Back to normal ... at last!!

Well, it's taken a while - but I think I've finally caught up with myself at last!  I've finished the competition entries that I'll be taking to the Quilling Guild's annual display in two weeks' time; I've replenished my stock of quilled items for the market; I've made real progress with the features I'm currently writing for the Quillers Today and Quill America Guild members' magazines ... and I've had a blissfully quiet couple of days to myself, in which I've been able to start working on some new card ideas once again.

I needed a new anniversary card design. Some of you may recognise the two daisies in the background picture which I've used before in the form of a photograph - but, this time, I've processed the image using some of my favourite Photoshop filters to produce an effect which looks as though it has been painted. OK, it's a bit of digital trickery - but I think it's a very exciting one!

I created the butterfly in the old Victorian way, using open ring coils that I made by winding strips around different sized dowels and then gently pinching them into shape. I filled the wings with short lengths of strip which have been 'twisted' at intervals using a slotted tool - a technique which many quillers are now calling 'beehive'. The end result reminds me very much of the network of veins that can be seen when you look closely at a real butterfly's wings.

Without giving too much away, the purple 'beehive' sections were pieces I had left over from one of my Quilling Guild competition entries, made using 3mm purple strips which are edged with copper - one of my favourite colour combinations.

Now that the competition date is almost upon us (15th September ... not long to go now!), it will only be a few more weeks before I can reveal all the special projects that I've been working on this year - some dating all the way back to the middle of last winter. Some of these pieces have already travelled to North America and back for this year's NAQGCON event - and soon they'll be posted here on Quilliance for everyone to see. I'm so looking forward to sharing them with you.