Alphabet Banner--Part II: Open Buttonhole Filler

For almost a year now I've worked on the alphabet banner for my son.  Not consistently, of course, but when I do watch out!!!  Unfortunately, at the rate I'm going Sebastian will be in high school by the time I finish.  Oh well... I'll save it for my grandkids!  Actually the banner is a pretty simple project.  My inspiration came from the various alphabet books and flash cards I use with my son.  Many of the letters were represented by simple objects or animals like elephants, owls, and cars.  Although I've never been one to attempt applique, the vivid imagery was too enticing to pass up.  I designed the letters freehand but the pictures were based on Ed Emberley's drawing techniques.  He uses simple shapes to create boldly graphic designs.  He has a series of "how to" drawing books that really takes the mystique out of drawing.

The sewing material I used were several old sweaters I recycled; however, you could use regular felted wool which is easier to work with because it's not as thick as recycled sweaters.  I used Aurifil wool thread to stitch my applique pieces and various other threads to embroider and embellish.  In a pervious post about this banner I included pictures of a couple of blocks I had completed but I didn't elaborate on the block embellishments.  Well, I wish to correct that mistake and talk about them now!

The problem with talking about embroidery stitches is, depending on what source material you use, one stitch may go by a multitude of different titles.  I never really thought about it before now because I normally don't think about the name of a stitch.  I based my use of certain stitches on their looks rather than what they were called and if I needed to locate a certain stitch, well again, I looked at the pictures of my embroidery books rather than rely on assigned names.  Titles only become a problem when you need to compile a list or try to explain how to do certain stitches.  This was the situation confronting me while trying to put this post together.  A prime example of this particular quandary is the open buttonhole filler stitch, a.k.a. the net stitch, a.k.a. the detached buttonhole stitch.  All three pretty much refer to the same thing, except the detached buttonhole is similar but very different from the other two; however, I chose it because it was the only representation I could find on the internet.  Here are some examples of this elusive stitch.

This is a detail of the "A for alligator" block.  I use the open buttonhole filler to simulate the animal's scales.  I used a no. 8 pearl cotton thread.

The example below is a close up of the "N for nectarine" block.  While I used the same stitch I had a completely different purpose.  I needed to add texture and color to an otherwise boring block.









Instructions for this stitch are available in two books:  Creative Stitching by Sue Spargo (open buttonhole), and Embroidery & Crazy Quilt Stitch Tool by Judith Baker Montano (net stitch).  If you're not interested in acquiring a book you could also look at Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches website (detached buttonhole).

I particularly liked this stitch because once the anchor row is established the rest goes pretty quickly.  Little effort for a BIG effect!  It's funny because it has less to do with embroidery and feels more like crochet or something similar.  Of course there are other stitches represented through out each block but I think I'll save that for another day...

Happy stitching!!!!