Newport Beach Woman Excels at Quilling, a Little-Known Facet of Creative Artwork

Barbara Robinson, 70, of Newport Beach may turn pro one of these days. She’s that good.

In quilling, no less. Never mind that you’ve never heard of it. “I don’t think anyone in California has ever heard of it,” she said.

In fact, “not too many people west of the Mississippi know much about it because it’s most popular in the East,” she said. “I have to order my supplies from a store in Illinois.”

So what is it? Simply, it’s paper art formed by taking 22-inch-long rigid but pliable strips of colored paper in widths from one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch and wrapping them around a toothpick or corsage pin to form such delicate objects as flowers.

“There is no end to what can be accomplished,” said Robinson, who started quilling at age 55 and now is a volunteer teacher at the Orange Senior Citizen Community Center as well as holding classes in her home. “For instance, with a little practice people can make valentines, candy cane stockings, a bunny rabbit and even a Santa Claus head.”

Robinson quilled a wedding gown using the strips of paper.

The supplies needed are the paper strips, glue and toothpicks. People with arthritis problems, such as Robinson, need a pair of long tweezers for the delicate work.

“The only thing holding anyone back is their imagination,” she said, pointing out that anyone can learn quickly. “When I get a new class,” she added, “I stop after 10 minutes and tell them, ‘There, now you’ve learned how to quill.’ ”

While that’s a beginning, Robinson said it usually takes about six classes to become proficient, “But it’s a skill that can last a lifetime.”

There is only sketchy history about quilling, which began at the time paper was invented in China about AD 105, she said.

There are few surviving examples of quilling and only a smattering of documentation on quilling, noted Robinson. She said some examples have been dated to the 4th Century in Greece, Italy, France and England, “and now not much is left except in England.”

Besides her more intricate artwork, Robinson dabbles in making little place cards and greeting cards decorated with roses and other flowers, which she usually presents to people who invite her to their home.

“I get a lot of invitations that way,” Robinson said.

It’s not hard to tell when Stephen G. Freeman of Newport Beach is putting you on. For instance, when he founded the Dull Men’s Club of Newport Beach, he said women could become members. Dogs and cats, too.

Well, fame and fortune have caught up to him. Nine men and three women of his club, which has no officers, were hired to appear on the new Noel Edmonds television show.

“None of us have ever heard of him,” Freeman said. “They told us he’s well-known in England.” Altogether, they’ll be paid $1,268.

“But we’ll get good TV exposure,” he said. Unfortunately, the first show is scheduled Monday at midnight on Channel 7. “I call it prime time five time zones away,” said Freeman, who wondered what newspaper he had called.

He also tells everyone he’s 111 years old.

Genevieve (Pumpkin) Bantrell of La Habra was named to a high post in the Orange County American Assn. of University Women. Pumpkin?

“My father gave me that name when I was very young,” Bantrell said, “and I kept it when I grew up because most people didn’t know how to spell Genevieve. It’s easier this way.”

When the IRS sent a letter to Jack H. Schroeder, 43, of Fullerton, he hardly expected it would say his sister, Lynn Collins, 40, of Tempe, Ariz., was looking for him. He hadn’t seen her for 21 years.

“It’s amazing,” said Schroeder, an Anaheim nightclub manager. “We have been looking for each other all this time and it took the IRS to get us together. I didn’t know they (IRS) could help anyone like that and neither did anyone else I talked to.”

At the time the IRS sent a letter telling Collins where her brother lived, she happened to be visiting a sick relative in Anaheim, just a few blocks from where he worked. “Now is that fate?” Schroeder asked.

Schroeder, who said he had problems at home as a youth, left at age 17 to join the U. S. Navy and then lost track of the family, which had moved.

“But my sister and I were very close before I left,” he said, “and when we finally met again, we shed a lot of tears. I don’t want to say what could have been, but we missed a lot. I regret not being there all those years.”

Schroeder said that after spending a few day with his sister, “it’s almost like it never happened.” He also noted, “I always had the vision she would be beautiful and she is.”

Acknowledgments--Detective Bonnie Harris, 26, a one-time Fullerton police records clerk, was named Officer of the Year by the Fullerton South Rotary Club, the first woman of the Fullerton Police Department ever to receive the award.