Feather Stitch Combination

I love doing Feather Stitch Combinations, and this is my latest. When I start, I never know where I will finish. This one is on Block 9 of the Apple Blossom Quilt.

First step, above, was to work a random line of Feather Stitch along the seam I wanted to cover. I chose this seam as it was between two solids, which would show it off best. Then I worked three more small lines of Feather Stitch, each coming in to finish on an arm of the original line. By this time, I am starting to keep an eye out that I don't make any spots in the centre that are going to be too tight.

Then, starting at the "roots" of the climber, I either put leaves (one detached chain) or bracts (two detached chains with a French Knot in the centre) on each arm of the Feather Stitch. (I had a bit of training in botany in another life - bracts are specialised petals, that often look leaf-like, that are the outer surrounds of a flower). For the leaves, I tried to start the Detached Chain part way up the Feather Stitch arm, and finish beyond the end of it, to make it a little more leaf-like.

For the bracts, I tried (but did not always succeed) to make the first Detached Chain a continuation of the line of the Feather Stitch arm, then the other other as close as possible to a right angle, in order to give most room for the flower.

Finally, I worked three or four Buttonhole Stitches in the centre of the bracts, and finished them with three Pistil Stitches coming out of the centre Buttonhole. Sometimes I missed, but I was trying, I promise. The Pistil Stiches were the anthers of the flower, so should have been yellow or orange, to represent pollen. There goes the botanist again. Except I am working this project in pink, green and white only. I could have got away with using white, but there more I do, the more I like the monotone, and change cotton colours as little as possible.

Both threads were DMC Perle 8 crochet cotton. Heaven alone knows what the needle was, but the smaller head helped the French Knots.

If you are unsure of any stitches, see sharon b's stitch dictionary.