Stitch Talk #5 Feathers

Bonus Stitch Talk this week--the designs from two of the blocks from the Blue Heart quilt, Feather Whatever and Feathers.

These two are very similar in that they are feather designs.  I do my feathers in the bump-bump method, which means there is some backtracking involved.  I'll go over the steps below.

Start by drawing a feather or teardrop shape.

Add another feather by going up the on the inside (creates the vein), and coming around the top to meet the other feather.  Don't go down to the spine.

Backtrack over the top of that second feather, then curl out and up to create the top of the next one.  Come back to the second feather, creating the vein. 

 Backtrack over this vein, up and over to create the fourth feather.

Backtrack over the curve, then bump out to start creating the fifth feather.  Continue in this manner until one side is done.

At the top, there are two options:  the thread can be cut, and the thread picked up at the start to begin the other side, or stitch back down the vein to come back up the other side.  Some people can stitch feathers coming back down, so that is another option, though not for me!

Feather Whatever is a feather variation.  In it, I put curls and hearts in instead of a full feather.

I also did both sides at the same time, creating a more free form design.

 Have fun experimenting with feathers and its different variations on your quilts!