Bead Tutorial: Looped Stacks

It's bead overload month - and I hope to bring you several tutorials that will augment the techniques shown in my DVD Bead It Like You Mean It. Just for fun. And because I love YOU.

I love hand work. Not because I have endless amounts of patience and love peaceful hours of meditative stitchery. Sounds blissful but it's no part of the reality of mothering five children.

I love to bead because it fits into the five minutes I'm sitting in the carpool line. A stitch stays put when you need to jump up and change a diaper. A tin of beads and a bit of cloth can travel with you during endless hours at music lessons and soccer practice.

Did you see those lovely little loopy yellow beads in the first picture? They are just toooo much fun to play with and I though I'd share how to create them with you.

I've started with a fun fabric flower, cut, fused, and stitched to a piece of craft-fuse.

I decided to outline the petals in a contrasting color of beads. Itty bitty size 15 rocailles in this case. I'm using a size 11 applique needle and nymo beading thread. I find that beading needles aren't quite strong enough to sew through more than one layer of fabric without bending in half.

Knot your thread well and bring your needle up right where you want your loopy stack to sit. Give your thread a tug to make sure it's not going to pop through the fabric.

Slide one bead down the thread. I'm using a green size 6 seed bead.

Load your needle with size 11 seeds, I've used ten of them. Take your needle back down through the hole of the base bead to the back of the fabric then pull it tight. Repeat the process to create as many looped stacks as you wish, knotting your thread tightly into the back every few stacks.

You can have lots of fun varying the length of the loops, the sizes of the beads, or even making each looped stack into a beaded fringe. (Tutorial here)

More beading techniques can be found on my DVD workshop 

Bead It Like You Mean It. Leave me comment and let me know what you think.

Announcing BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

I've been working on something of an adventure this past year. I think for most people it would have taken a month or two - but as with everything ART related in my life it had to fit into the little nooks and crannies of time left to the mother of five busy and extremely talented children. (Biased? Why yes I am.)

Announcing my new DVD workshop 

BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT


In this workshop I will teach you the basic techniques for embellishing fabric with beads including
sewing one bead on at a time
sewing beads in a solid line
curving, joining, or splitting a line of beads
sewing on chunky beads
making funky stacks
creating a beaded bezel to hold a cabochon
adding bead to the top of a finished quilt with no knots or mess on the back!

To celebrate the launch of this new DVD a number of my very favorite artists are posting reviews on their blogs over the next month. Please stop by each one and see what they have to say.

Sep 15  Larkin Van Horn http://blog.larkinart.com/

Sept 16 Susan Sorell http://www.creativechick.com/blog/ 

Sept 19 Kelli Nina Perkins http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 21  Sharon Chapman http://wildflowerhouse.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 23 Leslie Jennison http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 26 Carla Sonheim http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/ 

Sept 28 Gloria Hansen http://www.gloriahansen.com/weblog/ 

Sept 30 Laura Wasilowski http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 3  Carol Sloan http://carolbsloan.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 5 Sue Bleiweiss http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/ 

Oct 7  Jill Berry http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/ 

Oct 10 Jane LaFazio http://janeville.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 12 Tracie Lynn Huskamp http://thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com/

And if you simply can't wait - you can buy it here.

Playtime with Bonnie

What do a boatload of beads and an entire studio packed with lighting equipment, cameras, microphones and wires have to do with each other?

On your average day, not much. Last week - everything! I've been working very hard for several months and am so excited to tell you about my latest project. A new instructional DVD titled "Bead It Like You Mean It!" It'll still be a few months before it's out but we had SO much fun filming that I can't keep it under wraps.

The lovely and VERY talented Bonnie McCaffery was an absolute pleasure to work with - who wouldn't smile when they saw that wide grin behind the camera? She is very good at helping me to focus and get down to business - and tolerant of my tendency towards silliness as well. 

Lots of silly on this DVD. Lots of really, really, pretty things and useful information too!

We got done a whole day early so we had time to play with some really fun special effects and take a walk around the lake and play with our cameras.

Tutorial: Beaded Fringe

When I sent in the little cases I had made to Quilting Arts Magazine for the "Glam-To-Go for Gadgets" article, they didn't use the case I actually spent the most time making. I think perhaps that it was either too froofy, made the article too long, or was for the outdated ipod classic rather than the new iphones. No worries. I'll show it here to you. You can get the article for free in the current eBook at QuiltingArts.com for instructions on making the cases. I'd love to show you here how to make the funky beaded fringe.

Materials: 

• Something to add fringe to: gadget case, scarf, your husbands favorite necktie. In any case it will need to have enough "oomph" to support the fringe. In this instance, the fringe will be supported by the satin stitched bottom edge of the case. For a scarf I like to add a tiny bit of cording or seam tape or ribbon (depending on the weight of the scarf) inside of a rolled hem.
• Beading thread (I love Nymo) and a beading needle (or a size 11 applique needle.)
• Seed beads and other larger beads. Make sure the holes in the larger beads are not so big that the seed beads sink into them. If they are you'll need to put medium beads next to the large holed beads.

1 - Make your knot. Thread your needle, bring it in through the case and out on the edge of the satin stitching. Leave the tail of the thread hanging out. Wrap the thread (not the tail end) three times around the tip of the needle, hold the wrap with your thumb and pull the needle through. You should have a secure knot now. I often make at least one more knot in close to the same place just to be extra secure.

2 - Load your beads onto the needle. Add seed beads until your fringe is about as long as you wish it to be then add your bigger bead and one more seed bead. The seed bead on the end is your anchor. Slide all of the beads to the end of the thread.

3 - Anchor your fringe. This is the only tricky part - and it really isn't hard. Slide that last seed bead away from the line of beads then send your needle right back through your whole line of beads. I find it easiest to do if I bend the line of beads over my finger, holding the thread taut. This lines up the beads in a row and holds the thread tight along the bottom of each hole. That way you have room to get the needle back up through the whole line.

4 - You might not be able to get the needle all the way through your line of beads in one shot. No worries. Just do it a bit at a time, holding that thread taught to it easier to slide the needle through.

5 - Push your needle into the satin stitching, right under your fringe and come out where you want the next fringe to start. Continue adding fringe until you think you're done. Notice here that my fringe isn't the same - I like it funky. Sometimes my big bead is in the middle, sometimes there are more seed beads on the end than just one anchor. Mix it up and make it fun.

6 - Make a knot right next to the last fringe in the same way you did at the beginning. In fact, make two knots. Come to think of it, make a knot and just keep going (not starting with a new thread each time) every three or four fringes just to be safe. I truly dislike the sound of a million tiny beads scattering across the floor as my child yanks on my fringes. At the end, after your last knot, send your needle up through the satin stitching and come out anywhere. Trim the tail off and you're done.

There you have it. Next week I'll post a short tutorial on how to make the ribbon strap shown on the butterfly case so be sure to stop by again!