What Happens When You Plant A Seed Bead?
You grow a most beautiful art quilt!!!
We had a Friday Class that was hosted by the Swamp Fox Quilters and featured the wonderfully talented Jo Ann Amidon who taught us how to embellish our quilts and turn them into art quilts. If you would like to see a website on art quilts try this one out: Art Quilts Society Website .
Jo Ann Amidon was a gentle quiet teacher who made us feel very relaxed and unpressurized. However you will see in some of the pictures that our eyes have kind of a glazed over look. This is because after several hours of hunching over finding tiny beads, threaded into a tiny needle and then sewing them on to a sampler or quilts, our eyes began to film over. There are different sizes of Seed Beads;
one of the most common beads that are used to embellish quilts, dolls, and clothes. There were several sizes and varieties of beads given to us as our class kit to choose and pick up from our "Bead Soup"
When I first started, I was using the wrong size because I actually couldn't distinguish the number 6 beads from the number 8 beads seed beads at first in the mixture of the Bead Soup. We used number 6's and number 8's. These number 8 beads will line up in a straighter line because they butt up against each other. Who Knew?
Who could find them?
The needles we used were number 9 and number 10 sharps. A Needle threader would not go into the hole without breaking. My beading partner Graham, whose eyes are still young threaded all my needles, bless her heart. I did manage to thread one needle by myself and there was a general celebration. Graham recommended a No. 8 crewel needle which has a slightly elongated hole and easier to thread.
This is Carolyn, Susan, Elaine (who is hidden) and Francis all concentrating on their beading.
Jo Ann went around helping everyone. After several hours of work this is what our hoop looked like. I wrote my notes next to the beads. Notice the tiny handwritten notes. That is unusual. Usually I write real big so I can see easily, it was just that everything seemed extra small that day.
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| Hoop 1 Morning Efforts |
Jo Ann said one of the places she took her inspiration from was from Embroidery Stitches. She said that any Embroidery Stitch can be adapted for use with beading techniques. Many of the pieces she showed had crewel embroidery as well.
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| We learned how to combine the beading stitches and how to augment our quilts by looking at her beautiful embellished art works. |
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| Peggy working on her hoop. |
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| Jan working on her hoop |
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| After we finished our hoops, we had the opportunity to work on our quilts or a quilt sample that Jo Ann gave us. This is Graham's beautiful Crazy Quilt that she has been working on for several years. She was excited about all the new techniques we learned and said it would improve her work. I think her work is just gorgeous. |
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| Closeup of Graham's flowers |
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| Buttons and Flowers |
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| Graham added a scissor and thread |
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This was a large flower that Graham beaded on her quilt. Jo Ann had a very interesting technique as well. She would bead a piece of material and then put it on a covered button which would give it added relief. One of the techniques that Jo Ann used that I found fascinating was to feature large cabochons, (polished stones) in her art quilts and then use wool or thread to fasten them on her piece. If you can imagine how some jewelry makers used metal to hold their cabochons in place, that's what Jo Ann did with thread. CreateaPendant.com |
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| Potpourri of beads, buttons, embroidery stitches, Flores, lace |
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| Graham uses the lace as inspiration for placing the beads. |
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| Karen Preston brought her Sea Shell quilt to work on. Karen told us all about a great new product called Pilot® FriXion® Erasable Gel Pen. The markings will disappear if heat is applied like a blow dryer. If you want the markings back. put your quilt in the Freezer. ( I believe that is what I heard her say - Who Knew?). This product is available from office supply places : http://www.staples.com/Pilot-FriXion-Eraseable-Gel-Ink-Pens-Fine-Point-Black-3-Pack/product_722396? |
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| Karen Preston added beads and sequins to her quilt. The starfish is star studded. Jo Ann recommended these three books if you could only order 3. Van Horn, Larkin Jean, Beading on Fabric, Interweave Press 2006 Eha, Nancy Bead Creative like Crazy, Creative Visions Press 2009 Eha, Nancy, Bead Creative Art Quilts, Creative Visions press, 2006 Bead Source Recommendations made by Jo Ann Amidon http://www.firemountaingems.com/ http://www.artbead.com/ http://www.beadcreative.com/ http://www.shipwreck-beads.com/ http://www.beadcats.com/ http://www.interweave.com/ Blissful Beads. Linda Bruce, Lexington, SC 803-760-8821 Jo Ann graciously allowed me to take some pictures but requested that her work would not be posted on the Internet. I asked her as I was taking her picture with the sunflowers ... if I could put it on my blog and she said yes. If you would like to leave a comment, which I love to read. click on the blue word comment and leave one. |
