**##!!!*%%! beads!

I finished the stitching on two "name ornaments" my M Designs, and now I'm doing the beading. I get so impatient at this stage, wanting to be done and move along, and I always underestimate how much time and effort sewing the beads on can take.

Got through most of one ornament in two nights. Can probably finish that one and start another tonight during the Jane Austen movie. (Probably the last one for this terrific series.)

A big part of it is my own Virgo doggedness (stubbornness? anal-retentiveness?) to knot each one individually so that if someday one falls off, all aren't lost. (Yes, I can be ever-so-slightly OCD, LOL!)

Just had to vent to someone who would *understand*. Thanks for listening. And now back to your regularly scheduled program....

Sue

Oh Sue -- I DO feel your pain -- been there, done that ....... If something is going to be framed and I can carry my beading thread from place to place, I now just do sort of half hitch knot where I bring the thread back underneath the stitching right near the bead and then before I tighten the thread, I put the needle back through the loop and then pull tight. If something is not going to be framed -- like an ornament

-- and be used so that there will be some wear and tear to the piece I will do the same sort of thing (assuming I can easily carry my thread -- and then I will knot off the thread when I reach the end of the length. Then I will go back and put a tiny little dot of something like Fray Check on the back of each & every bead so that the threads are held securely. I don't know if it is any quicker but it helps me keep my temper and not get so frazzled. Another option might be to add some iron on stabilizer to the back of the stitched ornament before you actually make it up into an ornament. If you get the light weight iron on stuff, it doesn't require as much heat to get the stuff to stick and the fact that it sticks to the back of the stitching helps to hold the beads in place. So good luck -- take a deeeeeep breath, have a soothing beverage of your choice and a BIG ol' honkin' hunk 'a chocolate once you are all finished or as needed to keep your composure :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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