goes) a pretty decorative edge. Here was the hard part. I would have to print out the sentiment (“thinking of you” or whatever) on a sheet of paper and then trim around it to add the decorative edge. The reason I would print them in the computer is simply because I have really lousy handwriting, and if I am going to all of the trouble of making a card, adding quilling and decorative trim, I don’t want to spoil the look by hand writing “Happy Birthday”. So . . . I went on a search to find stickers that would say what I wanted. Not an easy task! Since scrapbooking has become so incredibly popular, there are more stickers available than ever before. I know this because I have been a sticker fan for years. I use one of those great big wall calendars to write down all of our appointments etc. Since I have never found a “pretty” big wall calendar, I decorate them with seasonal stickers. As each day passes, I cover the day with one of the stickers. It looks kind of nice and since we are both senior citizens in this house, it helps us keep track of the date. (I wish I could say that we never miss an appointment or show up on the wrong day because of this calendar, but at least I am trying!) But to get back to the subject at hand; I went through countless catalogues and even got into my little PINK Tracker and drove over to Michaels and went up and down all of the sticker isles. I wanted something very simple and rather plain since I am doing the fancy punch work etc., but everything I found was either too big, fancy colors or only one or two sentiments on a whole page of other “stuff”. I did find some rubber stamp sets that would have been perfect, but I really didn’t want to get into the whole stamping thing. Then I started making phone calls and guess what?? I found them! I had to open another account with yet another vendor, but I have them and have decided to add them to my inventory. They are clear epoxy stickers so they have a little dimension to them but they work out perfectly. There are six sets: Thank You, Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Friendly Greetings, & A Year of Greetings.

Quilling in the dictionary - follow up

2009-04-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I would update you on our efforts to get quilling into the dictionary. As I told you last time, Merriam-Webster were nice enough to thank me for my inquiry and sent me some info as to how a word goes about being selected to add to the dictionary. (See previous post) Since they talked about keeping track of how many times it is used, I thought I might aid them in their research. I sent them the bibliography which lists all of the quilling articles, books, kits etc. compiled by Donna DelGuidice, the archivist for the North American Quilling Guild. The copy I sent them included everything Donna has listed up to 2006. She is presently working on updating those files; when I get them I will email those to Merriam-Webster as well. I figured that if I keep pestering them and sending them more info, they might actually get around to adding it. This is the email I sent this time:

“Thank you for your response to my inquiry. I have attached a bibliography compiled by the North American Quilling Guild. It includes a pretty comprehensive list of books and articles about quilling, as well as quilling kits. This list includes everything we (the NAQG) guild have compiled up to 2006 and is currently being updated; perhaps this will be useful in your citation research. Those of us who quill are very hopeful that you will decide to add quilling to the dictionary. This art form, the art of rolling narrow strips of paper and pinching them into various shapes to create intricate and beautiful art work, dates back many centuries. The only way we see the term used today is in reference to porcupine quills or the Native American craft of using those quills to create jewelry and other decorative work. I have also seen the term "quilling" used to refer to the time when hedgehogs lose or shed their quills. If there is anything the North American Quilling Guild or I can do to help in this endeavor, please let me know.”

If any of you are interested in jumping on the band wagon, please do! (Merriam-Webster)

On another note, Ann Martin, another quiller posted this on her blog: Those of us who do paper filigree know that spell check isn't happy with the word quilling. Whether we type it or quiller in an email or Word doc, the words are flamed with bright yellow causing us to see red. Thanks for the suggestions dear computer, but we are neither quilters nor killers. Since paper quilling has been around for hundreds of years, it's high time it's defined in the dictionary and is accepted as a word in its own right.Pat Caputo of Whimsiquills recently wrote to Merriam-Webster to present the idea of adding the definition of quilling as we know it - the art of rolling narrow strips of paper to make an intricate design - to the dictionary. While Pat works on that aspect, there's something that each one of us who quills can do to help in the meantime.The next time you type quilling or quiller in an email or Word doc and it shows up as a misspelling, just click the word, and then click Add to Dictionary. It won't be marked as misspelled again by your computer - huzzah! - and perhaps even more important, the information will be fed to Microsoft's software. Once a correction is received enough times, it reaches real, live editors who make a decision on whether to make the change.

So... quillers unite! If we work together, we can make a difference. And if you're a quiller and a geek, you can read more here about Microsoft's spelling policy.

Quilling & Quiller in the Dictionary

2009-04-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

I was recently talking to one of my vendors and telling him about the upcoming North American Quilling Guild conference (NAQGCON) conference which is coming up May1-3, in Tampa, FL (For more information about the NAQGCON check out the www.naqg.org web site or the NAQGCON Blog which I posted on January 9th. ) I was talking about sending press releases about the NAQGCON and how we always suggest that the host print at the top of the press release “this is QUILLING not QUILTING” and “Please do not use spell check”. I told him about the time I was giving a quilling class for some organization and I had a woman come in and ask “Where are the quilts?” Apparently one of the newspapers had written that I was giving a “quilting” class. Fortunately, she was a good sport and sat down and learned how to QUILL! At any rate, Andy, said to me “I think it would be a really good idea for the quilling guild to work on getting quilling put into the dictionary.” So . . . I mentioned it on the NAQG Yahoo quilling group and everyone who commented seemed to think it was a good idea. Several commented that “quill” is already in the dictionary, but in reference to a feather, a pen, or porcupine or hedgehog “quills”. (I have seen the term “quilling” used to describe the shedding process of hedgehogs.) I contacted Merriam Webster and explained what quilling was and told them there were thousands of us out here . . . and if they just “Googled” the word quilling; they would see that it is already in use and has been for some time.

They sent me an email explaining how a word gets into the dictionary which I have printed it below. I think my next step will be to send them a copy of the NAQG’s bibliography. This was compiled by Donna DelGiudice. In it she has listed every quilling book, article, kit etc. (It is available to NAQG members on the NAQG web site in case anyone is interested.) I guess after that, I’ll wait for a response to determine the next step. If any of you have thoughts on the subject, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Whimsiquills@cox.net or leave a comment here on the blog. I guess if we are successful the next step is to get “quilling” and “quillers” included in the Microsoft spell check dictionary. Anyone know anybody at Microsoft?

How does a word get into a Merriam-Webster dictionary? This is one of the questions Merriam-Webster editors are most often asked. The answer is simple: usage.

Tracking word usage

To decide which words to include in the dictionary and to determine what they mean, Merriam-Webster editors study the language as it's used. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them.

Each day most Merriam-Webster editors devote an hour or two to reading a cross section of published material, including books, newspapers, magazines, and electronic publications; in our office this activity is called "reading and marking." The editors scour the texts in search of new words, new usages of existing words, variant spellings, and inflected forms—in short, anything that might help in deciding if a word belongs in the dictionary, understanding what it means, and determining typical usage. Any word of interest is marked, along with surrounding context that offers insight into its form and use.

Citations

The marked passages are then input into a computer system and stored both in machine-readable form and on 3" x 5" slips of paper to create citations.

Each citation has the following elements:

1. the word itself
2. an example of the word used in context
3. bibliographic information about the source from which the word and example were taken

Merriam-Webster's citation files, which were begun in the 1880s, now contain 15.7 million examples of words used in context and cover all aspects of the English vocabulary. Citations are also available to editors in a searchable text database (linguists call it a corpus) that includes more than 70 million words drawn from a great variety of sources.

From citation to entry

How does a word make the jump from the citation file to the dictionary?

The process begins with dictionary editors reviewing groups of citations. Definers start by looking at citations covering a relatively small segment of the alphabet — for example gri- to gro- — along with the entries from the dictionary being reedited that are included within that alphabetical section. It is the definer's job to determine which existing entries can remain essentially unchanged, which entries need to be revised, which entries can be dropped, and which new entries should be added. In each case, the definer decides on the best course of action by reading through the citations and using the evidence in them to adjust entries or create new ones.

Before a new word can be added to the dictionary, it must have enough citations to show that it is widely used. But having a lot of citations is not enough; in fact, a large number of citations might even make a word more difficult to define, because many citations show too little about the meaning of a word to be helpful. A word may be rejected for entry into a general dictionary if all of its citations come from a single source or if they are all from highly specialized publications that reflect the jargon of experts within a single field.

To be included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word must be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications over a considerable period of time. Specifically, the word must have enough citations to allow accurate judgments about its establishment, currency, and meaning.

The number and range of citations needed to add a word to the dictionary varies. In rare cases, a word jumps onto the scene and is both instantly prevalent and likely to last, as was the case in the 1980s with AIDS. In such a situation, the editors determine that the word has become firmly established in a relatively short time and should be entered in the dictionary, even though its citations may not span the wide range of years exhibited by other words.

Size does matter

The size and type of dictionary also affects how many citations a word needs to gain admission. Because an abridged dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, has fairly limited space, only the most commonly used words can be entered; to get into that type of dictionary, a word must be supported by a significant number of citations. But a large unabridged dictionary, such as Webster's Third New International Dictionary, has room for many more words, so terms with fewer citations can still be included.

Authority without authoritarianism

Change and variation are as natural in language as they are in other areas of human life and Merriam-Webster reference works must reflect that fact. By relying on citational evidence, we hope to keep our publications grounded in the details of current usage so they can calmly and dispassionately offer information about modern English. That way, our references can speak with authority without being authoritarian.

Quilling with Molly Smith Part # 2

2009-04-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I featured Molly Smith in my blog “interview”. If you haven’t read it yet’ you will want to (Quilling with Molly Smith). It is an interesting story of how she discovered quilling and what she has done with it. Molly Smith is an author, product developer and designer specializing in paper projects. Her products have been shown on DIY, The Carol Duvall Show and sold on QVC. She is published internationally and the author of "The New Paper Quilling”: Creative Techniques for scrapbooks, Cards, Home Accents & More" (Lark, 2006). Molly is currently working on a book about paper bead jewelry and she has agreed to share her knowledge with you regarding getting your work “published”.

“I often get asked how to get a book published or project idea in a magazine or book. So I'd like to share some information and tips on this subject.

Magazine project: Every craft magazine has a section listing the editor's name. Email that person and request 1) their editorial calendar, and 2) their submission guidelines. These two documents will give you all the information you need to submit a picture of a project for publication. If your project is accepted, they will contact you with additional information on the deadlines and writing instructions.

Book project: Find names of major publishers from the library, online or favorite books. Usually their Internet web page will have a section for submissions. In this area will be a list of "artist call-outs" for submitting single or multiple projects for a specific book already in the works. Most call-outs are self-explanatory and have complete instructions. Deadlines listed for submissions are often extended. If you come across a call-out with a short deadline, email and ask if there is a possibility it will be extended. They may be waiting on only one more project, or need 20 more. Read the instructions carefully and submit exactly as required.

If you are serious about writing a craft book and have at least 40 projects in mind and on paper, the first step is to submit a book query. This entails writing a letter and giving information about yourself (mini bio), describing your ideas for a book in detail and include pictures of specific ideas you listed. Many publishers have book query instructions on the web page. Do not send out multiple queries to publishers all at once. Be patient and wait for a response. If it is negative, send a query to another publisher. If they are interested in your idea, they will contact you and ask for a book proposal.

If you get to this point, I would suggest researching how to submit a book proposal online or at the library. There are some important do's and don'ts you will need to know. For example, don't name your book or suggest a cover right off the bat. More than likely you will have no say-so in these decisions. A book proposal is much more complicated and the query and entails almost submitting your book for a review. They will tell you what to do but it includes a table of contents, the introduction, several projects with instructions, tear sheets of any work you have had published, a list of books similar to what you are proposing and why/how your book will differ.

Project fees: Five years ago, I could list which magazines pay what for projects. With each year, the fees change or are terminated depending on the publishers' budgets. You will need to inquire with each magazine publisher to find out if they pay a one-time fee for a project, and if so, what is the range. For magazine projects, it's my experience that fees range from $60 to $250. For the higher fee, more work is involved, such as photos for each step, additional detailed instructions and even submission of materials and tools used. You also need to inquire if they pay the shipping costs-- most do not. Fees for projects are usually paid to the artist 45 days after the final project submission is received by the publisher.

Fees for book projects range from no fee for gallery projects up to around $150 per submission. I recently accepted a small fee for a book project; however they paid for all shipping and reimbursed me for my supplies. A gallery project is a picture only and they will list you as the artist and a short bio on you in the back of the book. The payoff is to be able to say you were published in a book if you are building a portfolio. The individual websites will indicate if they are looking for gallery projects. Although there is no payment, this is a good way to get to know the editors and get your name in their database for future call-outs that do pay. Fees for projects are normally paid to you when the book is released. This could be anywhere from two to four months after the project is submitted to the publisher.

Fees for authoring a book are paid in royalty payments. This is a small percentage based on the total books sold and payments are made quarterly or bi-annually. Book contracts are very specific and are negotiable. After a contract is signed, an advance is paid to you for materials, supplies and shipping. This amount is deducted from your first royalty check which is paid after the book is released.

To see some of Molly’s jewelry visit her Etsy Shop , or www.mollysmith.com

Quilling with Molly Smith

2009-03-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

I have the pleasure of knowing Molly Smith. Some of you may know her too if you have purchased her book The New Paper Quilling or you may have met her at one of the North American Quilling Guild conferences. Last year, at the conference in Rhode Island, Molly worked with me when we gave workshops on quilling and cardmaking. Molly is the one who created the Whimsiquills Glue Spot, one of my favorite items. To get back to the “glue Spot”; this is a nifty little item patented by my friend and fellow quiller Molly Smith. She gave me one at our NAQG quilling conference and I have been using it ever since. It has a great plastic like finish that you can spread your glue on. After you are done working you just peel off the dried glue remnants and toss them. Molly is a wonderful person; I am sure you will enjoy reading her quilling story.

“In 1980, I was attending therapy sessions after my sister's sudden death. It was suggested by the therapist that I find a new craft to work on. I went to several stores but wasn't interested in anything I saw. As I was leaving a Ben Franklin Store, I looked down and saw a small quilling kit in the parking lot. It was priced slightly more than a $1 and contained background paper, wood frame, paper strips, instruction sheet, pattern, glue and a hatpin. I gave it a try, loved to quill and was hooked immediately. I taught myself using the corsage pin included in the kit. I practiced with strips of spiral notebook paper I cut with scissors. I enjoyed quilling so much, I started purchasing the large, more difficult kits that took weeks to finish.”

I always ask my interview subjects if they were always “artistically inclined” or if they had training in the arts; here is Molly’s answer:” My favorites have varied over the years My background was watching and learning as my mother did every craft imaginable. She taught me to do it all correctly too-- once, she made me rip out a crocheted blanket, until I got to my mistake, and start all over. My lifetime career was in the paralegal field . . . I first made gifts for co-workers, and in 1981, was featured in the newspaper for having a unique craft. There was a period of time when I quilled flower arrangements and put them in small open shadow box frames for selling at my parent's RV rallies. They were the perfect size to hang in a RV. I thought I could sell enough to buy a car! I didn't become interested in quilling as a business (or become obsessed with it) until 2000, twenty years after I began.

Currently, my favorite quilling is anything miniature-- watches, plant pots and flowers. My second favorite is making large, gigantic pieces of art using one-inch or wider strips glued end-to-end and crimped. A ten-inch snowflake was published in an online ezine (online magazine) in 2008. I like to go from one extreme to the other, and quill traditional designs on cards or do wedding invites in between.

I get new ideas from trend research and keeping track with what is new at the craft and hobby industry shows. I also keep a journal and jot down inspirational colors or ideas as I see or think of them. Magazines are good reference also. I keep a file of interesting tearsheets of color combinations from magazines in a folder, and save pictures from the Internet on my computer.

Stay tuned for part two, next week. Molly gives some valuable information about getting your work “out there” in magazines etc. To see more of Molly's Work click here http://www.mollysmith.com/ and click on the gallery link.

The quilled cherries shown here are 16" long and were done for a CHA display. The giant flowers above are done with wide strips (1 wide) which are crimped. Molly says the crimping actually strengthen the paper so you an make oversize flowers.

Quilling and the Economy

2009-03-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

You can’t turn on the television or pick up the newspaper, without getting barraged with talk about the economy. It amazes me that while us “little folk” have to work everyday to pay our bills while so many CEO’s are mismanaging their companies and then expect us “little folk “ to bail them out. It trickles down to all of us in one way or another. I have had a number of customers who are getting back into quilling to help pass the time while they are laid off from work; others who have said they plan to start selling some of their work to supplement their income; we even had a customer ask if we were going to stay in business! (I certainly plan to!)

I usually follow the discussions on the Yahoo quilling groups, (at the very least I skim over them), and there has been a lot of talk about pricing finished work and what sells at craft shows etc. Those of us, who quill, know how labor intensive it is; unfortunately the general public does not. So the question that always arises is “How do I get paid for the time I put in on my work?” My personal experience selling at craft shows (granted, this was many years ago, but I don’t think it has changed that much), was good for getting exposure and developing a customer list, but I found most shoppers were looking for bargains. It is hard to compete in that kind of market, especially if there are also tables of “imported” handcrafts throughout the show. In this economy, you will also get a lot of “shoppers” who are really just browsing to pass the time. But there are still many people who have jobs, who are not struggling, and who are still shopping. Perhaps we (quillers) need to be looking at some different venues.

I was out with my sister recently, (which is unusual, since I am almost always here working at Whimsiquills), and we stopped in a little shop that sold stationery, cards etc. I’m sure the name of the shop had something to do with paper, but I can’t for the life of me, remember what it was. There was actually a mannequin in the window who was “dressed” in a paper outfit made from wrapping paper. At any rate, because it said paper, I went in to browse. There were all kinds of neat paper items . . . calendars, bookmarks, and lots and lots of cards. Not the usual Hallmark cards, but cards made from handmade papers, watercolors, a cute line of cards (pardon the pun) that had little clothes lines across the front with baby clothes hanging up, very clever . . . and very expensive. I got to thinking about it and wondered why there were no quilled cards.

It is just a thought, but maybe some of you who are looking for an outlet for your work, should visit some of the more upscale shops. I have seen some beautiful cards (many that would be suitable for framing) and quilled bookmarks that I am sure would sell in these kinds of shops. I would suggest keeping the actual quilling fairly simple, but dressing up the card with pretty papers/borders to make the quilling stand out. I noticed that most of the cardstock was white in the shop I visited, perhaps using the colored cards and envelopes that are now available would make them stand out a little more. I would suggest leaving the inside blank, that way flowers or hearts could be used for birthdays, engagements, or weddings etc. They could be packaged in those crisp, clear cellophane envelopes that seal. The clear envelopes will protect the quilling in the shop and not detract from it. Another possibility would be approaching upscale gift shops and/or frame shops. Perhaps some small framed pieces that could be sold as gifts to the “upscale” customers who shop there

A Walk Down Memory Lane with Pat & Quilling

2009-03-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

One night recently, I took a walk down Memory Lane. I was actually looking for an article in one of the older issues of Quill America. (Quill America is the newsletter of the North American Quilling Guild). I am one of those people who keep everything in binders. I have a binder of things I would like to do someday, I have a binder with nothing but exercise articles in it, one for all of the old Lake City gazette newsletters, one for each of the quilling calendars I worked on etc. As I went through the binders I found two that were filled with pictures of quilling. I had forgotten all about them; they were pictures that quillers had sent to me years ago. Long before the North American Quilling Guild became official (that was in 2000), I used to write Quill America, which at that time was more of a letter than a newsletter. As more of us began to find each other, people started sending me pictures of their work . . . now you have to remember this was before computers became as common as toasters and before we knew about the internet. I put these pictures in binders (naturally!). It was kind of neat, people would just send me pictures with a little note telling me who they were, maybe how long they had been quilling. (I actually have a binder with the notes and letters in it, arranged alphabetically!) But I was the only one who got to see the pictures. So in my newsy letter I offered to send the binders out to anyone who wanted to look at them. I would pay the postage to send it to them and they would pay the postage to send the binders on to the next person who wanted to see them. Those binders traveled around the country for several years until they got so heavy that postage became an issue. As I looked through the pictures I couldn’t help but wonder at all of the people quilling has brought me in contact with (I know, I ended the sentence with a preposition!) In those days it took more effort to reach out to each other, it wasn’t as easy as attaching a file and hitting “send”. It meant taking a photo, getting it developed, writing a note or letter and mailing the whole thing. Now, I can go onto the internet and see hundreds of pictures of other quillers’ work. Reaching out to them is as easy as tapping a few keys on the computer. Maybe because it is so easy to email today, that when I do get one of those special letters it means even more. When Sister Consolata took the time to “type” me a letter (on a typewriter), I was very moved and even did a blog about her. Sister Consolata and Quilling She told me about a little boy she was teaching to quill so I sent her some cards and a quilling calendar for the little boy. He sent me the sweetest thank you card. Just this past week, I received another letter from an 85 year old quiller, who had given up quilling for a number of years and was just getting back into it. She said she had enjoyed visiting the Whimsiquills web site and she was amazed at all of the neat things we have now that were not available when she was quilling 30 years ago. She wrote, ”I have to say that my hands aren’t quite as dexterous as they used to be and it takes a little longer for the instructions to soak in, but I intend to once again master this wonderful, beautiful craft as much as I can.” She closed her letter with “Thank you so much for helping me find quilling again”. It is an interesting journey that we are taking, and it never ceases to amaze me how important a role the technology of computers and the internet are playing in the resurgence of interest in the art of quilling. But it is the people that I have met and spoken with over the last 30+ years that have made this journey so special!

Quilling with Jinny Alexander - I am happy

2009-03-05T04:04:00.000-08:00

I’m happy to say that I know this quiller personally. Jinny Alexander is a neat lady who is one of the original members of the group who ended up forming the North American Quilling Guild. Jinny lives in Rochester, New York; she was going to be in Connecticut visiting her son. She called and asked if we could meet. We had a wonderful visit . . . she was fascinated with my roses and I was awed by her little quilled figures, which she calls Jinisans. She gave me a delightful little clown which still has a place of honor in my studio. Over the years I have seen a great deal of quilling and many 3-D “figures”; none can compare with the work and detail Jinny puts into her Jinisans. I am happy to share pictures of some of her work. We do carry her book Quilling in the Third Dimension here at Whimsiquills. Here is her story in her own words.

All of my life I have been interested in doing something "artistic" with my hands. From drawing to painting, knitting and crocheting, sewing, and then along came quilling. It seemed like all of the things I had done before, including my training as a nurse and secretary, could be used in some way in this "new" art form. Going through a craft section in a store, sometime in about 1976, I came across a quilling kit. The kit had materials and directions to make 3-dimensional figures. I took the kit home and made a soldier, a Raggedy Ann, and a clown. I put them on top of presents that I gave to my friends. They began to ask me if I would make another for their "mothers, aunts, sisters, or friends." I was glad to do it to begin with, but had so many requests that I began to charge $5 for each figure and the requests didn't stop.

It was when I had a request for a "Pierrot" clown that I decided the figures should have legs. After putting legs on this clown, I decided that he should carry a rose and that his arm should therefore be bent, and his hands should be made to enfold the stem of the rose. I changed the way I felt the figure should look. Adding the legs and bending the arm gave it some "motion" and made it seem more realistic and personal to me.

I soon began to try to make more interesting figures and to make them more "real" looking. Santa Claus and the Wizard of Oz figures were among some of the first I tried. After many years of making the 3-D figures. I began to think that what I had discovered by trial and error should be described in a book, so others could make them. Following this publication, there were requests for specific directions for specific figures, so we decided to try to publish another book with instructions and pictures of the different "Jinisans" ( Jinny's people) I had previously made. That second England for the International Quilling Meeting in 1992, I was amazed to see all the different ways quilling could be used. My entries (awarded 3rd place) in the competition there were quite unique and at the next International Meeting in 1997, there seemed to be more 3-D figures. It was there that I met other quillers from the USA. What a wonderful group of people! We have shown each other so much interest and friendship, and at each meeting we have learned from each other. These meetings led us to believe that we should have a quilling guild here in America. From this came the idea that led to the NAQG.
I have taught quilling to adult education classes in the high school and the Rochester Museum and Science Center, as well as a few classes to middle school children. We currently have a local group with 14 members!
For the first presentation to our local historical society, I did extensive research in the origins, proliferation and characteristics of paper and included that information in my classes and lectures. Much of this information was found in our central public library. We took a trip to New England to see the quilling in the museums there. We were able to take pictures and make slides then used in my presentations.

Musings (Quilling)

2009-02-27T06:16:00.000-08:00

I have been following the quillers’ dialogue on one of the Yahoo groups (http://www.quillers@yahoogroups.com/) about pricing quilling, art vs. craft, and whether the cost of materials should be a consideration in pricing one’s work. It brings several thoughts to mind.

One quiller said that because the actual quilling materials were inexpensive, that someone thought she was “cheap” for giving a quilled/framed piece as a wedding gift. It is true that the amount of paper in a finished piece may only be worth a few dollars, if the quiller had handed the bride a bunch of quilling strips in a gift box, perhaps they would have been justified in calling her cheap. But taking that invitation, which the bride and groom chose so carefully, and turning it into a beautiful keepsake? Cheap? I hardly thing so! I guess my point is that “beauty is NOT always in the eyes of the beholder”. Not everyone will appreciate the time and effort that goes into making a piece; some because they have no clue how much work is involved in creating a work of art, and others just because they are clueless. I have been quilling wedding invitations for years, for some of the same customers who wouldn’t think of ever giving anything else for a wedding gift. The feedback I get from my customers tells me that their quilled invitation is often the favorite wedding gift for the brides who receive them. In fact, many of my customers who received one of my pieces as a wedding gift go on to order them when their friends and relatives marry. I have had brides order them to give to their parents as a special remembrance

It is an interesting process, the development of your skill as an artist. It is easy to learn the basics of quilling, and just about anyone can put a few shapes together to make a flower or a frog. But not everyone can put together some of the works seen recently on the internet and here on this blog. Not everyone has the patience, the creativity, or even the motivation to attempt some of the pieces we’ve shown here on the blog. Take a look! It is pretty easy to separate the “crafty” pieces from the art.

I remember, many years ago, being flattered when people wanted to buy something I made, and I am sure that I under-priced my work for the first few years. When I started selling my work at craft shows, I was disappointed that people who came to the shows were more interested in looking for bargains than “art”. I also realized that the kinds of things they were looking for were not the kinds of things I enjoyed creating. Craft shows were just not the right venue for me. I think that it takes time to develop your talent and find your niche. When I decided that I wanted to quill “full time”, I had to learn what kind of work would sell, where to market it, and how to price it. For many years wedding pieces have been my “bread and butter”. Now, in my “golden” years, I am looking at my work a little differently. I have reached the point in my life where I enjoy “creating”, not just decorating wedding or baby frames. Just for fun, I have enclosed a picture of one of my very first pieces, quilled for my little girls bedroom wall (33 years ago), and one of my most recent pictures.

Meet Inna

2009-02-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

It never ceases to amaze me. Give a bunch of quillers the same package of strips and no two will come up with the same design. We probably all start out learning the same basic shapes . . . and then watch us go.

Today I would like to feature Inna, who lives in Israel. An engineer by trade, Inna now stays at home with her three children and shares her love of crafts with them. She has tried her hand at many different crafts. About 10 months ago, her husband gave her a book “Paper Crafts Workshop” by Marie Browning which has a very nice 28 page section on quilling. She said “. . . it took me a bit to bring myself to try it; because I believed it’s too difficult”. Like many of us who are self taught, she soon realized it isn’t difficult at all. I happened on her blog and fell in love with the little quilled baby she has on the header of her blog.

Then as I continued to wander around, I saw her quilled Menorah where the quilled candles were set into quilled daffodils. (I wished I had found her when we were looking for quilling designs for the Jewish holidays for the 2007 and 2008 Accord calendars; but of course she wasn’t quilling then).

Inna has done some great tutorials on her site as well. The one on the “double fringed flower is especially helpful; it explains the technique in great detail. Jane Jenkins showed a fringe flower like this in her book “Quilling, Techniques and Inspiration”, but the instructions for it were very vague and hard to find. When this book first came out, I can’t even tell you how many calls we got about that fringed flower. Now we have a place to send everyone, Inna’s web site.
Another tutorial on quilled fringed flowers. This type is rather rear and I've never seen a detailed description of it. How to make regular fringed flowers I explained earlier. You will need double-sided coloured paper, scissors, glue, and a ready-made or DIY slotted tool or a wooden toothpick.

1. Cut a paper strip about 2-3 cm (1 inch) wide and 10 cm (4 inch) long. Fold it lengthwise.

2. Create a fringe by making small cuts at 45 degrees from the folded edge.

3. Attach to its end a regular — 3 mm (1/8 inch) wide and 25-30 cm (10 inch) long — quilling strip. This will make the centre of the flower.

4. Roll tightly using a toothpick or quilling tool, starting from the tip of the narrow strip.

You don't have to shape the petals, they will fluff up by themselves.

5. After the fringe is rolled up, glue its tip and hold for a couple of minutes to let the glue dry a little.

Now you can use your flower for a greeting card or any other purpose. In order to make a flower of the type shown below use only a wide strip. In this case it should be longer, about 20-30 cm (8-12 inch). Don't glue a narrow strip for the centre, start rolling the fringe right away.

Good luck!

Quilling - Tea cups to skulls??

2009-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

I didn’t get a blog up this past Friday (long story), but I thought everyone would enjoy this. Since I put my quilled tea cup and saucer up on my web site, I have gotten dozens of requests for instructions, patterns etc. Unfortunately, I don’t use patterns and hate to write them down, but I did put together some general directions to give people an idea of how to get started. these are the directions I send out:

The tea cup was a product of my imagination so there is no pattern. I started out by making a tight roll with approximately ten full length strips for the base of the cup. I put the tight roll in the bottom of an actual tea cup and then started adding the quilling one row at a time. After each row dried, I would loosen it from the sides of the cup, then place it back into the cup and build the next row of quilling. When I had built the cup up to tea cup size, I took it out of the cup and made the handle. The saucer was done in exactly the same way. When both pieces were done I sprayed them with several light coats of Stiffen Stuff, which makes the paper nice and stiff without changing the color or adding a shine to it.

I also made a matching tea pot. Again I started with a large tight roll for the base. Then I made a mold of the tea pot and then cut it in half. I lined the inside of the mold with plastic wrap and then started placing the quilling inside of the mold, working from the bottom up. The tricky part was gluing the two halves together.

An important note, be sure to use paper from the same dye lots for these projects. The whites can be very different and will show up in the finished pieceLast week I received this email from someone who had asked for those directions. Her name is Kim Wallace.

”About six weeks ago I ran across your website and fell in love with your tea cup and saucer! You were kind enough to tell me how you did it so I made one myself. It came out nice so I wanted to try something a little different. Attached is a skull I did for my husbands haunted house he does each year at Halloween. It is not perfect but he and I both love it. Thanks you for you instructions and inspiration. by the way...I only started quilling about two months ago and as you can see, I am hooked.”

She sent me a picture of a skull she had quilled. I wrote back to her and asked if I could share it with all of you. I also asked if she would share her tea cup as well. Here they are, along with a picture of the ceramic skull she used as a mold.Way to go, Kim!! And she has only been quilling two months!! For all of you who are thinking about trying something different . . .go for it! Here is the mold Kim used. Here is Kim's tea cup.

Clareen Bankhead - Quilling from the Heart

2009-02-05T11:04:00.001-08:00

This week I am writing about Clareen Bankhead. Clareen is a quiller whom I have not yet met in person, ours is an internet acquaintance. I love the borders Clareen makes and I think you will enjoy reading her story. I thought it was interesting that she “doodles “her designs before she quills them. My drawing or even doodling skills are non-existent. If I am working on a new design, I am more apt to make some quills and start moving them around (dry; not glued) until I get the effect I want. It is interesting to see how each of us differs in the “process” we use to create something new.

Clareen mentioned that she would like some feedback from quillers who look at the patterns on her site. Here is a link to one of her free patterns, check it out and let Clareen know what you think. http://quillingfromtheheart.com/simplefirstpattern/index.htm

Here is her story in her own words:
“When I was about 8 years old an Aunt made my Grandmother a pair of chairs out of tin. A rocker and a chair with a foot stool. I wanted to play with them and my Barbie's together. It was a no go. Anyway I promised myself that one day I would learn how to make them and then let my little ones play with them. I found the tools but not the pattern. Then I found instructions for paper quilling and traded the tools for my first 3 books of quilling.

The borders caught my fancy the most. I did try some of the 3-d flowers, filigree eggs and a baby grand piano. But the response in me just wasn't the same as when I did a border. I did a lot of wedding announcements at first. But I heard of one to many getting thrown away when unhappiness broke up the couple. So I started doing my borders around pictures of Jesus and verses. I've seen pictures of Jesus stay on a wall even if the glass on it is broken. I figured all the work I put into them....Jesus made them secure as a gift to anyone.
I taught myself from the books I had traded for. For a long time I tried to imitate the borders I liked. Then it naturally began to grow. And I started doodling out patterns on my own. I even incorporated doodles my youngest sister Pennie did, into her wedding plaque. Doodles grew into much more interesting designs. I created a little 5 x 7 for my sister Janet (chosen by her son); I was trying for a circle in the middle with a marquis flow of quilling around it. It looked good. But of course that inspired another try for the perfect marquis design. Then the Dots came and what I called the Confetti Curl and I liked what the Lord had inspired very much.

I had very little back ground in drawing types of art. I have always been around talented people. My mother and grandmothers both had a lot of creative talent. I come by it honestly; it’s in the gene pool...teehee. As to changing my life...YES...I plan to go to the University and get my Art Masters in Sculpturing, and taking quilling into an architectural level. Big plans, I just hope I can make them work!

I would say Paisleys are a good place to look for some of my base patterns foundation. But I can get inspiration from just about anywhere. A comment from a person or close friend. A tough time someone is going through. Someone else's quilling creations; there are so MANY talented quillers out there. My favorite place to doodle (I confess) is sitting in the middle of Church, it’s peaceful and the inspirations are there for the taking.

Story: Hearts have played a big part in my designs. When Michelle was maybe 6ish, she was quilling with me. She was making hearts for her picture. She was trying to imitate moms little fat rounded hearts and crying because they were not the same. Well, a new heart (an oldie goldie) was (re-) born at the Bankhead's, the elongated country style heart. Michelle was happy and so was mom. It also inspired my slightly tilted, lopsided hearts.

To see more of Clareen's work visit her site Quilling from the Heart

Still working . . . .

2009-01-30T06:06:00.001-08:00

Well, I am still working on all of the “quiller interviews”, collecting information and trying to decide which pieces of their work I want to show. I’ve spoken with Malinda Johnston who is the founder and former owner of Lake City Crafts and Betty Christy who wrote the very first quilling book I ever bought. Both are quillers from the early 70’s who helped quilling along its way here in the United States. They are sending me some more materials to work with. This is turning out to be a fun idea; it is making me reach out to all kinds of people. Since so many of my “interview/features” are still in the works, I am back to quilling techniques for this week’s blog.
I made some hearts (after all it is the end of January so Valentine’s Day can’t be far behind). I am actually working on some ideas for a new kit I am working on for Paplin Products. I did two “theme” kits for them; Nothing but Flowers and Nothing but Butterflies. This new one will be Nothing but Hearts, but it won’t actually come out until next year, I am still trying to decide which pieces I will use. it's kind of fun working on kits because I get to do things I normally wouldn't do, except for the directions. I HATE writing directions!

One that I will not put in the kit is this one, mainly because I can’t figure out how to write directions for it. The technique for the actual heart is called bandaging. It is not a technique I use very often, but I really like the way this heart looks. I actually “stacked” six strips of light pink paper together (they are not glued to one another) and then shaped them into a heart. After I glued the heart shut, I “wrapped’ the red strip around the stacked strips and glued it in place. (See what I mean about the instructions? Way too wordy for a kit) This technique is really pretty neat for “framing” things, in this case I put the mini flower spray inside the heart. Try it out . . . you might like it. It is quite sturdy, in fact as I am sitting here typing, I am thinking that this might be a really good technique for a bottom of a basket , cup, or plate instead of a large tight roll. I have been toying with the idea of making something like a quilled luncheon plate, hmmmm. I will keep you posted on plate progress as well as all of the other projects I have in the works. Maybe I should take up juggling!

Oh! By the way, since I moved the blog over here, I noticed a couple of comments on some of the older posts, if you need a response from me, be sure to email me so I can respond directly to you. I noticed someone looking for a cross pattern but didn't get a name or email address. My email address is Whimsiquills@cox.net

Quilling with Sherry Rodehaver

2009-01-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

This post was a really easy one; it is about a quiller I have known for many years, Sherry Rodehaver. It’s easy because Sherry wrote it herself, and even though I have known her from the days long before the American quilling guild (NAQG) came into being, there were lots of things I didn’t know about Sherry. I didn’t know that she was interested in medicine as a teenager . . . when I read her piece, I wrote to her to tell her that I was also interested in medicine in high school. In fact I studied Latin thinking about pre-med in my future, and instead fell in love with languages! . . . So the fact that she was interested in medicine came as a surprise. What did I know about her? She is a terrific lady, always pleasant and gracious without a mean bone in her body. She has been a valuable asset to the North American Quilling Guild, and she is very talented. Her creativity is endless, as you will see by some of her work pictured here, but read on . . . let Sherry tell you a little more about herself.

I have always had a love of art and crafting and especially when paper was the primary medium. However my intended career path was one of medicine. I was headed toward medical school with the intention of becoming a veterinarian. I got side tracked. I married soon after graduating high school and began raising a family which eventually consisted of a husband and 4 children.

In 1970 I was co-owner of a craft supply store and attended various trade shows for the business. At one of these shows I met Barbara Maddox owner of “Quill Art” and purchased her line of quilling supplies and kits for the store. Following the instructions included with the supplies, I taught myself quilling, and made all the samples for the store. A short time later I sold my interest in the store and went back to doing local art shows; this time with a “new” product…Quilling.

In 1975 I was invited to exhibit at The Yankee Peddler Festival in Ohio. This was a “high end” art show with a Colonial theme and a strong emphasis on educating the public to the process of traditional American arts and crafts. I have just completed my 34th year participating in this now renowned show.

I worked in relative isolation during the first ten years or so of my paper quilling adventure. I neither knew anyone else who practiced this art form nor saw anyone else’s work. This actually allowed me to find and perfect my own style which was mainly 3 dimensional and free standing work in miniature. Although I occasionally do framed pieces they are almost always dimensional. Designing free standing miniature animals has always been my real passion and annually I design new animals and add them to the ever growing collection. Although I find inspiration everywhere I constantly receive requests from collectors of my work for specific subjects. These requests are acted upon and often result in the “new” or “latest” addition to the line.

One of the most comical and embarrassing moments happened recently at the “Peddler” Festival. A potential buyer was standing in front of the booth carefully studying the display of miniature animals. She picked up an alligator apparently intending to purchase it. Suddenly she put it back on the display and exclaimed “oh, never mind, I wanted one with teeth” and hurriedly walked away. Stunned, we all looked at each other quizzically and then turned the display around to see what she was talking about. I generally work “assembly line style” and it seems that in my haste to complete the alligators I had forgotten to put “teeth” in between the jaws. A quick check of the remaining stock showed this to be true of the entire “batch”. Now when a buyer selects a miniature for purchase, most of use smile and silently ask ourselves……”would you like that one…with teeth, or without”…lol

In several of my designs I use punched out shapes for certain parts of the design such as bird wings. In exploring the world of punches I discovered just how vast it was and how easy it is to make many small accent flowers that compliment the quilling florals nicely. In light of that I began selling punches for “Floral Punch Craft” and offer over 300 different varieties in my eBay store.

To Contact Sherry Rodehaver
Sherry’s eBay Store (Quilling Corner)
Sherry’s Picture Trail

Paper - Treasures

2009-01-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I plan to take some time this year to highlight some other quillers, some of whom I have met and some of whom I have “met” through the wonder of the internet. That’s how I found Kathie and Gregg who live in Topeka, Kansas. I stumbled across their web site on one of my infrequent “surfing expeditions”. On her web site, Kathie says that Paper Treasures is a business my husband and I started to share my love of quilling. I began quilling many years ago as a hobby and a way to create unusual Christmas and Easter decorations. I taught a few classes to Girl Scouts and elementary school classes, but did not have much time for this intricate art. Now that I have retired from a full time job as an accountant, I am able to pursue what has become a passion”. Their on line business is called Paper - Treasures and they also do shows together. Kathie sells a neat line of quilled jewelry, pins and earrings, along with quilled Christmas ornaments and quilled eggs. Gregg makes all of her display stands for the shows they do, and a really great slotted quilling tool. He makes his tool from music wire and hones it to such a fine point that it leaves virtually no hole in the center of a tight roll. The tool is about 5 ½” long and comes in a clever “no-roll” box. For those quillers who want the look of finger rolling (no hook in the center of the coil), but need to work with a slotted tool; this may be your answer. I bought two of them (I didn’t realize that the box would help prevent me from losing it). I generally finger roll, but when I am making small tight rolls, I like to use a tool. I feel very clumsy when coiling tiny tight rolls with my fingers; this tool solves the problem. I have also built up the handle a little with tape on my tool so my tired old thumbs don’t have to work so hard holding the tool for extended periods. (I’ve done that with almost all of my tools . . . isn’t old age grand?) I’ve included some pictures of some of my favorite things from their site, but be sure and stop over for a full tour.

FYI: The point of this tool is pretty sharp, so I wouldn’t recommend it for children; but Kathie did tell me that Gregg also makes the tool with a “not so pointed end” so kids can use it too.

I couldn't resist adding one more pcture to this post. This is by far the prettiest Star of David I have come across.

North American Quilling Guild Conference 2009

2009-01-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

If you are a member of the North American Quilling Guild (NAQG), you have received information and registration forms for this year’s NAQGCON (The North American Quilling Guild Conference). This year the event will be held at the Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport on May1-3, 2009. This post is for those of you who may not have heard about the conference, or who may never have attended one. This annual tradition started more than 15 years ago, long before the NAQG was formed. It started with a small group of American quillers who found each other through membership in the English quilling guild. I was one of those members. I contacted the then 13 American members and began writing an informal newsletter, and that’s all it was, a newsletter to help us stay in touch. A small group of these American quillers attended the English Guild’s International Festival of Quilling and decided a year later to have a little reunion meeting here in the states. Although I didn’t go to England with the group, I did attend the “reunion meeting” the following year. We had lunch and a slide presentation, and then wandered around looking at each other’s work etc. I was blown away by the diversity of the work I saw, we discussed it and decided it should become an annual event, and it did.

A NAQG Conference is a very special event. In addition to getting an opportunity to meet other quillers from all over the world, you will able to see their work and learn and try new techniques. Quillers from around the United States and Canada are in attendance as well as quillers from Japan and often from England. You do not have to be a member of NAQG to attend, but once you meet all of these quillers, you will probably want to join. Just as an aside, we did decide to make our “informal” organization more formal and became the North American Quilling Guild in 2000. Our conference that year was in Nova Scotia, each year it is in a different location.

Over the years, the conference has grown from an afternoon event to a two and a half day conference. The general schedule of a NAQGCON goes something like this. Most people arrive sometime on Thursday, register and meet & greet old and new friends. Friday is a day of classes/workshops. During most of the conference there is an open “hospitality” room for quillers to visit and quill informally, or practice what they learned in the classes. In the last few years a competition is held for those who wish to compete. The competition pieces are put on display and the NAQG members vote to decide the winners in different categories. Only NAQG members are able to enter pieces in the competition, but they don’t have to attend in order to compete. Vendors usually set up their booths so they are available Friday night and all day Saturday. Quillers set up their individual displays on Saturday morning; the day is spent admiring all of the beautiful quilling, giving & attending demos, and having the public come in to view the beautiful art on display. The voting and announcement of competition winners also takes place on Saturday. Sunday brunch is followed by more open quilling and/or demos and then those quillers who are not extending their stay leave for home.

I encourage anyone who has even a passing interest in quilling to attend a NAQGCON, even if you can only get there for the public viewing hours. It is guaranteed to knock your socks off! For more information about joining the North American Quilling Guild and/or the NAQGCON check out the web site www.naqg.org or contact this years NAQGCON host Lois Bandt Weber Bladybugquill@wmconnect.com

Happy New Year!

2008-12-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings! I hope you are enjoying this festive season of holidays. I am spending some quiet time planning for 2009. For years, I have been quilling for my customers; this year I would like to try working on some projects just for the fun of it. I sell so many wonderful papers and hardly have the time to experiment with them myself. I have been spending some time visiting other quillers’ sites and blogs and am just amazed at all of the neat things I am finding. It is hard for me to even remember how isolated I felt as a new quiller in the 1970’s. Through the internet I have been able to reach out to quillers all over the world. Each of them has their own distinctive style; viewing them is truly inspirational and challenges me to start rethinking my own work. There are so many ideas out there that would never have occurred to me had I not been able to see them on my computer monitor. I have been pleasantly surprised to find a lot of moms who are home schooling their children and discovering quilling and sharing it with their children. This is surprising to me, since many elementary art school teachers are not familiar with quilling at all. These moms are researching new ways to keep their kids inspired and finding quilling. What a great way to keep little fingers busy! This also means there will be a new generation of quillers to “carry the torch” and hopefully pass it on to their children. But to get back to my plans for the new year. I will be reaching out to some of these quillers and asking their permission to feature them (and their work) on my blog. I am really excited about this, it will be a fun project, a way to meet some new quilling friends and perhaps inspire me, and maybe even you, to try some new projects. I wish you a Happy, Healthy, New Year!

Quilled Borders

2008-11-25T15:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends . . . and once everyone has gone home and you recover from all that turkey, you’ll probably start thinking about all of that quilling you wanted to get done before Christmas. I have finally finished all of my special orders and can now concentrate on quilling some fun stuff. I have been working on a really special piece for my best friend, but I'lll save that for another day. What I wanted to talk about today is borders.

I recently had someone ask me about doing borders. Borders are usually placed around something, a verse, a photograph, a wedding invitation, just to name a few. There are lots of ways to do borders, you can run a border across the top and bottom of a piece, on opposite corners (one of my favorites), or all the way around the item you are “framing” with your quilling. Judy Cardinals book B5987 Quilled Borders & Motifs demonstrates borders using themes. An example of this is one of her baby borders which includes quilled baby bottles, rattles, and safety pins. Claire Choi’s book The Art of Paper Quilling has a whole section on borders. In the section on cards, she uses borders (mostly floral) to surround the sentiment on the front of the card, like “love”. The borders she uses on some of the framed pieces are usually in opposite corners. When working on opposite corners, you can keep the quilling symmetrical, using the same flowers or shapes in the same colors so they are “mirror images” of each other. The roses and calla lily border is one of these as is my top and bottom designs, while in the piece with the quilled ribbon the flowers are done in different colors and placed without regard to “matching’ the design on the opposite corner.

I think the borders that are the most daunting, are the ones that go all around the opening or the edge of the frame. I will tell you how I plan these out. If I am working with a rectangular border, I start in the corners. I usually make some shapes and “play” with them while they are dry to decide how I want the border to look. Then I start to work in from towards the center, adding shapes to complete the border. In this way, if your spacing is a little off and you have a gap in the center, you can just add one additional quill. Another tip: if the piece is a rectangle, I do the four corners first and then start working across the top and bottom at the same time; once the top and bottom are done then I start working on the two sides. This is particularly important if the design is complex.

If I am working on an oval border, I start at the centers (top and bottom, left and right) and then work inward. I have included some pictures here, these are fairly simple borders, but if you want to see totally awesome all around borders you need to go to Quillin From the Heart Clareen Bankhead’s borders are incredible! Her work is so delicate and beautiful that I just enjoy going over to her site to admire it all.

New Blog/Old Blog

2008-11-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

New Blog/Old Blog

I have decided to move my blog from "my space" over to blogspot. I have no issues with myspace, but I think blogspot will be more flexible and easier for me as well as my readers. I am no "computer whiz-kid" so easier is definitely better in my book, besides, I am supposed to be quilling not reading up on computer stuff! This new location will not require anyone to "register" unless they want to and I will finally be able to put pictures right in my text. We have spent several days updating the blog topics and moving the graphics into the body of the text. Debbie is also adding more links so it will be easier to find related items on the web site. Debbie has already moved all previous blog topics over to the new site and will be able to list all of the topics so it will be easier for my readers to find what they are looking for. So keep checking back, I am pretty excited about this and hopeful that I will do a little more writing if I don't have to waste time trying to figure out what I really want to do. Make sense? I hope so.

Quilling Christmas Cards/Christmas Patterns/Designs

2008-10-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Quilling Christmas Cards/Christmas Patterns/Designs

I spoke with a quiller the other day who told me she wanted to make some special Christmas cards for her grandchildren. She wanted to put some quilling on the card that could be removed from the card and used as an ornament. It made me think back to some of the first times I put ornaments in cards. Apart from the obvious, not wanting them to get squished in the mail, I tried a few different ways of making and mounting my ornaments. My first attempts were just putting the ornaments in or on the cards gluing/taping the hanger to the card. But that allowed the ornament to kind of move around inside the envelope while it traveled from me to its destination. That was kind of tough on delicate type designs like snowflakes. Then I found these really neat clear plastic disks. I glued the ornament to the plastic disk and quilled a pretty border around the edge of the disk, but once again there was damage in transit. The glue just didn’t hold the quilling to the plastic; once it got bounced around in the mail some of the quilling just came loose. Next I cut 3” disks out of mat board because I knew the quilling would not come loose from the mat board. Unfortunately there is a front and a back to mat board, so I had to cut some kind of decorative paper to glue on the back of the mat board . . . and then of course some kind of decorative border to cover the cut edges of the mat boards. . . BUT they didn’t fall apart, in fact I still have a few of them.

In my conversation with this quiller, she told me she was using designs from one of the kits I had designed for Paplin products. She said she liked them because they were pretty basic and easy to do. She didn’t want to make very complicated or intricate snowflakes because she didn’t think the younger grandchildren would appreciate them. I went back to my web site (http://www.whimsiquills.com/) and realized I didn’t have any Christmas designs up in the free pattern section . . . so I whipped up a few for anyone else who was looking for simple Christmas card ideas. (Just scroll down on the home page and you will find a link for free patterns or you can click here) I used the circle border punch Dancing Daisy for the background; the tiny punched out daisy reminded me of a snowflake, but any circle border punch would look nice. These will be attached to the cards with a removable adhesive called “Dotto Glue Dots” so they can be easily lifted off the card and hung on a tree or in a window. The designs can be assembled right on the background. If you do not plan to use a background, assemble them on a piece of waxed paper. When dry, just peel the waxed paper off the back slowly and add a thread or metallic cord for a hanger. If you click on the image you can see how the design will look on one of our colored cards. To be sure they don’t get crushed in the holiday mail you can put them in a protective mailer. I have a few other I ideas I hope to add within the next couple of weeks, so be sure to check back. Enjoy!

New Husking Cards

2008-10-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

New Husking Cards

Here is some exciting news for those of you who love husking, but don’t want to design your own patterns. Elizabeth’s Creations has just introduced new husking cards; these are 3” x 5” laminated cards with pre-designed husking patterns. You use them with your own work board and pins which keeps the price down to a reasonable $5.00 each.

For those of you who may not be familiar with husking; it is an interesting technique. Instead of rolling the paper the paper is wrapped around pins. Starting with pin #1, wrap it around the pin several times or to make a tiny glued loop around the pin, then wrap around pin #2, back to #1, around #3 back to #1 and so on. It is optional as to whether you want to put a dab of glue each time you get to #1, but you might want to the first time out. Once the shape has been completed,, I suggest that you twist the pins to remove them (just in case they got any glue on them) and then gently lift the finished piece off the board/card. Husking with pins has the advantage of making all of the shapes exactly the same size. It is especially pretty when done with specialty papers like two toned or graduated strips. You really get to see both sides of the strips because husking is much more “open” than traditional quilling. I also like to use gilded edge strips when I make husked snowflakes (I actually like gilded edge strips on my regular quilled snowflakes too); I like to used the blue gilded edge on white for my husked snowflakes.

Of course you can “do it yourself” with a piece of graph paper (on which you mark your pattern), waxed paper, a work board and pins. When I teach this technique that is what I use rather than having students invest in materials for a technique they may or may not enjoy. The down side of drawing your own designs on graph paper is that it wears out pretty quickly; the holes get larger and kind of sloppy. The laminated cards eliminate that problem; if you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel the pre marked pattern cards are a good idea.

We have carried Elizabeth’s Creations wooden husking boards for years, our customers have been very happy with them, although sometimes they have trouble deciding which one(s) they want. The laminated cards are 1/3 the price of the wood ones so you can get a bigger “bang for your buck”, no small consideration these days.

These cards have multiple sizes of each design on a card eliminating all of the guess work. Mary Elizabeth has 10 cards to start with more to come. Designs include: T001 Butterflies, Dragonflies and Flowers which includes 4 sizes of each petal/wing, T002 Classic Hearts in eight sizes, T003 Original Hearts in 7 sizes, and T004 Primitive Hearts with 10 sizes. (Mary Elizabeth says “These hearts are fun to make and can be used for many different designs . . . angel wings, flower petals, borders, butterflies, and oh yes . . . hearts) T010 the Snowflakes and More cards have three styles of snowflakes. There are five “nothing but holes” T005, T006, T007, T008, & T009 cards each with a different scale (i.e. 4 holes to an inch, right up to 8 holes per inch). The more dots per inch the smaller the grid, we do still carry that wonderful Dutch book “Quilling for Cards” by Janetta van Roekel-Wolters that has instructions for 21 husked designs. The book is written in Dutch and English; it is a great companion to the nothing but holes card.

Sister Consolata & Quilling

2008-09-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

Sister Consolata

I had a very good friend who used to tell me “What goes around, comes around”, I was never quite sure what he meant but have finally found an example which illustrates this point. As most of you know, anecdotal history tells us that quilling was “invented” by nuns centuries ago. The story as I heard it was that nuns cut off the gilded edges of old manuscripts to decorate religious artifacts. The result looked much like metal filigree. Recently, I was contacted by a nun, Sister Consolata, who asked for a catalogue of our products. I sent her our standard “info pack” which includes our order forms, color chart, samples of some of our specialty papers, and an informational letter which includes information about the quilling guilds (here in the USA and in England) and information about some of the online quilling groups. Several weeks later, I received a lovely typewritten letter from her; I would like to share some of it with you.

“Dear Miss Caputo,
While going over the material that was sent to me by Whimsiquills some time ago, I came across you very kind letter which was included with the material. I am very sorry that I somehow overlooked your letter when I first opened the envelope. Today, I determined to write to you.

I am a 94 year old Notre Dame Sister, and I have done quilling for about eight years. At one time I had some gift tags which were being sold in a shop here in Omaha. A dear lady was interested in them and obtained my address. Her name is Jan. She wrote to me and asked if I gave lessons on this craft. I wrote back and told her that I did not give lessons, but would teach her what I knew about quilling. I learned by using two books that a dear friend had given me.

So this lovely Jan came out to our convent and we became good friends. Jan far surpassed me in quilling. I told her “because of her nurse’s fingers,” you have become and expert in this craft. We had so many interesting times together and Jan gave me many materials to help me in my work. I am very sorry to tell you that lately Jan sent me, through a friend, much of her quilling paper. She has been very ill and cannot do any quilling.

However, I now have a little boy of Omaha, who is my new pupil. His grandparents, when touring our building, noticed me working on a quilled picture down in my art work room. They told me about their eleven year old grandson who is very talented in art and music. When they left our convent, these good people stopped at a craft store and purchased a book and some quilling tools. The next week, this dear grandmother brought young Spencer to me in order to learn about quilling. He is such a dear lad and I know he will do some beautiful work. In fact, I just learned that his teacher wants him to teach her to quill!!”

Her letter went on to tell me a little more about herself, she is a former teacher, and she “still make(s) many gift tags which sell well. I do tire easily so I cannot work as fast as I once did . . . but I want to keep on quilling as long as the Good Lord gives me the strength and ability to do so.” What a delight! Oh yes, she said in her letter that “I am the only nun in the community who does quilling . . .so far.

Quilled Card Making Techniques Continued

2008-08-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Quilled Card Making Techniques Continued

I’ve toyed with the idea of trying some other techniques with my quilled cards. The first technique I tried was paper pricking (piercing). That’s when you prick out a design on the card with a pin (or a special pricking tool). The design can be pierced from the front or the back of the card or a combination of both. It’s really quite pretty and combines well with quilling especially if you use the pierced design as a border. I felt it was way too time consuming to use on a card; I used the technique to make some very pretty background piercing on handmade paper (which I bought, I did not make it). Then I quilled bouquets of flowers which I put on the background and framed. I have since discovered (well I didn’t really discover it, but I found out about it) a tool called the pounce wheel. This wonderful little gizmo will do a pricked border in a jiffy! You can’t use it for everything, although I did do a very nice scalloped border, but I use it to give a pricked edge on some of the papers I use for my cards.

I also bought a book on parchment craft . . . and parchment . . . and tools. However after sitting down and looking at the book, I decided I was not ready for parchment. It seemed very involved and rather complicated. What I have found though, is a book called The All New Compendium of Cardmaking Techniques by Search Press. It came up when I was doing a search for new quilling books. It has a 27 page section on quilling; the designs are some of the ones found in Diane Crane’s Quilled Greeting Cards. What it does have is very basic information for a number of other techniques. “Thread Cards” their term for paper embroidery is just one of them. While I might not want to make a whole thread card, that might be an interesting technique to use for the vase of quilled flowers. I always have to think about what design to use for a vase; making a “threaded vase” might give a whole different look and texture to a piece. It would be pretty small if I were making it for a card but might look pretty neat in a framed piece as well. Hmm . . . There is a section on watercolor cards, which I almost skipped right over . . . I don’t enjoy painting anything, furniture, walls, NOTHING! But . . . there is an interesting section on creating a wash for a background and getting some really neat looks using spattering and salt, of all things! The “Quick Parchment Cards” section has made me rethink the whole parchment thing, especially when I saw some of the border designs and saw it used on color cards. When I got to the silk flower section, I just substituted quilled flowers in my mind. The section on beaded cards combined paper pricking and lace. I am not trying to read the whole book to you but it does have some good basic information so if you are interested in trying any of these techniques, I think it is a pretty good starting point. I have a whole bunch of small quilled pieces that I had made for the 2009 Accord calendar and of course that project got scrapped. So I think I will take a look at them again and look through my books and maybe I can really dress them up. I don’t usually send cards out for Halloween, but some of the designs are really cute Halloween designs, so maybe I will just surprise my family with Halloween cards this year.

Glues & Fixatives Part # 2

2008-08-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Glues & Fixatives – Part 2

Here comes the part about fixatives/sealers etc. Just like with the glue, everyone has an opinion or favorite. Here we will be discussing my favorites and some of my “not so favorites”. I think most new quillers worry about how to “preserve” their work. Of course paper filigree is more fragile than metal filigree, but it is surprisingly strong especially when rolled and glued on edge. I don’t use a sealer or fixative on anything but pieces that are free standing or are not protected by glass. I don’t use anything on pieces I put on scrapbook pages or greeting cards, paper is much stronger than most people realize. I have one of the very first pieces I made, a Sunbonnet Sue, which I made to hang in my daughter’s bedroom. It is done on a wood plaque, it has not been sprayed or coated with anything and is not under glass. It still hangs in my studio 34 years later and still looks the same, (except for the dust).

One of the very first quilling books I bought was written in 1974. It was called “Quilling Paper Art for Everyone” by Betty Christy and Doris Tracy. It contained a wealth of knowledge, (no color pictures), and I still like to leaf through it now and then. It’s a little dog eared, especially since one of my dogs chewed the corners when he was a puppy, but it was the first quilling book I bought and it still has a special place in my quilling library. (Partially because I have met Betty Christy, and spent time with her at several quilling conferences. She is quite a character.) However, this book recommends spraying your finished pieces with a clear plastic or acrylic spray. I have tried many different sprays over the years, and found that even the ones that say non-yellowing have a tendency to yellow the papers especially on white snowflakes. Some quillers recommend coating the pieces with a thinned mixture of white glue, I find that when the glue dries it leaves a shine, making the paper look almost like plastic. If I take all the time necessary to make those little rolls and coils, I’ll be darned if I want it to look like plastic. I’ve also heard of quillers who use, lacquer, varnish, and even nail polish! YUK!! Still plastic looking not to mention the smell! But of course, that’s just my opinion.

The first product I found that I really liked was a product called Petal Porcelain put out by Plaid. I have no idea why I tried it, maybe because it said the finished look was like porcelain (which beats plastic in my book). This came in a little jar, was quite thick; it had to be applied with a brush and it was PINK! But . . . it dried to clear bisque like finish and it did not change the look of the paper at all! I used it a lot when I was making and selling quilled earrings (about a hundred years ago) and it worked really well! It protected the paper from the oils of fingers and even survived my accidentally dropping an earring in the glass of water I used to clean my brush. The downside was that it was thick and if you were coating a large piece it took a long time.

When I made the quilled tea cup and saucer I knew I needed to find something that I didn’t have to brush on or the coating would take as long as the quilling. That’s when I found S tiffen Stuff by Beacon products. It was originally intended for stiffening ribbons (you know like the kinds you put on baskets etc.) I tried it out on something other than my first tea cup and was very pleased with the results. Because it is sprayed on, it is quite wet, so several very light coats are recommended letting it dry between coats. It dries pretty quickly, but if you are in a real hurry you can use a hair dryer on low. Also, I learned that you really need to rinse off the spray top of the bottle after each use or the Stiffen Stuff will clog the spray hole. For several years, this was the only product of this type I could find although now there are several other brands available. The problem seems to be finding it. When I first purchased it, I found it a Wal-Mart and have since seen it at Michaels. But a number of Whimsiquills customers have told me that it is not available in their Michaels or Wal-Mart’s, so we have brought it in as an item on the Whimsiquills web site in case you want to try it but are unable to find it.

PS I have an interesting little anecdote which kind of relates to flowers looking like plastic, porcelain etc. I had a young woman come to the Whimsiquills studio to choose a design for a wedding gift she was giving to a very special teacher/mentor. She came with her mom, and we spent considerable time picking out colors, style of quilling, and which flowers were to go in the finished piece. When they were ready to leave and were walking down the hall, where I have many quilled pieces displayed, her mother turned around and asked me, “but where do you BUY these flowers?” Needless to say, I turned them right around and gave them a little impromptu demonstration!

Glues & Fixatives with Quilling

2008-08-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Glues and Fixatives

As those of you who follow this blog know, I have been quilling for 30+ years, actually it is almost 35 years. Two of the questions that keep popping up are about what kind of glue should be used and does the finished piece need some kind of fixative to preserve it. Let me start with the glue.

Glue can be a sticky subject (just kidding); everybody has an opinion and/or a favorite; this is my opinion. In general terms, white glue that dries clear, is water soluble for easy cleanup, and one that is non toxic and has no fumes is preferred. Since every coil you make will either have to be glued shut, glued to a surface or another coil you want to be working with a product that is safe and easy to use. Having said that, one of the most important things to know is that “less is best” when it comes to gluing your work. Even though the glue will dry clear, that doesn’t necessarily make it invisible. If you are using excessive amounts of glue, it WILL show either as a shine or as a shiny glob, clear but obvious. When I started quilling, I used white glue put out by Leewards, it was inexpensive, it didn’t smell, and it dried clear . . . then I actually had a bottle go bad and turn an ugly brown color (I have no idea who the actual manufacturer was). Then I tried Elmer’s and Sobo. I didn’t like the Elmer’s, I felt it was too “watery” and it took too long to hold. I was more satisfied with the Sobo. One year I decided to put my quilling on glass Christmas balls, what a joy that was! I had quilling sliding down the sides of the round balls, YUK!! That’s when I tried Aleene’s Tacky Glue which solved my “sliding” problem. Before long, I was using the tacky glue for all of my quilling; I guess I am just not patient enough to wait for a thinner glue to “set”. Recently, we started carrying pearlized and metallic finished papers here at Whimsiquills and my impatience reared its ugly head again. I hate to glue a coil shut and have it “pop” open the minute I set it down. I especially hate it if I am placing it directly on a mat (which is my usual way of working), if it moves, it leaves a smear which is really tough to remove. So . . . . Now, I am trying Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I don’t like it for everything, but it does work well on those shiny coated papers.

How do I apply the glue? When I first started quilling I would put a little blob of glue on a piece of waxed paper and apply it with a toothpick. That works pretty well, but you do get a buildup of glue on the toothpick so it needs to be cleaned frequently; the glue on the wax paper starts to dry out and needs to be replenished. Boy was I thrilled when I tried my first fine tipped glue bottle! The first ones I bought were from England; it took me a long time to find a company that manufactured them here, but I have been sold on them ever since. We usually send our bottles out with two tips, one finer than the other so they work well with thick or thin glues. The glue bottles give so much more control when applying glue to those tiny pieces of paper we are so fond of. But there are times when the glue bottle might not be your best option. If you do your work on a work board and then transfer it to a mat or other surface, you may find you need to dip your pieces into the glue. What I find works best for me is to spread out a thin coating of glue on an easily cleaned surface like a plastic lid from a yogurt container or a “Glue Spot” (I’ll explain about them in a minute). Then pick up the quilled piece with your tweezers (I used a bent nose tweezers) and very gently let the bottom edges of your piece touch the spread out glue. If you get too much glue on the piece, tap off the excess by placing it on another piece of plastic and then lifting it off. The excess glue will stay on the plastic and you can place your piece on your mat. This is the method I always use when placing flower stems on a piece.

To get back to the “glue Spot”; this is a nifty little item patented by my friend and fellow quiller Molly Smith (She is the author of “The New Paper Quilling” ). She gave me one at our NAQG quilling conference and I have been using it ever since. It has a great plastic like finish that you can spread your glue on. After you are done working you just peel off the dried glue remnants and toss them. We will be carrying them at Whimsiquills, keep watching the NEW page on the web site. Next topic Fixatives (there was a lot more to say about glue than I thought) so long for now. (If there are any errors in this blog, it’s not my fault. I had to take 75 mg of Benedryl in order to keep breathing today!)

Quilled Greeting Cards & More

2008-08-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Quilled Greeting Cards & More

Handmade greeting cards have been very popular "across the pond" in England for a long time, and now they seem to be growing in popularity here in the United States. Let's face it . . . the cost of cards, like everything else, continues to rise. With gas prices out of site, and in a few months, those of us who live in colder climates will be dealing with the outrageous cost of heating oil, I don't think there is going to be a lot of extra money for $5-7 greeting cards or much of anything extra. In my last post, I wrote a little about quilled greeting cards; I thought it would be a good idea to expand on the topic.

I have just received an advanced copy of Alli Bartkowski's new book 50 Nifty Quilled Cards. I don't know about you, but I always enjoy looking through books because they stimulate me and give me ideas about what I would like to try. Coming up with ideas for fifty cards can't be easy, but Alli managed to do it. The quilling is relatively simple, but is dressed up by stacking different papers together to make the background for the quilling. For example: one of her cards used embossed vellum over plain card stock, a pearl on each of the 4 corners and a ribbon tied around the whole thing. Where was the quilling? A circle was cut out of the vellum with the cardstock showing through. Alli made two tiny birds (using a shaped teardrop for the head, and a larger shaped teardrop for the body) that look like they are "kissing" beak to beak; and above them two tiny teardrops make a heart. It's adorable! And easy! She has also added things like bits of ribbon, decorative embellishments like buttons and charms, decorative papers and gems. There are cards for holidays (I love her tiny angels) and for any occasion you can think of. It's a fun book and should be available in September.

Another fun book about card making is Marie Browning's New Concepts in Paper Quilling. In this book Browning actually shows you how to make the card blanks, liners, and envelopes. I generally stick with the card blanks we sell, we have white cards with rectangular, oval or heart shaped windows; we now have color cards and envelopes which are fun to work with as well. When using the window cards, I usually use a contrasting paper behind the cutouts and then place my quilling inside the cutouts.. I enjoy making cards using various border punches and quilling strips, but am intrigued by some of the ideas in this book as well. I like the look of the cards when different papers are stacked or layered. The cards in this book are quite elaborate although the quilling itself is not too difficult. The theme for the card is also carried over to the envelope which is another nice touch to the cards in this book. Some of these cards are almost too pretty to be cards and would certainly be appropriate for framing.

Of course, you might not want to send quilled cards to everyone on your greeting card list, so in my next post I will be discussing some other ideas for handmade cards. Then again, you might have people on your card list who wouldn't appreciate a handmade card. When I taught a workshop on dressing up your quilled cards at North American Quilling Guild Conference in Rhode Island, we had quite a discussion about who should get the fruits of our labor. One of the quillers said she would never send her sister a quilled card because she knew it would just get tossed; other quillers agreed that that sister didn't deserve a handmade card. I made my mother a set of quilled note cards several years ago because she always enjoyed getting my notes. When I visit her, they are still sitting on her desk, she wouldn't dream of writing on them and sending them off to someone else. I guess Moms are just like that. Here are a few other books to look at when making cards with quilling: Whimsiquills Book Review Page B171 Greeting Card Designs B173 Quilling for Scrapbooks & Cards B5988 Quilling for Cards B352554 Card Making Techniques

Quilling Greeting Cards

2008-06-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Quilling Greeting Cards

I’ve decided not to buy greeting cards anymore. I’ve decided to make them . . . for a lot of different reasons. First of all I find it very difficult to find a card that says exactly what I want it to. For example: I didn’t actually meet my biological father until I was fifty five years old. He left to go off to the war when I was just a few days old. When he came back, both he and my mother were very different people and their marriage became a casualty of war. When I “found” him, I learned that I have a brother! Hallmark just doesn’t have a card that says what I need it to. I can spend hours, literally, reading through every card on the rack and then either leave empty handed or settle for something I’m not really pleased with. It didn’t really leave me much choice. Then of course there is the cost! It seems the only cards that appeal to me are the ones that cost megabucks.

Since I am a quiller, I would occasionally quill a card for a special occasion, (I always quill gift cards), and then worry about it getting squashed in the mail. Of course we all know how time consuming quilling can be, so I began to look for ways to “dress up” my quilled cards, to make them really pretty without having a lot of elaborate time consuming quilling. I started paying a little more attention to card making and scrapbooking books. Well, my worries are over; as card making grows in popularity here in the United States there is more and more information and ideas at your fingertips. We carry several books here at Whimsiquills specifically geared toward card making. My first cards were on plain white cardstock, and then I started trimming the edges of the cards with fancy edged quilling strips in matching colors. (I would cut the wide quilling strips with those decorative edge scissors.) Then I moved on to some tri-fold cards with decorative cut outs like hearts, ovals, and rectangles. I liked the openings because they “framed” the quilling, I would use a contrasting color as the background in the opening.

My daughter, who is into scrapbooking, told me about the decorative borders she used in scrapbooking, so I started looking at borders and border punches; it was just a logical progression to start using some of these ideas in my cards. Since I was enjoying using these, I decided to include them in the Whimsiquills line. Funny how things happen. One of my suppliers, Paplin Products, asked if I would be interested in seeing some cardboard mailers . . . perfect for mailing quilled greeting cards! Of course I was interested! Then they asked me what I thought about a line of colored cards and envelopes. At first I wasn’t sure about how the quilling would look on the colored cards. But I remembered doing some Easter quilling for Family Circle magazine several years ago. The cards they sent were colored . . . I got a lot of calls about those colored cards. At the time, I checked with Family Circle and they told me they had bought the cards at a little boutique. Paplin sent me some samples and I really enjoyed working with them. I used some circle border punches to “frame” the quilling on some of them. Circle punch On others, I combined some of the border punches to dress up the cards. The small designs I had created for the Accord quilling calendars were perfect for the cards. Combined border punches. There are tons of samples on the cards and scrapbook link .

Of course after you make your pretty handmade card, you have to decide what you want it to say. There are some great sites on the internet like http://www.verses4cards.co.uk/ and http://quotegarden.com/ These are just a couple of sites, there are tons more out there. You can print out a verse in a pretty or fun font and attach it to the inside of your card. Of course if your handwriting is nice or if you know calligraphy you can write your verse. I use a removable adhesive called Dotto to attach the “verse” to the inside of the card. The verse can be removed and the card can be recycled! How about that!! You can have your own line of “green” cards, save gas by making them at home, save money by not buying the fancy commercial greeting cards, and your cards can be recycled!

Digital Quilling

2008-04-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Digital Quilling

Actually, I can’t take credit for finding this site, Debbie, my right arm, did. She saw a picture and the caption “A box full of Quilling paper filigree pieces new in the Shoppe”. She printed it out and ran upstairs to show me. My initial thought was that it was a kit of some sort, but then I thought, how can that possibly be? It said there were 230 quilling pieces . . . in several different color combinations ready for you to be creative with them and arrange them into patterns for corners of photos or frames and pages.” I probably reread that caption three times before I realized that I had missed the words “on individual files” . . . then I realized I was looking at DIGITAL QUILLING!!! HI-TECH QUILLING!!!!! How cool is that! I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around it! Of course, my next step was to try and learn a little more about it. I sent an email to “Blushbutter” the creator. Her name is Vanessa and she, as it turns out lives in Australia. She told me she started quilling about 11 years ago when her oldest child was 4 years old. Vanessa said after studying graphic design 6 years ago and having two more boys, she found little time for quilling. She finally decided to make a digital quilling kit. In her email to me she said, “I am sure you can appreciate the skill taken to digitally cut the pieces out of the backgrounds of my cards which has taken many hours of patience, but it’s been worth it as a lot my customers who have adored the quilling craft in their younger years but don’t have the fine motor skills of their fingers either from arthritis or swelling anymore can now do the craft digitally.” Actually, I can only imagine the skill it must take to do this as I am totally clueless about digital anything.

My scrapbooking, like my quilling, is the paper and scissor variety. I wouldn’t know where to begin trying to create a digital page combining my work. I did have a very interesting conversation recently with Paige Meeker, a fellow quilling guild member, and she was telling me a little bit about digital scrapbooking and gave me a couple of sites to check out. My daughter, who is an avid scrap booker and a not-so-avid quiller has also volunteered to help educate her poor-over-the-hill mother in the ways of all things digital. (Did I tell you she used 1/8” navy blue quilling strips to pin stripe the pages of her New York Yankees scrapbook?) I will keep you posted as I learn more about this! Here is a link so you can see for yourself. Take some time to browse; there is lots of interesting stuff . . . even if I don’t know how to use most of it. http://digitalscrapbookpreviews.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3703

BTW Here is another interesting link; this is a blog whose author/artist creates a skull a day! That’s right . . . a skull a day! I have no idea why, but the interesting thing is that one of the skulls is QUILLED! It’s really neat . . . I had to add my comment when someone referred to quilling as an “old lady craft”, little do they know that not ALL of us are old ladies, although I did acknowledge that I am well on my way. Here is the link http://skulladay.blogspot.com/2008/04/312-quilled-skull.html Enjoy!

Quilling & Home Schooling

2008-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Quilling & Home Schooling

I came upon a mention of quilling in a site recently and was surprised to learn that it was a site for home schooling. I was an "at home" mom during my children's early years and enjoyed all of the activities we shared together, but I can't imagine the energy and dedication it must take to home school them. It is obvious that our educational system in this country leaves something to be desired and that the needs of many young children are not being met: I guess that's why so many parents have decided to home school and why so many magnet schools are popping up. It is the exceptional teacher who can keep the subject matter fresh, new, and exciting. But I digress! I thought it was exciting to see quilling in a study unit, especially when so many art majors and teachers have never heard of it. I contacted Amy Pak http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmhvbWVzY2hvb2xpbnRoZXdvb2RzLmNvbS8= and told her that I was a quiller, a member of the North American Quilling Guild, and how happy I was to see quilling included in the study program. I am always happy to see quilling being introduced to a new group of potential enthusiasts. I also told her about the blog and that we had free reference materials and patterns on our web site. Amy told me "We included quilling in the program as it was an art form that had carried over from Europe to the colonial era of America. It is important to us to share various forms of art for the children to try and experience!" Amy said she hadn't actually tried quilling until she did the Colonial Life unit, but she said "It was a joy to do!" She went on to say that her sons, 9 and 11 years old, enjoyed their quilling experience as well creating "scenes that were totally their own, by using the shapes to fit as they needed."

I took a few minutes to browse through some of the information on the Colonial Life unit and saw other "hands on" activities like punch tin, reverse painting, making a rope bed and straw tick. I thought back to when I was in high school; I hated history and didn't understand its significance. I took US history in summer school so I wouldn't have to sit through a whole school year of history classes. I probably would have felt differently had I had a more "hands on" experience and learned what life was really like in colonial America; I know I would have enjoyed learning about quilling. Let's see; I learned to quill when I was about 30, if I learned in school, just imagine how much more "stuff" I would have made by now!. It is certainly food for thought!

Quilling Comfort Zone

2008-02-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

Quilling Comfort Zone

Today I’d like to talk a little about punches. Many quillers use punched flowers in with their quilled flowers. I actually bought a book on punched flowers at one of AGM’s I attended. But as I sat and read the instructions, I felt like this was a wholly different thing that what I love to do. I never even attempted one flower from that book. I’ve also seen some pretty neat leaf punches, but there are so many different ways to make quilled leaves, that I just never even tried the punched ones I do sprinkle a few small punch flowers in with my work, some simple flowers made with ¼” hole punches or heart punches. But the bulk of flowers I use are quilled.

Like everyone else, I find that sometimes I get into a rut and make the same flowers over and over in different colors. I am in my comfort zone and it is definitely easier to make what I know than it is to think up new flowers and experiment with them. That’s where books come in. On a quiet day, I make a cup of tea, and sit down with a stack of quilling books and just browse. There are all kinds of ideas and techniques to try, even in the books I am not particularly fond of. The next step is to play around with my quilling strips and try some of the “new” flowers. Some come easily and others seem like they are more trouble than they are worth. That seems like a strange thing to say considering how many roses I make. I make the kind made with rectangular pieces of 3/8” paper. Each petal is a separate piece of paper, and I fill the centers with gently curved ¼” holes. I make them using 3 different shades of the same color making the centers darker and the outer petals a lighter shade. What could be more trouble than making these roses? Well, that’s just it; I don’t consider them trouble because I do them easily and I do them well, but some of the other flowers can be a real challenge for me. For example, I love some of Claire Choi’s flowers in her book “The Art of Paper Quilling.” She has a flower on page 44 of her book which she simply calls “yellow flower wrapped in white strips”. She starts out with two yellow half moons and then places an orange four looped wheatear (or she calls it a vertical husking) between the two half moon and then wraps the whole thing with a white strip several times leaving some space at the tips of the petals so she can pinch it to a point. I LOVE this flower. There are several variations of this flower in her book. Do you think I can make one? NOT!!! This one is so far out of my comfort zone it might as well be at the South Pole. But, I will keep trying; I think I might be trying to make it too small . . . but I LIKE small flowers . . . oh well. There is another book, just out called “Quilled Border and Motifs” by Judy Cardinal. She does some really neat flowers, she calls fantasy flowers. Again . . . talk about comfort zones . . . I tend to try and make my flowers look like “real” flowers while she is having fun. Hmmm . . . I think I need to take a good look at this whole comfort zone thing. Well now that I have completely gone off on a tangent, I really didn’t talk about punches at all but I will next time. Next time I will talk about punches that I have come to love, border punches . . . in the meantime, here is another new book Quilled Wild Flowers by Janet Wilson to give you some more food for thought. Maybe I will sit down with Claire Choi at out next AGM (Annual Guild Meeting) and ask her to show me how to make those flowers.

Quilling Without a Pattern

2007-12-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

Quilling without a Pattern

Where do I get patterns for quilling? How can I quill without a pattern? These are frequently asked questions, especially for new quillers. Most people when they look at quilling for the first time are overwhelmed by its complexity. That’s because they are looking at a finished piece not the components that make up the piece. When I taught basic quilling classes, I would always bring in a piece with a quilled border and tell my students that by the end of the class, they would be able to duplicate the border. Then I teach them the basic shapes and go back to the border to show them each coil they have just learned. They are always astounded! The border they thought was so complex is now relatively simple. I don’t teach using patterns because I never wanted my students to feel limited to what the pattern calls for. After they have learned the basic shapes, I give them each a small mat board or card and encourage them to “do their thing”. It is fascinating to see how a group of ten students will come up with ten totally different ideas.

I do demonstrate how to quill using a pattern, but I have never enjoyed trying to make my quills “fit” on a pattern. If I use a pattern at all it is just a starting point, to give me ideas. I like having lots of quilling books around for the same reason. I can be sitting, having a cup of tea, and leafing through a quilling book and sometimes a technique or combination of colors just jumps out at me, and I think “Why didn’t I think of that!” It is easy to get in a rut, with or without patterns. My best friend was looking through the new 2008 Accord calendar and told me she could pick out all of my work without looking at the names. I asked her how. (She is not a quiller; how could I have a best friend who is NOT a quiller you ask? That’s another story.) She said she could pick my work out by the colors I use, and she’s right. When I think about it, I am drawn to softer more muted tones, when I look at my sample wall; that’s what I see. But I digress. When I took on the calendar project with Accord and started contacting quillers, some of them said they couldn’t participate because they couldn’t think of something original or small enough. I am just finishing up the work on the third calendar, the 2009, and what quillers told me this time, was how could they think up something that hadn’t already been done? But you can ask 10 people to make a Christmas tree, or and angel, or a poinsettia, and as long as you DON’T give them a pattern, you will end up with very different pieces. As we have again this year.

So how do you quill without a pattern? Well some like to get an outline drawing, the kind you find in coloring books or clip art collection and then just fill in the outline with marquises or teardrops, whatever fits. I prefer to get an actual picture, in color and then try to duplicate the color texture and feel with quilling strips. When I do birds or butterflies I may use wheatears to get the look of feathers and the lacey look of butterfly wings. I usually go to books like Audubon guides to make my pieces look as realistic as possible. It is trial and error sometimes to get the “feel” of the piece, and because of that I don’t write down instructions and make patterns for the pieces I do, but it works for me. You can see some examples of these on my web site http://www.whimsiquills.com/servlet/the-template/photogallery/Page
where there are lots of pictures.

When I am working on small things like the calendar pieces, I often use stickers for my inspiration. I am a sticker nut! I buy those great big calendars at Staples or Office Max, write my appointments on them and then as the days go by, cover each day with a sticker appropriate for that month. You can’t even imagine how many snowman stickers I have for January. I also do some scrapbooking (actually what I am doing is our entire family’s life story in matching albums, scrapbook style) and I often use stickers there. When I found my Dad after 55 years of not knowing who or where he was, I made him a scrapbook/photo album of me, growing up. You know the kind of pictures, me with no teeth, a broken arm, graduating from high school etc, and lots of stickers. Oh yes, and lots of quilling strips, because I use them to border my pages, and use border punches on them to dress them up. My Dad treasures that book, it helps him get back some of the years we lost) but here I go digressing again! My stickers can be inspirational. In the 2009 calendar, I did a little black cat sitting in a pumpkin, a penguin on ice skates, an Irish teddy bear, a witches head, and a jack-o-lantern with a handle . . . all were ideas I got from stickers. For the witches face I used green tight rolls because I wanted her to have warts. I wanted the penguin to look chubby so I used a large loose coil for his tummy and head and crescents for his back and feet. That’s what I mean about playing with the shapes to get the “feel” you want.

When I am doing borders for things like wedding invitations or baby announcements I try to incorporate the theme on the announcement. I even did a quilled Mickey Mouse on an invitation that sported Mickey and Minnie, on a Korean wedding invitation I duplicated the flowers on the cover of the invite. If the announcement has sail boats or sea shells, I work them into the border. Last year I did a border around a poem a bridegroom had written for his bride. In is he likened her to the many wild flowers she loved and voila!, I had a new wildflower design. Try it! Try thinking outside of the box. Look around you; use the many quilling books in your library or in your town library to give you inspiration. It works!

Happy Thanksgiving & Christmas Quilling

2007-11-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving & Christmas Quilling

Well, here it is the week of Thanksgiving and I think this is supposed to mark the beginning of the Christmas season (although I’ve been noticing Christmas stuff in the stores since before Halloween). Oh well, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, none of the “hoopla” or “commercialization” (is that really a word?) that seems to come with Christmas. It’s a time for friends, family, fellowship and food . . . just a nice easy relaxing day. We each bring a different part of the dinner so it doesn’t end up being a monster job for any one person and we spend the whole day visiting.

However, when it comes to quilling . . . Christmas is queen! There is no end to the Christmas quilling ideas and they just keep coming. Over the years, especially when I sold my work at craft fairs, I made all kinds of Christmas ornaments. I think my first quilling was a snowflake; I still enjoy making them and hang them in the little windows on my front door. Now I make them with the gilded paper (silver on white or blue edge on white), but when I first started there was just plain old white strips and they were still beautiful. I also did free hanging ornaments like stockings, candy canes, poinsettias, and wreaths, then I started putting them on 3” circles of mat board so they wouldn’t get “lost” in the tree branches.

Somewhere along the way, I saw some of the Quill Art little dimensional figures, I thought they were adorable. (They were nowhere near as elaborate as the Jinisans I’ve talked about previously.) So I made tiny toy soldiers, Santas, angels, and Christmas mice. I put them inside of empty egg shells which I coated with diamond dust. Some I hung and others I put on little filigree stands. Everyone in my family knew that if you used an egg, you were to open it carefully, wash it out, and leave it to drain until I cut out the oval for one of my figures. Some years, I used the eggs as place cards, each egg would have the appropriate character inside and there was a little tag with a printed name. They were fun and some of my family members still have them from years ago.

Malinda Johnston used to write a newsletter called the Lake City Gazette which she sent out to her customers. One year, it had directions for a wreath made from quilled poinsettias, I loved it. It was probably about 8’ in diameter. I used it for years.

One year I got really ambitious and made dimensional Christmas trees (my original tree is pictured here on the blog and on the web site). I had no idea how I was going to make it, I just did. I will post the general instructions I wrote up for it. The fun part was decorating that little tree (it’s about 7” tall), I made little bells, ornaments, candles, stars, and roses. The one I made for my Mom (which she keeps out all year long) was decorated with Victorian fans, bows, candles, roses, and of course a tiny angel at the top.

Another year, I made a gingerbread house. I used the same pattern I used for my real gingerbread houses. (It was a family tradition while my kids were growing up, we would bake gingerbread houses and then all of my kids and their friends would decorate them . . . we would give them as gifts) I made the house out of card stock and then covered it with quilling. I don’t have a picture of it here on the blog but it is in the picture gallery of the web site and in Malinda Johnston’s Book of paper quilling. http://www.whimsiquills.com/servlet/the-template/photogallery/Page (If I were doing one today, I would use mat board as a base; it is much sturdier than card stock, but my first one was prior to our getting involved with framing and matting). Well I guess I’ve rattled on long enough about Christmas quilling. I will have to see if I have any pictures I can post (of course these were all done long before digital cameras). I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgivng and take the time to enjoy the holiday season.