Pink Quilled Flower Purse Gift Bag and Quilling Tutorial- Eccentric Circles

Hi all, here is my first quilling tutorial. The details of the above project will be at the end of this post.  From the looks of the poll most want a written tutorial, so this is the first requested one, eccentric circles.  I will try my hand at some video tutorials later though because I am a visual learner and I know some of you are too!  But, back to the tutorial.   The double and single layered flowers in the picture above are made with quilled eccentric circles.  Note to self, check the pictures out for any embellishments that may have been moved around during the picture taking process, see pic below, do you see it! lol!

Ok, back to the tutorial.  You start with an open coil of your desired length.  The longer the strip, the more "quills" (loops) in your flower petals or shape.  The ones in the picture above are from a strip of 8". 

This one is from a 6" strip.

Next you take a straight pin and on surface that you can pin into, insert the pin tip into the center of the open coil and pull it to one side as below.

Tip: You want to pay attention to where your have closed your coil.  You want to be able to hide this joining in the quilling.  So decide before you do this what shape you want or how you will hide it in the design. If you are going to shape the eccentric circle with the center at the bottom or at the top, you could put the joining spot where it will be hidden by your flower center or where it attaches to another quilled shape. 

Put another pin on the outside of the coil right beside the previous pin holding the center of the coil to the side, see picture below.

Next take a small toothpick or pin and put a small amount of glue where the center coil is pulled to the side, in between the pins.  You want to make sure that the center of the coil has glue on it or it will not stay put, see glue on coil below.

Let this dry and then remove the pins.  You can see the glue on the coils in this picture (these coils have been made with a full strip, see how many loops there are).  This will be the back side of your coil/shape. Your coil should hold it's shape with the center glued to the side and should look like this:

These shapes will be shaped into a petal with the center of the coil at the pointed end of the petal.  So to make these, just pinch the end with the center into a point.  Because of the bunch of strips this point probably won't be to pointy!  Also you can pinch the opposite side of the center and it will look like the pink flower pinned next to the purple petals. The pink one is glued and pinned to get a tight center at the points.

Next you can either can glue it and pin it together like the pink one or you can make a fringe center and glue the petals to it, or on top of the flower, see below.  Look closely at the ends of the petals and you will see what I mean about the coil joining spot. You can see it below on several of the petals.  So decide beforehand where it will be in your shape.  You can hide it at the point of a shape or as I said before in the center of the flower under other quilled shapes.

The next picture is the same double layer flower as is on the purse gift bag at the first of the post, but without a center. To get this look just make your eccentric flowers using a larger length strip for the bottom flower and a shorter length strips for the top flower and glue on top of each other and add a center of your choice.

These shapes can also be shaped with curled tips and I made this little orchid from 6" strips and put a quilled bell shape for the mouth of the orchid.  You are only limited by your imagination to how to use these eccentric circles.  Experiment with sizes and shaping, it's fun and you never know what you may come up with!

Details of the Pink Purse Gift Bag.  This is the last of the projects for this month's Custom Quilling Newsletter.  I used the same flowers as was on the Spring Verse but used buttons for their centers and only used one double layer flower.  I added the pearls and faux stitching a beaded handle and little tassel to finish it off.  The purse itself is a Sizzix die and is easy to put together and embellish with quilling and edge punches.

Since this is my first tutorial I want to make sure that it is understandable and clear, please leave me some feedback on it.  Was it clear? Could you reproduce an eccentric coil after reading how to do it?  Any other suggestions or requests.  Thanks for your feedback, I want to improve my tutorials and give you the best instructions and answer any questions you may have!  Also a request, please pray for my sister as she has lost another child at 12 weeks, they named him Anthony Benedict.  They are grieving and having a hard time, thank you lifting them up to the Lord.

Shalom,

Sonya