Thanks to everyone for your help and ideas. The whole plan to do the beading by machine has now fallen apart. :S I bought the small needles (size 60) I was going to need, but the beads are just slightly too long (they're bugle beads) and break when I try to attach them by machine.
It's now on to Allison's instructions for hand beading. ;)
You can get a 'set' of 'beading' tweezers. I received one for Christmas last year.after I had finished beading the Christmas Tree WUH. It had 3 separate types of tweezers in the kit. May be wroth looking into if you think you'll do more beading in the future.
HTH Butterfly (Been totally resting my R arm this last coupla weeks from TRYING to vacuum the LR floor. No more of that!)
Thanks, Butterfly, but I'm not a beader. I'm only doing this much under protest. ;)
That was my 'project' for them but haven't even opened the 'tweezers kit' as of yet. haven't done any more beading and I don't see it in my future.used 'glue' to put these on and I had SIL's help.
Butterfly
An important detail on bugle beads - the ends are often sharp enough to cut through your thread over time. They are usually sewn on with a seed bead on either end to prevent this.
A.
Send it over - I'll do it at my quilt retreat!! :)
A.
Did you get it yet?
Ack! I did five of my motifs last night without reading this message. Oh well. I'm not really sure I'll leave the beads on after the challenge ends, anyway.
Must be stuck at customs. :)
Yesterday I forgot about this but I've sort of beaded a quilt! It was
-- ta dah! -- my Challenge quilt for the fair 5 years ago and I won $15 for third place. :-) But I wasn't doing individual beads... I wanted something to look like a turquoise necklace on it, so I got some small turquoise chips and strung them. I then hand-couched it to the already-quilted quilt, taking stitches through the chips every few stones to help it be more secure. It turned out great!
From the judges' comments, I would have placed higher if my machine quilting had been better. It was pretty sorry-looking, but considering I'd only done that kind of thing a couple times before, I thought it was great.
Pam (Dragonfly)
Congratulations, Pam! :) I did couch some strands of beads for last year's challenge, but I did it by machine. I found the perfect foot (I already had it, which was even better ), and it took no time at all. I was hoping to machine bead this time, too, but I'm going to have to do it by hand.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required