Every year beaders around the world create beaded squares that are then made into ornaments, mini quilts, and other pieces that are auctioned off to raise money for breast cancer research. Bead-It-Forward is a great example of a project where your small, individual contribution can be transformed into something larger.
This is the first year that the event is under the direction of Amy Severino. I knew after I interviewed her last year for Inside Beadwork Magazine that I'd make a special effort to create a square this year no matter how busy I was.
As usual, I first sketched out my design on graph paper and as usual, I soon found myself deviating from my pattern and designing on the fly as I stitched each row. This bird just had so much personality that he did not want to stand neatly back in the center of the square with even swaths of white space around him. Instead, he seemed to creep closer and closer towards me as I stitched.
Your Turn
You still have time to create your own square. Mine took about two evenings in front of the TV. (That included time for ripping out rows that went too far awry, losing my needle, threading the needle multiple times, and digging through my seed bead drawer to find those brown Delicas I knew I had somewhere.) I still need to attach the square to a backing before mailing it.
You can use bead embroidery, peyote stitch, loomwork, square stitch, or any other technique where the beads are firmly attached. See the official Bead-It-Forward guidelines for the full details on the square size, mailing address, and free patterns that you can use to create your design. The squares must be received by March 6, 2015, so get busy!
My Beaded Bird Square for Bead-It-Forward Fundraiser
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