Quilled picture for Enid

Quilled picture for Enid, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Enid recently made some new curtains for her bedroom using a very attractive fabric that is boldly printed with leaves and flowers. We decided that the pattern would be eminently 'quillable' ... so she asked me to create a complementary quilled picture for the bedroom wall.

I took a piece of left-over fabric, scanned the individual elements of the pattern and re-arranged them on the computer using Photoshop to create a layout that I could quill.

For the large flowers, I made two different types of centre: one is a slightly domed solid coil in dark green, and the other is a punched-out disc of paper covered with teardrop shapes that have been glued in position on their edges. The petals are made using vortex coils, moulded into shape, with thin 'veins' of contrasting colours glued along their inner sides.

For the blue flowers, I made large white solid coils, covered them in tiny 'squished' coil crescent shapes in blue, then edged the solid coils with two layers of on-edge blue teardrops.

The greeny yellow globe flowers were made using punched discs of paper covered in crimped strip solid coils.

The golden leaves are made up from eye shapes, with contrasting strips glued along their inner edges to create veins.

The interlinking stems are cut from solidly glued ring coils moulded around shampoo bottles and other objects that produced the required degrees of curve.

I assembled all the pieces separately, using pins on a piece of clingfilm-covered mounting board. Then the whole piece was assembled on a 12" x 10" backing sheet to fit within the recessed frame.

I'm very pleased to report that Enid loved it!!

It started with a jar of jam ...

Quilled wallhanging, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's another of the items that I displayed at the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool last month ... and, yes, it really did start with a jar of jam!

During a short break to Wales earlier in the summer, my husband and I visited the lovely tea room at Picton Castle where we indulged in a classic British afternoon snack: tea and toasted tea-cakes! The tea-cakes came with tiny individual pots of strawberry jam which I noticed were octagonal in shape. So I brought one home and used it as a mould for the black octagonal ring coil that forms the centre of this design.

I wanted to create a colourful quilled wall-hanging, so I added more rings, huskings and other quilled shapes on to the sides of the octagon, building the whole piece outwards from the middle ... and, needless to say, making it all up as I went along!

The green semi-circles inside the central octagon were created by making solidly glued ring coils around a dowel and cutting them in half. I made other whole ring coils for the piece using various sizes of dowel, and had fun filling them up with decorative huskings, 'twisted' wheatears and other quilled shapes. I assembled the whole piece on a cling-film covered board with a visible grid pattern under the film to assist in maintaining symmetry, securing the sections with the aid of pins.

The finished design is displayed in this photo hanging from a convenient metal stand which is actually intended to carry a bunch of bananas suspended alongside your fruit bowl at home!

The moral of this story is: always watch out for the everyday shapes that come into your life and think about how they could be used in quilling! I certainly treasure the little octagonal jam jar that provided the creative spark for this particular piece!

A quilled mosaic

Quilled mosaic, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's the second of my two competition entries for the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool, 10 - 11 August 2013. This time it's an abstract quilled mosaic, framed by squares containing two-tone 'beehive' swirls in black/white and grey/white. Inside the border are more composite shapes set within larger square 'ring coils' that I formed around the plastic box lid that came with my husband's iPod!

The whole design is basically 'tiles within a tile'.

You will see various solid coils and vortex coils throughout the design, plus rows of yellow half circles cut from ring coils, which I have positioned together to form a lattice.

Quilled mosaics are very much on my mind right now, as I think that square 'tile' building blocks like the ones I have used here could easily form the basis for many different quilled creations. This could definitely be the start of something ...

Quilled rainbow spiral

Quilled rainbow spiral, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I have a bit of an obsession with spirals. Well, here's my latest one, which I took to the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool, UK, on 10 - 11 August 2013.

I used a combination of ring coils, cut ring coils, solid coils and various filigree shapes to create this piece, which was constructed under cling-film over a tracing of the spiral using pins on a mounting board.

The rainbow colours were carefully inserted in sequence, complemented by the inclusion of black and white sections.

To make the spiral outline, I used conjoined strips which I had pre-conditioned to make them curl. The main challenge was 'taming' the curl of the outline strips in order to follow the spiral accurately all the way round.

I'm proud of this piece, as it expresses the deep affinity with spirals and sea-shell patterns that I seem to have within me!

I hope you like it too!

Where are you now?

Quilled floral sculpture, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's the little 'quilled miniature' that I sent over to South Bend, Indiana, for this year's North American Quilling Guild (NAQGCON) competition.

To avoid the expense and hassle of having the piece returned to me here in the UK, I donated it to the NAQGCON raffle at the end of the event, so I have no idea who won it ... I wonder where my little quilled floral sculpture is now?

My piece did not win an award, but that's fine - the quilling that received all the votes in the category is beautiful, and a very worthy winner! But, to be honest, I am DEEPLY disappointed that it has taken three whole months until the publication of Quill America magazine to find out the results of the competitions. I can hardly believe that it has taken all this time to find out how I fared!

Never mind, though - things are going to be very different at the UK-based Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool this weekend! Technology permitting, we are planning to publish 'live' news and photos from this exciting international quilling festival on the Quilling Guild Facebook Group page throughout the course of the event, so that an eager audience of quillers across the world can share in the excitement of this very special celebration.

If you're on Facebook, simply sign in via this link to see it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152384868122961/
Liverpool, here I come ... I can hardly wait!!

Daisy chain!

Punch art card with just a little quilling, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

The idea of creating a lattice of punched shapes over an aperture cut in the front of a card was shared at a craft workshop that I attended last week ... and I just had to have a go!

I cut a rectangular aperture in the front of this card, and then used a daisy-shaped punch to cut an array of flowers out of variously patterned papers. Some of the daisies are punched from the blue/white security patterns that you find printed on the inside of business envelopes; the rest are from colourful patterns that I have printed out using my extensive collection of digital images! I'm sure that any pre-printed patterned paper would work equally well.

By gluing one flower on to the the card at each corner of the aperture, and then attaching others across the open space using tiny dots of glue at the adjoining tips of their petals, I was able to create a colourful lattice effect of my own. As you can see, I also added a punched-out swirl and tiny dragonfly on the face of the card for good measure!

The centres of the flowers were made by quilling closed loose coils using inch-long (25mm) strips of 3mm wide yellow paper, which I glued on to each daisy. Somehow, the addition of these really brought the whole design to life!

I'm pleased with this card, even though there isn't much quilling in it. All the different colours seem to create a lovely summery effect, reflecting the wonderful weather we're enjoying here in the UK right now. Long may it last!!

Front page news!

Quillers Today Summer 2013 front cover, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Well, here it is ... the front cover of the Quilling Guild's magazine, Summer 2013 edition, with the spiral that I created for my Accreditation project featured on the front cover. Next to it (bottom right) is the Accreditation piece made by my colleague on the Quilling Guild committee, Janet Hunt, whose 3D flower vase creation is a truly breathtaking piece of work. And above them: a beautiful quilled rosette motif by Christine Donehue.

Janet and I will be receiving our Accreditation Certificates at the Quilling Guild's forthcoming 30th anniversary celebration of quilling in Liverpool next month, where our work will also be on display ... I'm so looking forward to the event!

If that weren't exciting enough, I have now been officially appointed Editor of Quillers Today magazine with effect from the Autumn 2013 edition. I can't wait to get started on creating this special issue which will report fully on all the wonderful displays, competition entries, workshops and shared ideas that will make the Liverpool event so special.

I'm also planning to post 'live' news updates from Liverpool on the Quilling Guild's Facebook Group page throughout the weekend, which I'm hoping will be an exciting new development for the online quilling world.

To find out more about the Quilling Guild, our magazine, our exclusive members' blog and the Liverpool festival, please visit the Guild's website at: www.quilling-guild.co.uk - and hold on to your hats! This is going to be an UNFORGETTABLE Summer of quilling!!