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 – Whip Stitch Single Bead
For this example, bring your needle to the upper left-hand corner (point 1) of where you want the bead to be (point 5). Take your needle through the bead and down at the lower right-hand corner (point 9). The next example shows how you would place your beads if they were in a line going straight down or across your fabric. The thing to remember about this method is that your beads are slanted!