I did a lecture/trunk show in January of 2016 for the Fiber Art Bee group in Gainesville, Florida. The guild members were so nice and made up a bag of blue beads for me! I think the bag weighed about 8 lbs! All different size, shapes and shades of blue.
Well, the majority of those beads are on Mr. Blue..so you can see my dilemma if I run out!! Yikes! I had mentioned this in a previous blog my concern of not having enough beads.
Well, I received a note, or should I say tip, from Margaret Ball.
"Stitch your remaining beads randomly over the area left to cover. Keep doing this until you run out of beads. Now, if you have to add beads of a slightly different color, the look will be "natural variation" rather than "funny-looking bit right there."
What a great tip!!!! I can certainly see where this would work!!!! Thanks, Margaret!!!!
For those who read my blog, you know I use Margaret's book, Embeadery, often...and I mean often. Margaret's book actually got me started doing bead embroidery.
And yes, those are tabs on the right/middle of the book for some of Margaret's techniques that I reference! It's the only bead book I take to Florida!
Margaret is also a writer of historical/romance/etc. novels!!! Who knew...well, I did only because I've followed her blog for several years. So check out what Margaret is doing or writing about!!! She's quite witty in her blog writing so I know you'll enjoy reading her posts.
Good tip…..my approach to ‘stretching’ the bead inventory is slightly different. Instead of random placement till the beads run out, which may cause spacing issues if you have to go back and add other shades…..I generally sew various combinations of original and new colors at the same time. For instance, stitch 2 original color beads….then 1 new one, then 3 original - 2 new ones…..alternate in any combo….3 new two original…….you get the idea. It will give you the same overall effect without having to cope with spacing issues if you do actually run out!
ReplyDeleteThat IS a great tip and thanks for sharing it. I always like the way you scatter beads anyway.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
Thanks, Robbie! (blushes, scuffs shoe on floor)
ReplyDeleteYour squirrel is looking great! I'll bet he is heavy! What a great tip.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen he work of Thom Atkins? Check him out.. I took a class with him, maybe 3 years ago. His work is on regular sized quilts. Amazing and intricate
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thomatkins.com/quilts&tapestries.htm
I Love Mr. BLUEtiful Squirrel and what two great tips (yours and Margaret's) you have for bead inventory vs stitching. Embeadery book looks like one I should have in my library. Late to the party as always...but here none-the-less...<3
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