Quilling Patterns and Inspiration

Where can I find a pattern for ... ? This is a question that is often asked by new and not-so-new quillers. If you are up for a bit of a challenge, I can tell you that the answer is anywhere. The beauty of quilling is that it can be arranged to look like anything you can imagine, whether it be a Blue Jay, a Hot Air Balloon, a purse, or a birdhouse.

How is that possible? Through the magic of fill-in work. When you create a fill-in, you can take a greeting card, picture, clipart, coloring book page, drawing, painting, symbol, magazine or anything that you love and you can re-create it with your quilling. It is easiest to work with a printed copy of what you want to create.

The tools that you need are:

• Printed picture (clipart, coloring book page, magazine picture, greeting card, post card, etc)
  
• wax paper, page protector, clear non-stick acrylic or film
  
• quilling paper

Optional:

• Cork board, cardboard - something to keep your image flat
• Pins to keep everything in place and not moving around

I start with my cork board or cardboard, lay my printed picture on top, place the wax paper on top. Note: If I am using a pae protector, I will place the printed picture inside and place that over the corkboard. I then use my pins to anchor everything to the corkboard. Try to keep them away from where you will be working so that they do not get in the way.

Although fill-in work can be very time consuming and looks very difficult it is easier than you think. You can make most fill-in work with the basic coil and scroll shapes that you already know. Most fill-ins are made with the marquis, teardrop, and loose coil shapes and the S-Scroll is also used alot. Look at what you are trying to make and decide which shape will work best.

Now you should start quilling your pieces. Most fill-in work uses 3" (7.6 cm) or 4" ( 10.1 cm) strips. Pick the colors that you want to use. If your original was a color photograph, you can use that to select your colors or make this truly your own by picking different colors. Quill your shapes, as many as you think you need and then start arranging them.

Not everyone does this step. I like to dry fit my pieces. By this I mean that I arrange the pieces over the picture without gluing them down. I do this to get an idea of if I like the colors and like the way it looks. One thing, make sure you have extra quilled pieces because when you glue them down, they will be tighter than your dry fit so you will need more pieces. Remember, I do this to get an idea of what the finished piece will look like.

Finally, you glue everything together the same way you do your other quilling. To keep glue as your friend, try to use as little as possible. The real magic and beauty of this is that after everything dries, you can lift the quilled piece off of your page proector or wax paper. If anything sticks, gently use your needle tool to pull it away.

Check out my Hot Air Balloon project using the fill-in technique with clipart.

Copyright Antonella DeFalco