Beading Basics and Beyond

Last week our guild had the fortune to host quilt instructor Mary Stori, who made the trip out from North Carolina to give the lecture for our monthly meeting and a day-long workshop, "Beading Basics and Beyond." I had the privilege of spending lots of time with Mary, picking her up at the airport, eating meals with her, and helping her set up for the meeting and workshop. What a pleasure! I am definitely inspired to put more beads on my quilts as embellishments and am trying to figure out how I can incorporate beads into my small art group "assignment," due next week.

In the full-day workshop, we learned all kinds of techniques for how to bead on different objects. Here are a few pictures of what we accomplished in the morning, after learning about needles, thread and other important practicalities:



And a close up of the same:
In the afternoon, we learned all kinds of really cool edge treatments, which are pretty much based on what we'd learned in the morning. Unfortunately, most of my photos aren't turning out very good, which is disappointing, as the edge treatments are absolutely amazing and don't really seem all that difficult (easier said than done, right?). Here's one that seems somewhat decent:

I picked up copies of Mary's Beading Basics book and her All-in-One Beading Buddy to help me remember how to make the various stitches, learn others, and to keep me inspired by all of the creative ways you can use beads in your quilts. Unfortunately, I was so busy with everything else that was going on that I didn't take any real pictures at the workshop or guild meeting and I even forgot to get her to sign my books. Bummer.