Paper Quilling Patterns by Denise

Quilling, also known as paper filigree, is the art of rolling, bending and pinching paper; then making designs out of the shapes. You start quilling by making basic shapes out of thin strips of paper and then taking those shapes and making pictures and designs out of them. These quilled designs can be used in card-making, scrapbooking or other decorative crafts.

Quilling Resources:

• Basic Quilling Shapes
• Quilling Pattern 1: Flower with Stem and Leaves
• Quilling Pattern 2: Curly Flower
• Quilling Pattern 3: Six Petal Flower
• Quilling Pattern 4: Five Petal Flower
• Quilling Pattern 5: Candy Corn
• Quilling Pattern 6: Balloon
• Quilling Pattern 7: Campfire
• Quilling Pattern 8: Duck
• Quilling Pattern 9: Flower Pots
• Quilling Pattern 10: Whimsical Heart
• Quilling Pattern 11: Christmas Holly
• Quilling Pattern 12: Christmas Poinsettia
• Quilling Pattern 13: Pumpkin on Vine
• Quilling Pattern 14: Spider
• Quilling Pattern 15: Sun
• Quilling Pattern 16: Watermelon Slice
• Quilling Pattern 17: Bumble Bee
• Quilling Pattern 18: Christmas Tree
• Quilling Pattern 19: Butterfly
• Quilling Pattern 20: Baby Bottle
• Quilling Pattern 21: Baby Diaper
• Quilling Pattern 22: Candle
• Quilling Pattern 23: Pea Pod
• Quilling Pattern 24: Ice Cream Cone

• Quilling goes back as far as the 13th or 14th centuries but it became popular in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In Europe, however, it was known as paper filigree. The term 'quilling' was adopted when paper filigree work spread to the American colonies.

• Jane Austen mentions quilling in 'Sense and Sensibility' - specifically a filigree basket.

• Quiling and paper arts are crafts that ladies of leisure enjoyed and were taught to do at boarding schools.

• Monks and nuns decorated religious artifacts with paper filigree. The quilling was cheaper than using gold or silver foil, so poorer churches used it to decorate.