Last month I had the opportunity to take a class with Betty Pillsbury. She is a crazy quilter from Albany, NY. Oddly enough, this particular workshop was not about quilting, but in it Betty taught the peyote stitch to attach a cabochon to a cuff bracelet. A cabochon is a flat backed stone or bead that has no hole to attach it with. I’ve always wanted to learn how to attach a stone in this way, hoping to use it in embellishing my quilts. I didn’t think I’d get hooked on this type of bead work. But I did! I’m now on my second bracelet with visions of #3 dancing in my head. I think I will use it in future quilts, but for now I’m dabbling just a bit in jewelry. Wanna see :-)?
Here is a front view with the cabochon attached. For a first effort, I’m pretty pleased.
Once the cabochon was placed in the center, Betty encouraged us to just fill in the rest of the space. She had many samples and I had a blast choosing beads and filling around them. The bracelet was done in just over a week.
Here’s one side view:
and the other:
The base of the bracelet is called an aluminum blank. These come flat, are bent to shape and then the inside is covered with fabric. The original blanks from class had 90 degree corners and were a bit wider, the ones I just purchased are rounded.
The beading is done on a thick interfacing. Here’s my second bracelet in progress. Instead of one cabochon, there are 5 (chosen to match a new holiday outfit!).
And here’s the back:
Once the entire piece of interfacing is beaded, it’s glued to the cuff and then it’s all stitched together around the outer edge with more beads.
I’m not sure I needed one more addiction, but beads are such fun to collect and I’m really excited to see how this will meld into my future quilting projects. Do you bead?
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One additional note. Back in April/May I wrote a number of posts about the Jenning’s Quilt. This was a group quilt made by the Milwaukee Art Quilters that has won many awards. It was a winner in this year’s AQS show in Paducah, KY. While at the show Judy Levine, Toni Mitt and I were part of an interview and it has just been posted by AQS.
Click on the picture below and you’ll be taken to the AQS website with the interview. Scroll down and simply click on the arrow in the center of the video box to watch it.
Judy did the lion’s share of the work on the quilt and I think she did a great job of speaking for the group in the interview.
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