I just watched Fon's and Porter show where they did flower stems and used a blanket stitch. the stems were skinny so their stitch must not have been very wide or long, but it looked good. they folded their stem,pressed, opened and laid it on the marking of the block and stitched in the center fold area. folded it over and then went around and stitched both sides down and the leaves with the blanket stitch. the quilt had blue poseys (flowers).