Before I began “beading the sun” I decided to back my piece with wool batting (if you missed last week’s intro to this topic click here). In this way I’m able to hide my knots in the batting and have a more substantial surface to hold the beads.
My plan was to trim away the batting from behind the sky after the beading is done, and layer it all with a flatter cotton batt. This will create a trapunto look behind the sun.
Next I gathered my beads and supplies and began laying out some favorites from my collection:
I added an arc of fasteners to the layout:
then I auditioned some snaps and interspersed beads to see how it all would look:
Next I marked the areas to be quilted.
The quilting needed to be done before the beading. I used a bright variegated thread to quilt the “channels” and “fillers”.
Once quilted – the beading could begin! I found some very intriguing beads in my collection (I’m as addicted to collecting beads as I am to collecting fabric!) This circle bead has the holes going through from the side and room for an additional bead in the center.
I’m really enjoying stitching down the fun patterns:
There are more beads to come, but I’ll save that for next week’s post.
And speaking of beading… I found this post on FaceBook (the text is part of the post):
Isn’t this just screaming to be beaded??? I actually wrote Harvard University and obtained permission to make a piece of beaded fiber art based on this amazing photo. We’ll see if I actually do it 😊. I can’t imagine how anyone could think that something this tiny and complex could happen by chance. God’s imagination is infinite!