The Holbein Stitch is just the Running Stitch made in two passes. One nice property of this stitch is that it looks the same on the reverse side of the fabric. This makes it especially good for decorating table linens.

Because of the highly geometric nature of this stitch, it is best to stitch on an even-weave fabric (the kind you would use for counted cross stitch, such as aida cloth or even-weave linen). If you are stitching on another kind of fabric, you will need to transfer grid marks to the fabric.