feathery shapes
on the sampler (E), two of which are worked rather open. It is
characteristic of this stitch that it has a sort of spine up the centre
where the threads cross. Suppose the stitch to be worked horizontally.
Bring your needle out on the under edge of the spine about 1/4th of an
inch from the starting point of the work, and put it in on the upper
edge of the work at the starting point, bringing it out immediately
below that on the lower edge of the work. Put it in again on the upper
edge of the spine, rather in advance of where it came out on the lower
edge of it before, and bring it out on the lower edge of this spine
immediately below where it entered.

[Illustration: THE WORKING OF F ON HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]

[Sidenote: TO WORK F.]

In close herring-bone (F on the sampler, Illustration 20) you have
always a long stitch from left to right, crossed by a shorter stitch
which goes from right to left. Having made a half stitch, bring the
needle out at the beginning of the line to be worked, at the lower edge,
and put it in 1/8th of an inch from the beginning of the upper edge.
Bring it out again at the beginning of this edge and put it in at the
lower edge 1/4th of an inch from the beginning, bringing it out on the
same edge 1/8th of an inch from the beginning. Put the needle in again
on the upper edge 1/8th of an inch in front of the last stitch on that
edge, and bring it out again, without splitting the thread, on the same
edge as the hole where the last stitch went in.

If you wish to cover a surface with herring-bone-stitch, you work it, of
course, close, so that each successive stitch touches its foregoer at
the point where the needle enters the stuff (F on the sampler,
Illustration 20). It will be seen that at the back (21) this looks like
a double row of back-stitching. Worked straight across a wide leaf, as
in the lower half of sampler, it is naturally very loose. A better
method of working is shown in the side leaves, which are worked in two
halves, beginning at the base of a leaf on one side and working down to
it on the other. There is here just the suggestion of a mid-rib between
the two rows.

[Illustration: THE WORKING OF G ON HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]

[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]

The stitch at G on sampler, having the effect of higher relief than
ordinary close herring-bone (F), is sometimes misleadingly described as
tapestry stitch. It is worked, as the back of the sampler (21) clearly
sho