It’s Friday, April 12, Artistic Artifacts’ day to celebrate the publication Beaded Embroidery Stitching: 125 Stitches to Embellish with Beads, Buttons, Charms, Bead Weaving & More by Christen Brown!
Please comment on our posting of this blog tour — use the field at the bottom of the page and be sure to include your email address — to be eligible for our random drawing to win an e-book copy of this beautiful book from us!
I have long been a fan of beading and have often incorporated it into my art quilts (you can visit past blog posts here and here for some examples). When Artistic Artifacts was selected as a 2018 Top Shop by Quilt Sampler magazine, our magazine exclusive project was a batik panel quilt with beading! Our Artistic Artifacts Quilt Sampler kit is available in several colors and includes a Hari Agung batik panel, coordinating Australian Aborigine Designed fabrics and our own Batik Tambal Exclusive Batiks, plus beads, Silamide thread (my favorite) and a needle to embellish!
Colorful Batik Panel Quilts: 28 Quilting and Embellishing Inspirations from Around the World, is my first book and was published at the beginning of this year — here’s a link to my blog post about it (which also features beading). Colorful Batik Panel Quilts features a section on embellishing: “Beading on panels is one of my favorite embellishing techniques. Beads and crystals can add sparkle and texture to enhance the design of the panel and make it your own,” I wrote. “Single stitch and back stitch are two techniques I use most.”
Beaded Embroidery Stitching from C&T Publishing features 125 bead embroidery and bead woven stitches, and readers can search both stitches organized by type with a complete visual guide or the A-to-Z stitch index. There is a wonderful assortment of beautiful dimensional stitches that I thought would be perfect for my project.
Above, my quilted batik panel quilt before I started beading. The center floral panel is another from Hari Agung. I gathered my other supplies, beads, beading needles (Tulip brand, which are in my opinion the best quality), a beading awl (useful to reposition beads or clear the hole of coatings so your needle can go through) and Silamide.
An obvious choice when working on a batik panel featuring flowers was exploring Christen’s Beaded Pistil Stitch. I enjoyed learning this technique and am thrilled with the dimension it adds!
I wanted to try out her Feather and Fly Stitches to accent one of the leaves in my panel.
Despite Christen’s very clear instructions, my attempt went a bit awry with this one — I told you I was used to freeform stitching! But even so, I love the way the bead embroidery enhances the leaf in my panel. Christen begins her book with explaining, and illustrating, how beads come in many different shapes and sizes, with seed beads are numbered from low to high: the higher the number, the smaller the bead. My preference is for mixing colors and sizes of beads together (that’s what you find in the Artistic Artifacts bead mixes I’m using here), but a uniform line of beads would also be perfect on my leaves.
Above, I added tiny striped beads to accent the edge of the petals.
Christen’s chapter Where Do Designs Come From? (page 30) points out that a fabric with a strong print can be “used as the focal or base of an embroidered design. The embroidery and embellishments can follow the lines and shapes of the print and enhance any open spaces.” I offer the same advice about free-motion quilting — follow the lines of your fabric design — and one of the pleasures of beading a batik panel is that there is so much ‘guidance’ in the fabric. The above project from my book illustrates that point — as well as Christen’s belief that “Adding larger beads, charms, and buttons gives interest and definition to your project.”
Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge lover of vintage beaded textiles and accessories, so I enjoyed learning more about how these influenced Christen’s work. I used to create pins and brooches by the handful (see more here) so her Beaded Brooches project (page 94, one example above left) was of interest. Beaded Embroidery Stitching includes instructions on creating beaded edges, which as you see are beautiful on dimensional shapes!
I’m thankful to Diane Herbort, who often teaches at Artistic Artifacts — she and Christen are long-time friends and Diane recommended us to her for this blog tour. Beaded Embroidery Stitching is a resource all embroiderers, crazy quilters, craft sewists, jewelry makers and more will want to add to their library. I was interested to learn more about how Christen achieves her beautiful work, and this book didn’t disappoint. The plentiful photographs are truly eye candy, and each project includes clear instructions, plus a photo ‘map’ so you can see exactly what stitch is used where (example here).
Below is the complete Beaded Embroidery Stitching Blog Tour lineup — please visit each blog each day to see their reviews, how they have been inspired, and more. Follow each blog’s directions for how to be eligible to win — if you aren’t our winner, you have several chances to be someone else’s!
- April 8: C&T Publishing, https://www.ctpub.com/blog
- April 9: Allie Aller, https://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/
- April 10: Kathy Seaman Shaw, http://www.shawkl.com/
- April 11: Laura Wasilowski, http://artfabrik.com/
- April 12: Judy Gula, Artistic Artifacts, https://www.artisticartifacts.com/blog/
- April 13: Brian Haggard, http://www.brianhaggard.com/
- April 14: Christen Brown, https://1creativeone.wordpress.com/
You can learn more about this beautiful book and order your copy on our website. Also by Christen Brown:
- Embroidered and Embellished: 85 Stitches Using Thread, Floss, Ribbon, Beads & More. The complete visual guide to hand embroidery and embellishing and an essential embroidery reference for everyone from beginners to experts. This richly illustrated reference guide from embroidery expert Christen Brown covers everything you need to make beautiful magic with needle and thread.
- The Embroidery Book: Visual Resource of Color & Design. A step-by-step visual guide to 149 embroidery stitches, motifs, and extras with robust color charts that take the guesswork out of choosing thread, buttons, and trims. Stitch classic seam treatments and stunning stand-alone designs as you go beyond the basics to learn what embroidery can do for you.
- Embroidery Stencils, Essential Collection help you create unique designs to embroider: hearts, flowers, baskets, butterflies, spiderwebs, vines, feather stitches, and more using the 4 in. x 8 in. stencils that combine to create 90+ embroidery designs.
Remember, leave a comment and your email address to be eligible to win an ebook copy of Beaded Embroidery Stitching!
Above, my supplies and tools are ready for my next beading session!
I love to create collaged fabrics. It is relaxing to me, and I have many uses for it, whether cutting it into small bits for my pins or using it to build an art quilt. It’s a great process when you want to be creative but aren’t feeling the pull of a specific project, or if you only have a short period of time to work. 
The fabric scraps should be in one layer, with a minimal amount of overlap. Once your piece of Steam-A-Seam 2 is completely covered with scraps and you’re happy with it (remember, you can play with your positioning), replace the protective sheet of paper over it and iron to hold your scraps together as a sheet of collaged fabric. Pictured above is an example after first fusing. 
While the fabric collage process can be fast and fun, yes, these pins take a little longer than a free afternoon of found studio time! I face the back with 
