And Now...A Special Video Just for You

I'm SO excited to announce that Nancy Eha is debuting a new YouTube video on the Fire blog. She is such a creative beader; I think you will really enjoy this new technique. Thank you Nancy!

 "Thank you Beth for asking me to be your guest artist, and spotlighting my book Bead Creative Art Quilts! I have been teaching beading on fabric nationally for over 20 years for quilt guilds and quilting conferences. I make workshop videos for almost everything I teach so that students can see my hands and the tiny beads on a large scale. I have made a new video especially for And Then We Set It on Fire and Beth’s current focus on embellishments. It is my technique, Beaded Coils, found inside my book Bead Creative Art Quilts. Beaded Coils is one of many new beading techniques I have developed via endless hours of asking what if questions of beads and fabric. I hope you enjoy and learn new beading skills from this video. You can see more of my “obsessively” beaded art quilts and look inside my books at my web site BeadCreative.com"

Click on the following link to view the video:

Beaded Coils

Let us know how you liked the video. Do you think you will give it a try? 

Blanket/Buttonhole Stitch

In my "neck of the woods," this stitch is called a buttonhole stitch, but elsewhere I have heard it called a blanket stitch. Whatever you call it, this stitch can be used to make a lot of designs. I'll be calling it a buttonhole stitch (just because that is what I'm used to). I often use it to outline fusible appliqué pieces. In this picture, I've used it to attach a nut to my piece.

The buttonhole stitch is in the looped stitch family. Looped stitches are made by looping the thread over or under the needle. In the case of the buttonhole stitch, bring the needle up and hold the thread closest to the needle with your (non-dominant) thumb. Take a stitch (perpendicular to the thread) bringing the needle up close to the thread your thumb is anchoring. Continue on in this manner.

There are many variations of this stitch at Blanket Stitch the Variations. (Sarah has given me permission to link to her blog.)

Embellishments on quilts can be simple or extreme. Over the last week, you have gotten an introduction to some very simple embellishing techniques; there is just SO much more. My hope is that this month you will try some embellishing using beading and embroidery. Go as simple or extreme as you would like. Leave a comment and let us know what you are doing. We'd love to see some of your work. 

My last giveaway is made possible by Nancy Eha, AKA The Beading Queen. She is donating a copy of her book Bead Creative Art Quilts.  She teaches and writes books on new fabric beading techniques she has developed where bead configurations are primary focal points. In fact she decides what beading techniques she will use and then constructs the fabric back drop. You can learn more about her and her beading, and look inside the book at her website BeadCreative.com. 

THANK YOU NANCY! To be eligible to win this book, you need to leave a comment on this post. (Of course, I would LOVE for you to become a Fire blog follower. All you need to do is click on "Join this site" under "Followers" on the right-hand side of this page.) I'll draw the winner on January 29. Good luck.

Nancy's YouTube video will debut on this site tomorrow. You won't want to miss it! 

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