I pulled out the beads for Queen Mermaid this morning, although I'm not quite ready to start beading. I'm using all the recommended Mill Hills. More on Mill Hills in a few....
The numbers in the slots are clipped off the Mill Hill packages, just so I know which ones to use where. It's a lazy way to keep track but highly effective.
And of course, the Mill Hill Treasures:
Sparkly!
I'm looking forward to doing the beading...just a little more stitching and backstitching to do first.
So. About Mill Hills. There's always leftover beads at the end of a project, and the question is what to do with them. In theory, I could bag them up, tag with their ID number, and hope I can use them for another project. If you've been following my blog, you've probably already figured out that is probably far too organized for me. I do have a small "bead soup" type jar that I usually toss the leftovers in.
And now, there's the new bead stitching/jewelry obsession, and frankly, Mill Hills are not good for this type of use because as you've no doubt noticed if you've used them, they're not exactly the most even-sized beads out there. That's being diplomatic, right? Anyway, they're fine for stitching - there's usually plenty of them to pick through and you can discard the truly awful ones.
Did some searching around and I've found that you can get the tubes of Miyuki Delicas for about the same price as the smaller packets of Mill Hills online...and the added bonus is that the Delicas come in more colors and are just about perfectly even so can be used for my other crafting activities.
So I think, in the future, I'll be swapping out Mill Hills on stitching projects for Delicas so I can use the leftovers in jewelry projects. There's certainly no shortage of Delica colors so I can't see having a problem finding satisfactory matches.
4 comments:
I totally agree with you about the Delicas. The tubes of Delicas seem to have more beads in them too. For almost the same price! I have been toying with the idea of swapping over to Delicas too.
I keep all the beads in those storage tubs that stack together with the ID number so I know which colours I have already.
Here in England stash is so expensive we can't afford to waste any! I even put the leftover thread from kits and cover kits into my DMC bags. The non-matching threads go into colour-grouped ziplocs to use on cards and smalls.
Bluebeard's Mermaid has Delicas so I'm looking forward to using them.
I know those leftover beads are a mess!!!!
You can always join a Mirabilia RR and use up beads that way. That 's what I do!!!
beautiful finish. I use up my left over beads when i make smaller projects from magazines or ornaments and such.
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