Crowfooting tutorial

Crowfooting is my big thing at the moment. It seems to be traditional in some cultures, but very little written about, and the only professional quilter I've found talking about it is Sarah Kaufman, who like me switched to it due to disability, in her case arthritis. She makes amazing log cabin quilts using narrow folded strips, and does rows of crowfooting along the sashing.

Traditionally, crowfooting is mainly used as a replacement for tying that skips the knots and tails. It is also called crow's feet stitching or turkey tracks. The beauty of crowfooting is that you can do it instead of tying, at 4" intervals say, but you can also space your stitches more closely together and create lines of stitching. I haven't yet seen it used particularly creatively, but I think it holds great potential, especially with the vibrant directionality of the stitches.

I use it to replace quilting lines, forming patterns while still being a lot quicker and easier than hand quilting.  You don't need a hoop or frame, no thimble is required, you won't be pricking your fingers, and it is so easy to quilt in all directions without turning the quilt that I have crowfooted an entire bedspread while keeping it on the bed all the time.  Not only was I sitting in bed under the quilt while working on it, but the cat frequently sat on me and the quilt as well.  This is a very disability-friendly way of quilting, even on a huge quilt.  It doesn't feel like supporting much weight, and because there is so little equipment, it's very easy to stop and start according to fatigue levels.

This is a version of fly stitch, which can be done either as a V or as a Y.  You can also do cross stitches, and some people combine both in the same quilt.  Another version, called the hidden or international stitch, has two horizontal stitches, one directly above the other, but I found it surprisingly difficult to sew neatly, and it lacked the movement of the fly stitches.

Thread

I use perle #8, which is thick enough to balance well with the stitch size and also show up nicely.  Although it can be surprisingly inconspicuous if you choose to match the thread to the fabric instead, as I chose to do when requilting my old bedspread.  The 10g balls of thread are ideal, and I have built up a good collection by now.  There are often good deals on sets of Anchor perle #8 threads on eBay and Amazon.  Variegated thread won't show up that well, because of the gap between stitches, so you are better off getting several colours that shade into each other and switching between them every time you start a new thread, if you want that effect.  You need to think about your designs on a bigger scale with crowfooting, right down to shading the threads.

I haven't tried perle #5 yet, but as long as you don't end up with big holes from burying the knot, I think it could look stunning and make a big statement.  Thinner thread such as perle #12 looks a little unbalanced to my taste, considering the size of the stitches.

Needles

If you are using this technique instead of quilting lines, and your stitches are up to 1" apart (mine are 3/4" apart):

First choice: #7 short/cotton darners. Get a mixed pack of #3-#9 and see what you get on with. John James (Colonial Needles), Prym and Bohin make them, that I know of so far.

Second choice: #7 straw/milliners. Again, get a mixed pack of #3-#9 and see what you get on with. When I can afford them, I may try Tulip #7 milliners, as people say Tulip needles are amazing.

Straw needles are virtually identical to short darners, but the eye is a little smaller and harder to thread. I have no difficulty using either a #7 short darner or a # straw. Straw needles may be easier to find.

May work for some: embroidery or sashiko needles.

If you are spacing your stitches further apart than 1", try a mixed pack of long darners, and again the #7 is the first one I'd try. These are like short darners but longer.

If you are using this technique to replace tying a quilt and your stitches will be a few inches apart, buy a pack of doll/sculpture needles, such as the Hemline ones.  I initially did this when crowfooting at 2" intervals, and used the smallest in the Hemline set, which was 4" long. 

Remember that bigger needles leave bigger holes in the fabric, which means more scraping at the hole with your thumbnail after burying the knot, and makes bearding (fibres from the batting creeping out) more likely.  They are easier to thread, but once the eye gets too big, the thread will keep slipping out and will have to be knotted in place.  The Hemline 4" doll needle was the largest I found where the thread didn't slip out. If you really need the needles to be longer, you can tie the thread onto thr needle at the eye.

#7 short darning needles are my current favourite.  They have a nice, flexible feel while being strong enough, a good length, are easy to thread without the thread slipping out while you sew, and feel comfortable in the hand.  I notice that my hands are a lot more relaxed with longer needles like these than they were with between needles, which helps avoid hand pain. So far, the brands I've found selling #7 short darners, also called cotton darners, are John James (sold as Colonial Needles in the US) and Prym.

Be aware that needle sizes are not standardised between brands, so a #9 embroidery needle in one brand could be more like a #7 or #5 in another. Hunt down the sizes if you're having difficulties. The #7 short darners that I adore are 0.69 x 48mm, with a long eye.

How to stitch

I am right-handed, so I hold my needle in my right hand and keep my left hand under the quilt.  You are not stitching against your finger as with hand quilting, but you will be using your left hand to grasp and manipulate the quilt, and to feel whether the needle has come through all three layers or not. 

 1. Tie a knot 1/2" from the end of your thread, looping the thread around twice.  Pull it tight.  This shows the knot before it is pulled tight.

 2. Put the needle into the top a little over 1/2" below where you want to begin your line of stitching, and a little to the right.  You are going to bury the knot underneath what will become your line of stitching.  Bring it out where you will have the left side of your first stitch.

You want to put your needle into the batting, but do not bring it out at the back.  Use the fingers on your left hand to check this from the underside of the fabric.

 3. Pull the thread through, and then bury the knot by popping it in.  I find it easiest to pinch the fabric close to where you are burying the knot with your left hand, then wrap the thread once around the first two fingers of your right hand, and give a sharp tug.  Once the knot is buried, use your thumbnail to scrape over the hole it made, and that should move the thread fibres back so that the hole is no longer visible.  This is possible with batiks, which have a finer weave, but it is harder if you are using a bigger needle.

You bury the knot and then turn around to begin your stitching, and this turn helps anchor the stitching in place.  So does having a decent amount of a tail left buried.

 4. Put your needle into the fabric a bit to the right, between 1/8" and 1/4" away depending on how thick your quilt is and what look you are going for.  This time you are going to push your needle through all the layers of the quilt, and come up below and in the middle, forming a triangle between where the thread is coming out and the two points of the needle.  Again, use your left hand to check that you can feel the needle coming through at the back.

You can now see a row of stitches I did earlier in cream.

5. Pull the thread round so that it comes under your needle, and pull the needle through to make your first stitch.  This is the main point where I check with my left hand from the underside, as I can feel the thread as it moves through better than I can feel the smooth needle alone.

This is the only part of the process where a stitch is being formed on the back of the quilt.  It will look like a single slanted stitch, which I'll show at the end.

 6. Put your needle back in just below the bottom of the V, and push it through the batting but not out to the back.  Bring it up again where you wish to begin your next stitch. You are travelling the needle between the layers.

If you are using crowfooting to replace tying a quilt, this will be several inches away, and this will be where a much longer needle is useful.

If you are using crowfooting to replace lines of quilting, it will be a lot closer.  I found that my natural stitch spacing developed with practice, and that for me it's 3/4" between stitches.

 7. The thread is pulled through, the first stitch is completed, and you are ready to take the second stitch.  Repeat until you are near the end of your thread, or your line of stitching.

 8. To finish a line of stitching, put the needle in just below the bottom of your last stitch, where the thread is shown coming out here.

 9. Pushing the needle between the layers but not through to the back, bring it out again about 1/4" away, going back in the direction of your stitching line.  As when you began your stitching line, you are turning in the opposite direction to help anchor the end of your stitching.

 10. Form a knot just above where the thread comes out of the fabric, using your fingernail to push it down.  Here I am looping the thread to form the knot.  As at the beginning, wrap it around twice.

 11. This shows the knot once it's formed.  Pull it tight.

 12. Put your needle back in the same hole you made when you brought the thread out to make the knot, push it between the layers but not through to the back, and bring it out 1/2" away, angling off to the side.  Angling it this way means that you are pulling the knot slightly to the side under the hole it's going back into, which helps bury it.

 13. Bury the knot with a sharp tug, pinching the fabric with your left hand again.

 14. Snip the thread next to the fabric, as I've just done in this photo.  Rub your thumbnail over it, and  any visible bit of thread will disappear.

15. This shows the back of my sample piece, with the little slanting stitches.  I must confess that they do not come out quite as neatly as the front, and every now and again my needle comes through to the back when it's not meant to and an extra little stitch appears, which will hopefully improve with practice and also when using thicker batting.  Despite slight irregularities, the overall effect is pleasant.





And that's it!  It's simpler than it looks, but I wanted to show every single stage in detail just in case.  I spent a while working out the best way to bury the knot at each end of the thread, without anything extra showing on the back, and had to unpick my earlier stitching due to some knots popping back out.  You definitely need the change in direction and the goodly sized tails when burying your knots.  Once I got this method down, they all stayed put, and the bedspread I crowfooted has been through a wash and tumble dry cycle without any issues.

As well as feeling whether or not the needle is coming through to the back, the main job of your left hand is to hold the fabric in position between your thumb and first finger.  I'll get my partner to take photos of me doing this once I start crowfooting his bedspread.  I used to be one of those people who had to use a quilting frame in order to get decent tension for hand quilting, but for some reason, I had no trouble at all with the tension when crowfooting.

Crowfooting away from yourself is as easy as towards yourself, as you are not loading multiple stitches onto the needle.  As the stitching is directional, you may sometimes find that you want your stitches to face the other way around from the direction you are stitching in, in order to save yourself stopping and restarting the line from somewhere else.  I have found that this works out absolutely fine.  You finish a stitch and then pass the thread underneath it as part of travelling to the next stitch.

 I cut up some distinctly deceased old jeans in order to try out crowfooting on them.  The stitches ended up fairly close together as I didn't have a huge amount of space to play with, but it was invaluable for trying out shapes and combinations of threads.

If you look at the spiral on the top left, I initially tried that with the same amount of spacing between the stitches as between the rows.  Despite gradually changing colour with the threads, it didn't show up well as a spiral.  I went in and put a stitch in between most of the other ones, and the design clicked, though I didn't bother with the outer row, where you can see the original spacing.

This is where I decided that you need a minimum of double the distance between rows as you have between stitches, if you want it to read as lines of quilting rather than randomly placed stitches.  For me, that's 3/4" between stitches and at least 1 1/2" between rows.  Whereas the oranges and reds at the left further down read as a grid, because I didn't follow that rule.  A grid with colour variations, but nevertheless, a grid.

Under that is two attempts at doing the equivalent of a double line of quilting.  Neither turned out very convincing for that purpose, and where I staggered the stitches, it suddenly lives up to its name of crowfooting, also called crow's feet stitching or turkey tracks.  If you want to give the effect of a bird having walked over your quilt, that's how to do it!  I was thinking of the double lines 1/4" apart in Welsh quilting, but I think that as crowfooting has such a strong presence due to the shape of the stitches, a single line of crowfooting is a better replacement.  Lines of crowfooting in different colours would have a stronger effect.

The concentric circles on the left in blue, lime green and white, where I change thread colour every row, look effective to me.  The concentric circles on the right, where I tried changing colour randomly in the middle of rows, are interesting but look muddled at that scale.  They may look better done that way with larger circles and better spacing between rows.

The piece of denim below shows more experimenting with spirals, changing the thread colour every time I finish a thread, and also variegated thread, which was a little disappointing.  Also concentric diamonds, which I considered using for the quilt I've just basted, but decided would be the less interesting option.  I'll be crowfooting that quilt in large spirals of varying sizes.