A long-distance flyer

Well, here she is at last: my quilled woodpecker! I had intended to post this yesterday, but found my whole day taken up with putting details of last weekend's amazing Quilling Guild display of work on the Guild's Facebook group page - the interest in this event has been phenomenal! Quillers from all over the world have been avid to see pictures of the quilling work on show and the competition winners ... and from the response I've already received, the pictures I posted did not disappoint! I'll be putting more pictures up on Facebook every day this week.

Anyway, to return to the woodpecker ... believe me, this is a well-travelled bird! I originally quilled her for entry into to North American Quilling Guild's 'Framed Quilling' competition at NAQGCON 2012, so she has already flown across the Atlantic and back! And while she was there, she managed to achieve a fleeting appearance on American TV!

Then, last weekend, I took her to Lutterworth where she proudly stood amongst other quillings on the Master's category table in the 2012 Quilling Guild competitions.

Sadly, she failed to achieve sufficient votes from members to gain winning status at either Guild event - but I am very proud of her, nonetheless.

She is actually a Green Woodpecker - a brightly coloured species of bird which is commonly found in English woodlands. Her plumage is mainly fashioned out of tiny vortex coils, which I made using a combination of shades to try and echo the subtle variations that occur in the natural colouration of the feathers. I have found that vortex coils are ideal for filling in large areas - perhaps even better than teardrop and marquise shapes, because they can be manipulated to fit the most awkward of spaces!

I made the tree trunk using self-supporting 'beehive' quilling (i.e. not contained within a shape) whose coils were glued together at countless different 'anchor points'. I used 1.5mm strips for the trunk to give the appearance of depth to the picture, since the rest of the bird was made from 3mm strips.

She may not have been considered a 'winner' in Guild members' eyes, but my woodpecker is actually about to hit the big time in the UK as a guest of our Women's Institute (WI) organisation! I'm very proud to say that Hampshire Federation WI is going to feature her on the front cover of their October magazine, with a little story about my quilling exploits on the inside. The ladies at my local WI are all VERY excited about this, so the woodpecker will soon be making one more outing to attend our next group meeting ... after which she will hopefully enjoy a well-earned rest on my dining room wall.