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“Thanks for sharing your ideas. The rose pattern came just in time as I’m working on a wedding invitation and was looking for a fill in. I used a strip of variation paper (shaded from red to white and back to red) and it came out beautifully.” 

 

 

Rick took the pattern I provided and changed it by using the variegated paper (Fig 1).  I think that it softened the rose and made it a better fit for her overall design.  She used the rose pattern again in her floral spray at the bottom of her piece (Fig 2), but changed the center teardrop of the rose to a marquise and omitted the rose leaves.  

 

You don’t need to copy a pattern exactly – use it as a jumping off point to quill the piece that you see in your own mind.  Change the colors, change the shapes, change the background … there are so many ways to change a pattern to make it your “own.”  You may think that you are not creative enough to come up with original patterns, but I’m willing to bet you can.  Creating an original pattern is as much a skill as anything and skills can be learned.  Start by making changes to an existing pattern.  Then make a few changes to the changes.  Pretty soon, you will see your own quilling style, your own creative voice, emerge.