I think I quill

I have wanted to learn how to quill for many, many years now. Probably about 30 years.

Had I known it was so simple, I would have attempted it when I was 12, instead of waiting for 42. Sheesh! I remember seeing quilled designs in different craft magazines through the 70s, 80s, and even the 90s. Recently, I saw it again on the cover of a paper-crafting mag. The final straw was when my friend Colleen posted pics of four beautiful snowflakes she'd made the night before.

She inspired me! I had been thinking about a new craft to start, something to kind of cleanse my crafting palette before I got back to writing and making Christmas presents. But because I'd already planned on making sets of hand-made ornaments as gifts this year, quilled snowflakes seemed like a good idea.

So I did a bit of research. I'd thought that you needed to have special equipment, special paper, and a major expense to get started in quilling, none of which I had access to at the moment.

Instead, I found out that you can get started with regular paper or cardstock, toothpicks, and a bit of glue. Having a cork board or some sort of flat surface on which to pin things helps a lot, but isn't strictly necessary.

After perusing various sites for instructions and shops for equipment, I assembled my supplies.
* toothpicks
* straight pins
* paper
* a block from a kid's play-mat, originally bought for blocking crocheted and knitted items
* glue
* scissors
* paper cutter
* knitting needle sizing gauge
* printout of a circular grid/template

That's it. The paper cutter is optional, but recommended for neat, even strips of paper. For that matter, I'd love to have an actual quilling tool, but for now, the toothpicks and pins work. I used calligraphy parchment to begin with, but have also now used cardstock, sketch paper, and construction paper.

I'm betting you're wondering about the knitting needle sizer, aren't you? :) Well, a good way to make sure that all your loose coils are the same size is to use some sort of template, which I'll explain in a bit. But the needle sizer was something I had on hand and I was too lazy to go down to the garage and make a template board, though that's next on the list. Possibly happening tomorrow. I'll post pics.

The printout is not necessary, but is extremely helpful if you're making snowflakes or anything else circular:
circular template

Here's what I came up with to start my quilling adventure:

This has my first efforts at a snowflake, as well. I used 1/4" strips of parchment and a toothpick that I'd cut one end off of and cut a slit in that end, so I could slide the paper into it for curling. The little piece of graph paper at the top is just what I used for glue drops, the additional toothpick up in that corner for applying the glue. Hey, it's not a fancy store-bought kit, but it worked to let me know if this is something I WANT to invest a bit of cash in for 'proper' equipment. The jury's still out on that, since I do have a working solution, but we'll see. :) Depends on whether I get craft store gift cards for Christmas or not. :D

After I made the first snowflake, I realized that it was really hard to discern the heart shapes, since I was using the toothpick, which has a larger diameter. So I tried with the sketch paper a few days later, and a straight pin for curling. Yes, it's an effort in frustration. Yes, I cussed, a lot, when I was learning how to get that itty bitty paper to curl around the itty bitty pin. But it was worth it!

Here's the difference:

The one on the left was with a toothpick, the one on the right with a pin.

Note that the teardrop coils are the same size.

It's a different pattern, but if you open the picture and take a closer look, you can tell that the shapes in the center of the white one are hearts, but it's much harder to tell where the heart shapes are in the one made of parchment. This is not a difference in paper, but in the tool used to roll it.


About those coils and the knitting gauge... if you want all of your loose coils and tear-drops, among other shapes, to be the same size, a template of some sort is helpful. I used the knitting needle gauge, specifically the hole for a size 15 needle, for mine. It's the largest hole on that particular gauge, which is why I want to make another template with larger holes. But for now, it works.

Once you've made your coil, let it relax a bit in the template. It will unroll some, but not a whole lot, if you're using a small-diameter roller. I use the pin to gently 'swirl' the coil until it's loose enough to fill the edge of the hole, but still has coiling in the middle. Harder to explain than to try. Once it's unrolled enough, I keep the pin where the outer edge of the paper meets the rest of the coil. Dot some glue there, then I pin it at that spot, using the pin to hold it in the proper shape and size. I roll another coil while that's taking a few seconds to dry, then repeat as necessary.

The template is also useful for tight coils, since I'm using the knitting needle gauge. I have found that 1" strips rolled on a pin will fit very nicely for drying inside the 2 3/4 hole, depending of course on the paper you're using and the tightness of your roll. Basically, once I make a regular template (with at least 6 holes in each size coil, so I can do snowflakes like these), I might just keep the smaller one on hand for those tight coils. :) 


A closer look at the white snowflake:

This isn't perfect, but I think it's a vast improvement over the first one. I was even able to put a 'hanger' on the top of it. :)

I did use 1/8" paper on the white one, which adds to the delicacy of the filigree. It's harder to work with, but again, worth it for the final product. 

Here's the white one, pinned and drying.

I've learned a few things about pinning, by the way:
* pin the part of the piece that won't move, first. For instance, the points on the snowflake were accomplished by pinning the point (the V), where I wanted it, then gently using a pin to pull the coiled ends until they touched the top of the teardrops. Then I glued, once I had those in place, using a straight pin to apply the glue.
* Be very careful with the uncoiling part of the hearts! If you let them get too big, they lose their delicate look.
* Thinking I should do a short tutorial on how to pin the various shapes... Hmmm. Thoughts on that? 

Finally, I taught a good friend to quill, just the basics, since that's all I know, we came up with a little design, just playing around. Mike's Hard Lemonade was involved, or this would be finished. :)

This one was done with card stock and pins as rollers.Well, pins for the tight coils and hearts, but toothpicks for the stalk of the flower. :)

So there you have it. My first adventures into quilling. Now that I have a bit of a clue what I'm doing, I'm going to be spending FAR too much time on Pinterest, gathering ideas for ornaments to make for Christmas this year. Fortunately, I have three brothers and a sister-in-law, all three of which have their own trees that need some Doni-lovin' hand-made goodness. Whether they want it or not! :D

To see all kinds of beautiful quilled designs, if you have Pinterest, go type in 'quilling' and see what pops up. If you don't have Pinterest... WTF? Why not??? good grief, but it's wonderful!!!! Totally addictive and time-sucking, but completely worth it! :)

Anyhow, if you don't have Pinterest, use the search engine of your choice and see just how many wonderful, gorgeous, and whimsical designs can be done for literally pennies.

Until next time, happy crafting!