Donut beads are some of my favorite jewelry components. They also make fab art quilt embellishments. Here are a selection from my bead stash: clockwise from top center, 25mm Amethyst, 15mm Unakite, 14mm Green Aventurine, 20mm New Jade, 15mm Red Aventurine, 10mm Red Aventurine, 10mm New Jade, 15mm Leopardskin Jasper, 20mm New Jade (all donuts shown are from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads).There are 2 easy ways you can attach donut beads to a quilt without glue:
1). sew them to the quilt top with decorative thread or floss
2). hang them from a beaded dangle

Donuts as Surface Embellishment

Simply stitch through the donut’s hole with your favorite topstitching or pearl thread. You could even use fancy embroidery stitches or nylon beading thread and seed beads to stitch the stone donut down.

When beading a dangle, instead of using a single seed bead at the end of the dangle for a stop bead, string on enough beads to hold the stone donut and then bring the needle and thread back up through the rest of the beads on the dangle.
Donut beads are also made from glass, metal, shell and much more. What’s more, donut beads are calorie-free! =(^_^)=