Quilling a cross stitch pattern

I'm finally getting organised again after my holiday. The laundry is done, the housework is 'in progress' ... and I've re-stocked my box of quilled cards for the market which was getting seriously depleted before I went away. So, finally, I'm able to get down to some new quilling projects - one of which is something that I've never tried before.

I recently picked up a lovely book containing cross stitch patterns. Now, I have absolutely no affinity with needles and threads whatsoever, but it did occur to me that some of the patterns in the book could easily be translated into some interesting quilling.

Cross stitch patterns are presented as squares of colour on a graph paper grid. So what I've done is scanned a sheet of this squared paper, imported it into my computer and then printed a section of it on to the front of a card. I did not want the grid to appear too prominent, so I used my graphics software to pull it into an oval shape with softly 'feathered' edges, printing it at low opacity so that it does not appear too dark. I think the end result actually makes quite an attractive background for some brightly coloured coils.

Anyway, I've only got part way with this flower pattern so far, but at least you can see where it's going! I've been working with tiny open coils made from 2cm lengths of 1.5mm quilling strips, placing each coil on to a little drop of glue inside each square on the grid. It's just a question of following the pattern to see which squares have to be filled and which colours to use.

My flower is taking shape, as you can see here, and I'll post a picture of the end result as soon as I have finished. There are loads of wonderful cross stitch patterns available, so I think this method of quilling could have some interesting potential. Watch this space ...