Good news at last ... and a collage picture to be framed

I've spent the past week anxiously awaiting news of the parcel containing my NAQGCON competition entries that I sent to the USA. This anxiety has not been helped by the fact that our UK Royal Mail service is STILL listing the package as being "prepared for shipment". What a farce! Using the excellent United States Postal Service (USPS) tracking facility, however, I have been able to chart the parcel's progress over the past few days from New York to Long Island and then south-westwards to Lancaster in Pennsylvania ... and, after making a quick call to the NAQGCON organiser last evening, I now know that it's finally arrived at its destination in good shape. What a relief ... thank you, USPS!

Meanwhile, I made an interesting new contact this week on a visit to a local art gallery. Gallery Fiftyfive in Hartley Wintney describes itself as "a new lifestyle concept store which houses a constantly changing collection of exceptional arts and crafts, alongside gifts that are hip, unique and hard to find."  The gallery has been staging a series of workshops for customers interested in trying their hands at different crafts, so I went along to enquire whether the owner would be interested in a quilling workshop. She said yes! So I have been booked to do my beginners' quilling workshop on 30th June, which I am delighted about. (I'll publish more details just as soon as I know exactly what the charge for participants is going to be.) And the gallery owner also expressed an interest in some of my more elaborate quilled pin brooches and earrings, suggesting that I might like to try offering some of them for sale in the gallery. So my focus is going to be firmly on jewellery for the next few weeks!

Before that, however, I had a small project on my mind that I just HAD to get out of my head! I really like the effect of mounting quilling on metallic paper backgrounds, and I also wanted to experiment with outlining some quilled shapes with a few layers of gilt-edged strips. The resulting design is a bit of an abstract collage - but I really am quite pleased with it. The deep purple background triangle is made from a thin, gauze-like paper fabric which I have embossed for added texture. This is then topped by two raised cut-out squares made from triple layers of cardstock which I covered with gold pearlised gift wrap paper. The squares form the backdrop for some quilling which incorporates two different types of gilt-edged strips (black/gold edged and pearlised gold/gold edged from JJ Quilling Design. I've mounted the whole thing on some blue textured paper. Now all I need to do is get it framed. I'm wondering whether the gallery might be interested in this piece too? Watch this space!