A Time to Stitch :: Flat & Spiral Stitches

Well today is the day for the final reveal of our Time to Stitch pieces using both flat and spiral bead weaving. Therese and Christine asked us to pick one flat stitch (either ladder or brick) and one spiral (either Russian spiral or Cellini). The only stitch I had done before was Russian spiral, so most of these were new to me. 

I really wanted to try them all as they are ones that I've had trouble with in the past. Lucky for me, Christine and I had planned to meet up and she so nicely agreed to give me a live tutorial on both flat stitches. I've been practicing for several weeks now, and I feel like these are now comfortably in my stable of bead weaving options. If you've been stopping by my blog in the last week you'll have seen all of these stitches in the pieces I've been posting.

One thing I wanted to try was a beaded bead. I decided to give it a try with Russian spiral. This Native American inspired necklace uses 4 Russian spiral beaded beads. I also used some custom cut wood feathers that my friend Edi made for me. They just seemed to fit this pattern using a large wood focal, wood round beads and a wood button closure. I have had so much fun with this wood focal that Christine gifted me. This is the second of 2 pieces that I have made, and there is a third! It's in progress, so I hope to post that within the next few weeks. 

Yesterday I showed you some of the closures from all the bracelets I've been working on. This last piece is the one I showed yesterday with the large wood and shell button. The stitch is ladder with a picot fringe. I also used some polymer clay shells I got from pjBeads. I just love her beads! I wanted this bracelet to have a soft weave to it with a tone on tone color. The bracelet has a relax feel around the wrist. So that's it for my week-long bead weaving extravaganza! And now it's time to see what everyone else created for Therese and Christine's hop.

Therese Frank                   Christine Altmiller                  Maryanne Gross

Cynthia Machata                Bobbie Rafferty                    Katherine Gale

Sally Russick                      Niky                                        Alenka                                      

Kim Hora                            Karin Slaton                           Shirley Moore

Tami Norris                         Amy Severino                       Alicia Marinache

Lola Surwillo                       Mandy Duffy                           Kristen Stevens