theartofquilling.com

I was down in the basement going through some old boxes looking for something totally unrelated to crafts when much to my surprise I discovered not one, but two boxes packed with quilling paper!  The paper dates back to the 1980s and is still in perfect condition.  In fact, there are some beautiful shades of greens, blues, pinks, and yellows, that are different from the current papers I have purchased.

In addition to the papers, there were several commercial kits, my original masonite quilling board, and a Hazel Pearson Quill Quicky (which is like Quilled Creations’ curling coach only the quilling tool is built in) and Quill Designer (which is a design board with various size circles used to make uniform sized quills).  I remember a few years ago seeing the Quill Quicky/Quill Designer on Ebay and watching the price of it go up…and up…and up.  I think someone finally paid around $65 for it.  I bought mine in the 1970s for $3.69.  I was so tickled to find it since I thought it had gotten tossed a long time ago.  I told my husband about the Ebay story and he asked me if I was going to sell it, but of course I told him no.

 

I also found several original patterns I designed all those years ago — with the instructions typed on an actual typewriter no less.  I had created strawberries, lemons, a sea shell, and a sea horse.  Goodness, it brought back the memories.  They still look pretty good, though, so you will probably see a few of them on the blog or in the newsletter in the near future, so keep an eye out for them.

In March, 2009, my youngest daughter married a charming Scotsman.  Unfortunately, only his parents and a few friends were able to come to the United States for the wedding, so this year, Jen and John took a vacation to Scotland so she could meet the rest of his family and tour the wonderful sites of his homeland.

 

While there they visited Edinburgh Castle, which served as a prisoner of war camp during the Napoleonic Wars.  John, who is quite a history buff, believes that the Frenchman who created this intricate quill work was most likely a sailor in Napoleon’s navy.