TAST Herringbone

This week's stitch is the herringbone stitch. When was the last time you saw a herring bone? Herring are similar to smelts, which we in Maine are very familiar with. So do these stitches look like herring bones? Sometimes I think we use words and don't even think about other associations. If someone said herringbone I would think of embroidery, certainly not a fish! I used green size 8 perl cotton for most of these stitches. The red detached chain stitch is made with two strands of embroidery floss.

Herringbone stitch with red straight stitches at the cross. 

I really like these herringbone leaves! I watched a YouTube video tutorial for this one. I added a stem stitch outline. The bottom two leaves had the stem stitch added after the leaf was made. The top two leaves were outlined with stem stitch before making the herringbone stitches. 

Here is a wreath made with one circle of green herringbone stitches, then another round with the red perl cotton. These perl cotton threads are hand dyed for a variegated effect. I used a plastic drinking cup with flared sides to make the outer and inner circles. I used a blue washable pen from my quilting supplies to mark the circles.

Couching with herringbone. The bottom example uses yellow embroidery floss and the green silk ribbon was inserted after the stitches were made. Tiny green delicata beads anchor the ribbon. The couched ribbon above that is a velour ribbon which I held down as I stitched, much easier than trying to thread the ribbon. 

Here's the entire group. If you want to see the TAST home page, click here.  Hope you enjoyed my stitching!