Square Stitch

Square stitch has been called the off loom loom bead stitch. Looming can produce many beautiful designs from those strips used on belts and bag straps to tapestries to free form items like the Lily by Kathy Kostinsky shown above. The drawback to loom beading is you have to have a loom. And there's all those warp threads to weave back in or dispose of somehow.

Square stitch gives you the same look as looming, and you can use it to work those beautiful loomed patterns you've seen but never tried working.

Here's a tutorial on How to Work Square Stitch if it's something new to you and you'd like to try it.