I’m not sure how we arrived at Friday already. I’m pretty sure that, if Friday hadn’t arrived so soon, I would have gotten more done this week!

I’m happy to report that I have accomplished some of the things on The List for the week.

And I’m also happy to report that some things never change: I have not accomplished most of the things on The List for the week.

But Some is better than None. And I’ll tell you this – committing to a daily goal goes a long, long way in getting at least Something accomplished.

Yep – through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, come hell or high water, I have embroidered One Feather a Day on the Secret Garden Hummingbirds.

Gosh, what an accomplishment.

Or not. But at least it’s Something.

Here’s my update, with a close-up of the latest feathers, a full shot of the project so far, and some stitch talk.

The fishbone stitch really has worked out gloriously well for embroidering feathers. Despite working so much with this one stitch, I haven’t grown tired of it. It’s a wonderful stitch!

One thing I like about the fishbone stitch is that, despite it’s structure, you can achieve some nice shaded results with it, by switching your threads from stitch to stitch as you work down the shape.

Above, you can see the feathers fairly close up (you can click on the photo for a larger version). The colors, when you’re looking this closely at each feather, are quite distinct.

But when you step back from the embroidery, the colors blend together so that, instead of distinct color changes, you get the impression of shading.

One thing that I’ve learned while stitching all these feathers is that the key to getting a smooth transition of color and shade down the feathery shape is the spacing of the stitches. They shouldn’t be too crowded. Better to have more space between the stitches than to crowd them together until they overlap.

If the stitches overlap, the shaded effect becomes muddled.

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It becomes significantly more difficult to get the right impression, if things are too crowded. With a stitch like the fishbone stitch, to keep the integrity and clarity of the feather (or any other shape you might be filling in) and the shading, the stitches shouldn’t be too crowded that they overlap.

And there’s the whole thing so far. If you want to see it larger, click on the photo.

So, that’s the update. I should be well into the tail before we see this again. Who knows? Maybe I can put some feathers in the bank this weekend and get a little bit ahead of my goal. That would be jolly!

Hope you’re making headway on your stitching goals, too. Just remember, Something is better than Nothing. No matter how small, progress is still progress.

Enjoy the weekend!