quillings

Noun

quilling (countable and uncountable, plural quillings)

1. (obsolete) A band of fluted muslin resembling a row of quills.
2. A form of art that involves the creation of decorative designs from thin strips of curled paper.
3. Quillwork.
   • In this way, quilling arts were integral to band organization and cooperation, and functioned both within and between households as items of ceremonial exchange (i.e., "crosscutting" private and public domains).1998, Tressa L. Berman, “Chapter 4: The Community as Worksite: American Indian Women's Artistic Production”, in Ann E. Kingsolver, editor, More Than Class: Studying Power in U.S. Workplaces, page 83
4. (Canada, US, especially Appalachia and the Prairies) The practice of blowing pepper or snuff through a quill into the nose of a woman who is giving birth, to induce sneezing and diaphragmatic contractions which will induce or hasten labor.
   • Childbirth seldom was difficult, but when it was the simple process of "quilling" (which consisted in blowing at just the right time tobacco powder through the quill into the nostril) always brought on a huge sneeze, which immediately delivered the child.1915, Irving P. Fox, editor, The Spatula, volume 22, page 466