Spirit of the Season

Our Elora Centre for the Arts once again held their Festive Wreath and Stocking Silent Auction Fundraiser and this year I got word early!  I wanted to donate a really elaborate quilled piece to demonstrate the art and felt lucky to have the time to work on it. 
  






So I got started:

You'll find lots of versions online of these pine branches but basically the combs' teeth allow you to create nice branches with even needles relatively quickly.  And I needed LOTS!  

Here's a close-up.  I used three colors and three different combs to get this variety of pine branches.

 And they were all glued together to form a pretty sturdy circle for the background of the wreath.  I added "berries" dipped in sparkly dust for added structural strength.  



The center would be a poinsettia, and here I found Meredith of The Paper Craftery and her lovely poinsettia tutorial with easy-to-follow instructions.  What a pretty flower, thank you Meredith!

The finished poinsettia I glued into a pine cone scales mini wreath which I found at a secondhand store (yippy for upcycling!).

And then it was all glued together!  

Even though I had started early, I was only finished on the day the wreath was due to be delivered to the Art Centre.  It took far longer than I thought to quill all those branches!


Here it is hanging on the wall on Opening Day, November 21.  I was very pleased to see that it already was getting bids, very gratifying indeed! 

The Wreath and Stocking Silent Auction was wonderful to see, so much variety and creativity!  We enjoyed wandering about to see the diversity:

Mine was kinda teeny beside all the full-sized and over-sized wreaths on display.



On December 2, I went at 2:00 to see the closing of the auction.  I was absolutely delighted to see the high bid was $65!!!  My quilling was appreciated, and quill work got noticed!  

While the auction is over, the Art Centre still has their "Deck the Walls:  Small Art Works for $200 or Under" and a "Holiday Pop-Up Shop"!  These will be at the Centre until December 22 so if you're in the area take a look!