Retro Crafting Friday: Quilled Flowers & a Great Story from Joanna Campbell Slan

As it is March 1, I’m thinking ahead to spring, despite the snow outside. These are cute quilled flower photos from the Betty Christy and Doris Tracy Quilling: Paper Art for Everyone, 1974. One of my teens at work has been making beautiful cards for a local senior center and came up with a flower design sort of like the one on the right. the directions in the caption are: “the center is made of 1 1/2 inch strips rolled into tight coils. The petals are composed of 1 3/4 inch strips and 1 1/2 inch strips folded in half in groups of four or five, cut almost to the fold. The leaves are 17 and 9-inch strips rolled into loose coils and pinched.”

Making cards for other people reminds me of a great short story I just read by mystery writer friend Joanna Campbell Slan. She also writes as Lila Dare, and has a new book Wave Good-bye, in that Southern Beauty Shop series coming out on Tuesday.  Joanna is an amazing scrapbook artist in addition to a dynamite author, and I first got to know her through her Kiki Lowenstein series, which features scrapbooking. She writes a third series with Jane Eyre as the detective, and I loved the first one – Death of a Schoolgirl.

Joanna wrote me about her story “Kiki Lowenstein and the Soldier’s Gift,” featuring people working on cards for soldiers. I had written her a while back about the teens at the library doing something similar and I love how that idea was incorporated in this excellent, moving story. It is in her new anthology for Kindle. I teared up over the story! If you are interested in making cards for others, contact the nearest VA hospital or local senior centers. Enjoy your weekend!