This month I am sharing another of my favourite stitches, the herringbone stitch. This is the first stitch I learned when I started crazy quilting and still by far my favourite!
If you are new to my seam treatment series and want to learn more, check out categories – crazy quilting – seam treatments. While I developed this series for crazy quilting, remember the stitches would be great for use in wool applique. Don’t forget to experiment!
The herringbone stitch is another very versatile stitch allowing many opportunities for embellishing. Over the coming months I will be sharing three different examples but today I’d like to start with a basic herringbone. Make sure you follow the next several posts in the series so you can see how much more you can do with this stitch.
Personally, I always like to start with a template for this stitch so trace a seam using one of Kathy Shaw’s templates offered in her Stunning Stitches For Crazy Quilts book. Don’t forget, this is a great resource if you don’t already have it in your personal library! There are more templates available so decide on what works for you best.
How To Stitch This Herringbone Seam Treatment
I stitched my herringbone stitch using several strands of silk floss in variations of golden yellow. After all, yellow is our feature colour this month! I don’t often use silk floss but wanted to experiment. Having completed this seam treatment, I would choose likely a perle cotton or silk perle next time because I think it would stand out a bit more. Having said this, it isn’t necessary for ALL your seam treatments to be “center stage” so to speak. French knots were added in another silk product I had. I should mention at this point that leftover bits can be easily used for crazy quilting so don’t throw those bits away!
If like me you prefer a video, Mary has completed one for the herringbone stitch, check out Needle ‘N Thread
Today’s herringbone stitch sample is very minimal with little embellishing. Stay tuned next month for a sample showing how much you can do with this great stitch.
