It's quilling, not quilting!

Those of us who do paper filigree know that spell check isn't happy with the word quilling. Whether we type it or quiller in an email or Word doc, the words are flamed with bright yellow causing us to see red. Thanks for the suggestions dear computer, but we are neither quilters nor killers. Since paper quilling has been around for hundreds of years, it's high time it's defined in the dictionary and is accepted as a word in its own right.

Pat Caputo of Whimsiquills [the online shop is no longer in business] recently wrote to Merriam-Webster to present the idea of adding the definition of quilling as we know it - the art of rolling narrow strips of paper to make an intricate design - to the dictionary. While Pat works on that aspect, there's something that each one of us who quills can do to help in the meantime.

The next time you type quilling or quiller in an email or Word doc and it shows up as a misspelling, just click the word, and then click Add to Dictionary. It won't be marked as misspelled again by your computer - huzzah! - and perhaps even more important, the information will be fed to Microsoft's software. Once a correction is received enough times, it reaches real, live editors who make a decision on whether to make the change.

So... quillers unite! If we work together, we can make a difference.