For a cross-stitch piece, most of the references indicate you want to use a half cross stitch, which will cause your bead to lay slightly on a slant. Whether you start from the upper or lower left corner, doesn’t make a difference. What is important is you always use the same slant for stitching. Imagine that the area where you are placing the bead is a square, divided into nine points. Your bead will cover section 5 when it is stitched down. If you start at 1 and go through the bead to 9, your bead will have a different slant than if you go from point 7 to 3.
Bead Attachment – Back Stitch Single Bead
If you want your beads to lie straight rather than on a slant, then you should use the back stitch method. Using the same 9-point box, you start your stitch coming up at Point 4 and through the bead (point 5) and down at point 6. (Example A) Come back up at point 4, through the bead, and back down at point 6, so you have two threads through the bead. (Example B). It is easy to do a column of these beads as you can see. It is a little more difficult to do single beads side by side. If you are doing single beads there really should be a little space between them.