Quilling Took This D To An A+

Some years ago I got on board the “big letter” movement and bought a capital D, since our family name is Dunn. It was black with a little gold distressing showing through here and there, and it looked nice on one of the narrow walls of the cased opening between our living room and hall.

After we took everything down to repaint, I wasn’t sure which things I really wanted to put back up and the D didn’t make the cut. Actually, several things didn’t. I enjoyed the simplicity of “less” for a couple years, but since I didn’t have a lot of stuff in the first place, I recently started getting the feeling that the rooms might be looking kind of impersonal. 

I’m not super big on changes. When I like something, I like it. In fact, when we repainted, it was just to freshen up - I used the same color. 

I recently quilled a cute little card to go with a baby gift and it rekindled my love for that twirling paper art form. I thought about maybe doing some kind of quilling thing for the house. If you’ve read my post on quilling projects that we did at my church, you’ll know that it’s not just for cute little cards.

I still like the big letter thing and considered quilling one but then the idea hit me to just add quilling to the one I already have. 

I love working with a theme so I decided to go full-out personal and make it Irish. Dunn is an Irish name, afterall, and both my husband and I have Irish heritage.

I wanted to keep the base color so I gave it a fresh coat of black. And with my theme selection, shades of green would be the color choice for the papers. For shapes, I mixed Celtic symbols in with free-form swirls and twirls - there’s a Celtic cross, shamrocks, four leaf clovers, some lines that suggest a rainbow, a little pot of gold, some musical notes, and even a harp - plus hearts, a flower, and lots of curlies. I’m completely happy with it and it’s back up on the wall.

Okay, now for that space where before the repaint I had a framed puzzle that my mother-in-law had made us years ago. It was of a country cottage and reminded me of one you might find in Ireland. Apropos, since she was an Irish lady. She was a puzzle maker and I loved having that part of her represented in our home.

But truth be told, it wasn’t my favorite print so it got set aside with the D during that paint job. But, another thing I have of hers is a blanket throw with a famous Irish blessing woven in. You know the one - “May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, may the rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

I don’t know if she brought it back from a trip to Ireland or if she ordered it from a catalog, and I never thought to ask her, but it doesn’t matter. It kept us warm and snuggly for several years, along with some crocheted throws from other women in our family. 

I decided that a transformation was in order. I thought it would be great to make into a Celtic knot. So I looked at different images and found one that is four intertwined hearts - perfect for our family of four. After considerable planning, aided by my mother who also happens to be an Irish lady, I cut the throw. Since there would be bending involved, I needed it to stretch a bit so we cut it on the diagonal in the manner that bias binding can be cut from one rectangle of fabric into a long piece. (Tricky, but pretty cool.)

Then I sewed the long seam and stuffed it with foam pipe insulation. I tried pool noodles at first but they were too big. The pipe insulation is basically the same thing but a little smaller diameter. 

Two admissions: It was quite the challenge to twist the foam-stuffed snake of fabric into the knot and make it stay. Almost defeating. I’m tempted to add a “Don’t try this at home” disclaimer.

But I finally got it, and I love it. Sort of. The second admission is that it needs something behind it that I can anchor the curves to, like a frame with some kind of background? I haven’t figured that out yet. If you have any suggestions, I’m listening.

When I work out this conundrum, I’ll post an update on my Instagram page.

Slán go fóill (Goodbye for now)