W4Me ... I can see you doing flames, using all the same techniques as feathers! After all, they are kind of the same, just pointed ends .... aren't they?
FelineF ... My goodness!!! Thank you for the gorgeous pics and more inspiration. I googled and yes, it sent me off looking at even more to dream about accomplishing. I really appreciate it all.
Finally some pics ... but put your imagination hats on! After 174 pics, I still have none that really show what I did. That being said, I am pleased with my results, just wish I could show it to you.
You can likely see safety pins on one end and one side. This marks the feathers that I did where I went up one side of the spine and then down.
The side/end without the safety pins were done left to right all along the spine.
Both sections, the spine was sewn in place before starting the feathering.
The ends were done with a triangle fill of continuous feathers that then wrapped around the border of the end and down the side to meet up with the other section. Thread colour was well matched to all the fabrics, a variegated Sulky blendable. Which is why you see blotches of pink in the pics.
That well matching thread and the fine print of the border has sure done its job of hiding the FMQing in the pic, even though you can see it IRL, quite easily.
Don't look too closely at the centre quilting which was done last spring when I quilted the quilt that the fabrics are from. This runner was used as a practice piece for it. I know a lot of people have practice sandwiches they pitch later. For me, I try to make them something usable, even if I know I will not be happy with the quilting. The good part of it, from spring til now, I can definitely see that I have improved some ... yes, a long way to go.
So here's the pics ... IF you can see enough to give me some feedback and critiques, I am open to that! Thanks for looking (and enduring!)