FULL REPORT: The Thrilling Quilling Get Together v1.0

Years before I started this blog, I hardly knew any paper crafter, and always wished that I could at least find someone who'd be able to share my paper-craze. Yup, it's kind of difficult to explain to people the needs of buying more paper and glue and scissors and ribbons, even though I have piles of them at home. I then started googling online for Malaysian craft communities, and found this one little forum called Lovescrap. It was my first online craft forum, and I was beyond excited to be able to make friends with fellow crafters. Then I decided to start a blog, simply to share what I love to do - crafting (and lengthy writing hehe).

Two and a half years later, Malaysian online craft community has really expanded quite well. You can find plenty of blogs and online shops selling hand-made crafts, and being able to get to know people of the same passion was great. However, to be able to meet other Malaysian quillers and slowly spread the love for quilling was even a greater feeling. It's exciting to see more Malaysian craft blogs are dedicated to quilling, and that craft stores in Malaysia have started to pile up quilling materials (albeit rather limited). So, when we decided to hold a little get-together dedicated to quilling, everybody was pretty excited. It was a pretty short notice (2 weeks), but we managed to gather almost 15 names (but later trimmed down to 11 due to various reasons).



Since we were worried about the unpredictability of Malaysian weather, we decided to hold the event indoor instead and went to a fast food joint. We picked the farthest spot, but comfy enough to accommodate 11 of us. We bought few drinks at the counter (some brought own food - sandwiches, wedges, muffins etc), and started dumping all the materials on the table. I was half worried that the fast-food manager/ staff would come running towards us, and shooed us away hehe. Surprisingly, they didn't (except from few exchanging glances as they were curious to see what we were doing) so overall it was great not to have any interruption.

We basically started our session at around 10.30 am and ended it almost 4.5 hours later! (I wish we could go on longer, but perhaps next time). It was such a joy to see hundreds of colourful paper strips lying on the table. Some brought cards but Saza needed to be given proper acknowledgement for being THE MOST prepared one - she brought a box of already folded cards with different colours together with some drool-worthy ribbons! We began the session by drooling over each other's craft tool (heh!), then I shared the alternate loop technique with everyone (hence, all the butterflies in the cards!). To think about it, it was the only technique that I managed to share, since we ended up exploring on our own!



I was really having a blast with everyone. There is nothing better (at least to me) than being with people who understand my addiction in crafting, the excitement to talk about them the whole day, getting excited over little things like gluing papers on cards and spotting beautiful ribbons. Meeting them was like meeting your long-lost buddies, since we clicked almost instantly. We were crazy about the same things, and where else would I find people who chose strips of paper over food and drinks?!. We didn't even bother about peeking eyes, or stretched necks from other tables - glancing at a bunch of giggling girls with thousands of colourful little paper strips on the tables.We laughed at each others' jokes, getting excited when someone used gorgeous colour combinations, getting thrilled when someone discovered new designs and techniques and feeling satisfied looking at those simple little cards that we made, spread on the table.

(The children were so excited and asked lots of questions about our cards!)

I learned a lot from them. Whether they're the first timers, or seasoned quillers, there's always something fresh and new that I learned, and getting inspired by. I was inspired by Lin's detailing when she quill and Asma's neatness. I absolutely loved the gorgeous colour combinations by Nirwana, Nisa and Fid. I was a bit jealous to see how fast Tania made her cards (she made 3 beautiful ones!), and the way Molly quill her flowers. Everybody loves Saza's romantic heart card and I particularly thought Lin's (there were 2 Lins) purple card matches her beautiful outfit (I love your scarf hehe). And Ayin's first bookmark? It was soooo cute and tells little cute story (love the navy ship so much!).

I guess it's true what people say - time went very fast when you're doing something you love. It felt like I didn't really want to leave, and there are so many other things that we could share and discuss. Nevertheless, we ended our get-together with a promise of doing another, with better preparation time, and at a better place. I left KLCC with a pretty huge grin on my face, and only realised that I was REALLY HUNGRY when my stomach groaned while I was driving home.

p/s: Feel free to browse through the rest of the photos (and pictures of the individual cards) taken during the get together HERE.