Sunday, I took my mother to a beginner's class on beading. We both quilt. I create mostly pieced quilts, and Mother appliqués. We both feel that we need to participate in the current trend of embellishing quilts, and beads are the easiest way to start. We spent two hours in dogged concentration chasing those suckers around with our needles, trying to secure them to a practice piece. I now know the basic steps, and it will be the rare quilt of mine that gets beads. Maybe with practice it gets easier, but it was incredibly frustrating, and uncomfortable, besides.
I'd rather work with emoticons. They are MUCH easier to deal with!