The penultimate stitch for Mary Hurst is the QUEEN STITCH also known as the ROCOCO STITCH.
I used to feel apprehensive about using this stitch as I had read of stitchers' dislike of working it. I tried very early on in my stitching journey to stitch it on 36ct and it looked a jumbled mess.
This one experience put me off trying again for a long time - don't let that happen to you.
I am so pleased that recently I sat down and tried it again with the mantra "ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE IF ONLY YOU BELIEVE" running through my mind and now I am stitching away on The American Sampler which has zillions of them.
Mary is the ideal sampler for an introduction to Queen stitch as there are not too many to be worked and other than for one very small berry (6 queen stitches max.) they are all isolated single stitches.
When you have your charts look at the boxers and see what part of their anatomy is represented by a queen stitch !!!!
Now let us have a look at the stitch path - in diagram 1 the stitch is worked from left to right and in diagram 2 the stitch is worked from right to left. Use the path that suits the direction you are working from.
Both diagrams have one line representing one fabric thread.
The photo is from my American Sampler and besides queen stitch also shows rice stitch worked with two different colours.
If you haven't tried this stitch before practice it on a lower count first until you find your rhythm and tension then move up to a higher count