A summertime scene for the darkest days of winter

Summertime garden scene, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Well, the shortest day of the year is nearly upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere - so I thought it was high time I posted this 'sunshine' card design to remind us all of the warmth of summer!

I made this card for the North American Quilling Guild competition in 2012, in which the theme was 'A backyard garden scene'. I decided to use an oval aperture card as a frame for my quilled picture, which is set on a solid background of vortex coils that form the sky and grass. I love working with square vortex shapes - they are so much more amenable than circular coils for filling up awkward spaces!

The sun is made from a crimped coil, and I have used the beehive technique for most of the foliage and flowers. I also couldn't resist adding a few 'twisted wheatear' shapes for some of the larger leaves. The fence panels are cut from plain gold quilling strips.

The result? An unusual image which was probably way too quirky to gain many votes in the competition. But I'm pleased with it, and I'm sharing it today as an antidote to the gloom of the winter solstice!

Quilling with the elderly

Christmas quilling project in an elderly care home, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

I'm so proud of the quilling done recently by my enthusiastic 'students' who live in an elderly care home! All aged in their 80s and 90s, and all suffering from varying degrees of dementia (plus some physical disabilities), they nevertheless managed to produce some lovely quilled snowflakes, baubles and stars to decorate these Christmas trees!

I love working with the elderly ... and they all absolutely love quilling! Because they find it rather difficult to manipulate coils, I generally take a lot of pre-rolled coils with me, in varying colours, so that all they have to do is press the coils into different shapes. Then I can help them with assembling things like snowflakes, and with gluing their quilled shapes down onto a background. Many of them have very clear ideas about where they want their quilled pieces to go ... and I think that, after this particular workshop, we ended up with some lovely Christmas designs!

Now we're already thinking ahead towards quilling some Easter chickens!!

Still here!

Quilled 'sport theme' card, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Quilling workshops ... Christmas markets ... gearing up for the launch of the Quilling Guild's new members' blog ... well, those are just a few of my excuses for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks.

I have been quilling - honestly! - but it's been work on another of those 'secret projects' that I'm going to have to keep under wraps for a little while yet.

So, because it really is high time I broke the silence, I'm going to share with you a card that I entered into the Guild's recent competitions for 2012. The theme for the Greetings Card Category this year was 'Sport', so I decided to adopt an Olympic theme with a row of medals (gold, silver and bronze), alongside the Olympic flame and a winner's laurel wreath.

As you can see, I used a cut and folded tent card for this design, and created the ribbons for the medals using two-tone 'beehive' twists and a coloured paper background. The medals themselves were made using crimped, solid-coil strips edged with shiny metallics.

More from Quilliance soon - I promise!

Tagged!

This past week, it has been my privilege and pleasure to be involved in setting up a brand new website for the Quilling Guild. If you click here, you can see it in all its glory! The site has been restructured, comprehensively updated (with plenty more to come ...) and given a completely new look - and I'm pleased to say that it has received quite a few favourable comments already! This has all been part of a major initiative to reach out to the quilling community worldwide, leading up to our special 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling that will be held in Liverpool, UK, in August 2013 (click the 'Liverpool 2013' link on the site to find out more!)

But I'm not finished yet ... next week will see the launch of a brand new Blog exclusively for members of the Guild, which will be regularly updated with quilling-related news, exciting features and 'how-to' articles - and guess who will be writing it? That's right, me!! I can't wait to get started ... but, in the meantime, there's no escaping the fact that Christmas is coming and I really need to boost my stock of quilled items for the Friday market here in our village. So it was great to be able to sit down this afternoon and assemble a few sets of assorted gift tags with quilled motifs that I hope to be selling from tomorrow onwards.

Here they are:

Much as I love all my internet activities, it's also a real pleasure to settle back into some quilling and 'making' which, after all, are what it's really all about for all of us.

Right now, I guess you could say that I'm enjoying the best of both worlds!

Inspired!

A couple of years ago, I was inspired to create some quilled designs in the style of the 19th century English artist William Morris. You can find the posts about them here, here and here!!

Well, I was prompted to return to his wonderful works this month by the subject of another Homyachok Challenge: Quilling Task No. 11 - Paintings and Ornaments.

This particular challenge requires quillers to produce a creation which has been inspired by a particular art style, so of course I immediately thought of William's influence on the 19th Century 'Arts and Crafts' movement and set to work!

My quilling was inspired by the William Morris design 'Snakeshead' which takes its pattern from the rare and delicate 'snakeshead fritillary' flower that graces secluded English meadows in Spring.  The colours are different, even the pattern is different, but somehow the feel of the bold teardrop shapes and delicate leaf branches is the same.

I wrapped each of my teardrop shapes with gold-edged, pearlised gold strips to give them extra definition, and made the branches from narrower 1.5mm strips for added depth.

Here, for reference, is the original William Morris 'Snakeshead' design:

And here's another photo of my quilling, which now forms the front of a very special greetings card:

It's my pleasure to enter this work into the Homyachok Challenge.  Wish me luck!!

Get set to celebrate!

Another week of silence from Quilliance ... what's going on?  Well, plenty as it happens! As many of you may already know, I have recently been elected to serve on the Committee of the Quilling Guild here in the UK, and right now we are busy organising what promises to be the biggest event on the international quilling calendar in recent times: the Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling which is to be held at Liverpool University (in the north-west of England, UK) on 10th - 11th August 2013.

There will be competitions, workshops, 'make and take' sessions, trade stands selling all manner of supplies ... and displays of quilling to take your breath away. The event will provide a wonderful opportunity to meet and socialise with fellow quillers (many of whom may already be known to you as friends via the internet). It will be the perfect environment in which to share ideas, gain inspiration and learn from some of the world's best-known quilling authors and tutors. Best of all, it will be spread over two whole days, providing a feast for the senses in every way!

Liverpool is easily accessible by road, rail and air, with easy connections to the international airport hub at Manchester. It's a vibrant city, rich in culture and heritage, with attractions ranging from art galleries, museums and historic buildings to the famous Mersey Ferry and the history of The Beatles.

The event will be open to the public on the afternoon of Saturday 10th August (13.30 - 17.00), and from 10.00 - 16.00 on Sunday 11th August 2013 ... but Members of the Guild will be able to benefit from much, much more!

For the ultimate quilling experience, Quilling Guild Members can book accommodation in the University on the Friday and Saturday nights, taking full advantage of an amazing low-cost package deal which includes breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments and a special Anniversary Dinner on Saturday evening - plus, of course, unrestricted access to the quilling displays and workshops throughout the weekend. The Guild is also hoping to organise a visit on Friday afternoon to the nearby Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight where the most exquisite examples of 18th Century quilled tea caddies and a famous cabinet are on display.

What better reasons could there be for becoming a Member of the Quilling Guild?

Well, I suppose I could mention our seasonal full-colour quilling magazine, new exclusive members' blog (coming soon!), extensive network of local contacts and internationally respected accreditation scheme ... but that's another blog post altogether!

If you're not already a Member of the Quilling Guild, you can easily join us right now by downloading a membership application form here.

We look forward to seeing you in Liverpool 2013!

With grateful thanks to a little hamster ...

My last post featured the quilled bird of paradise which I entered into the Homyachok ("little hamster") Challenge - an excellent Russian craft and digital scrap challenge blog site whose creators judge the projects submitted to them on merit, rather than picking winners solely through a random number generator. The commonly-used random number approach has often put me off entering challenges, because I feel that the effort and skill put in to creating an entry go entirely unrecognised. But the 'little hamster' has restored my faith, by introducing three properly judged nomination categories for every challenge, complemented by the additional bonus of a lucky-number draw for a consolation prize.

The Homyachok Challenge blog is written in Russian, but there is a translation facility on the site. Unfortunately for me, however, I still couldn't understand the definition of the competition categories which are idiomatic and therefore difficult to translate into English - until my friend and fellow blogger White Racoon kindly took the trouble to explain!

She described the three nomination categories for the Homyachok Challenge as follows:
The first one - the 'Romantic' category - is self-explanatory. The second one - an idiomatic term made up from the two Russian words for 'hamster' and 'outstanding' literally means "the best of the best" - a category in which the winning nomination is awarded to the project that most impresses the Homyachok team. Finally, there is a category whose title translates as "Salvador Dali didn't even dream of that!", in which the winning project will be something very different, unusual or alternative. Thank you, White Racoon!

Well, I posted a link to my bird of paradise on the Homyachok Challenge site just a few days before going away for a short break, during which I pretty much forgot all about it. You can imagine my surprise and delight, therefore, to discover when I got home that my bird had actually received the winning nomination in the "best of the best" category. What an honour, especially as the standard of all the other entries was so high!

With a little additional translation help from White Racoon, I managed to identify the correct Homyachok Challenge winner's banner to place here on my blog (you can see it above this post in the panel on the right hand side) ... and I really hope this will help encourage many of my fellow quillers, crafters and digital artists to head right on over to the little hamster's site and check it out.  There are several imaginative new challenges posted there every month, with something to interest everyone. Standards are high, and the rules of entry are strict ... but I can honestly say that the honour of winning a nomination is all the more rewarding as a result.