are at different angles and of unequal length.
The fourth example shows two lines of spaced buttonhole stitch fitting
neatly the one into the other and forming a solid line. One row is
worked first, leaving just sufficient space between each stitch for the
second row to fill up, which can be carried out by reversing the
position of the material and exactly repeating the first line in the
same or in a different colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 51.]

A flower filled in with open buttonhole stitch is shown at fig. 51. The
centre consists of a mass of French knots, and the outside line is in
satin stitch. The innermost circle of buttonholing is worked first, the
next row is worked over the heading of the first row as well as into the
material; the succeeding rows are worked in the same way until the
outside limit is reached, and there the satin stitch just covers the
heading of the last row of buttonhole stitching. Gradation of colour can
easily be introduced by using a different shade for each circle of
stitches, and this produces a very pretty effect. An open method of
filling a space, whether flower, leaf, drapery, or background, is
sometimes preferable to a solid filling, and the two methods can very
well be used together as each shows off the other. These light fillings
give opportunity for further variety and ingenuity in the stitching, and
prevent the work from looking heavy. A butterfly, carried out partly in
open stitches, is illustrated in fig. 52.

[Illustration: Fig. 52.]

Fig. 53 is, in the original, a gay little flower carried out in orange
and yellow. The stitch employed here is a close buttonhole.

[Illustration: Fig. 53.]

Another example of the use of close buttonhole is shown in the ivy leaf
in fig. 54. The stitch is worked in two rows, back to back, in each lobe
of the leaf, and the resulting ridge down the centre rather happily
suggests the veining. This method of filling in might be just reversed
for a rose leaf; the heading of the stitch would then suggest the
serrated edge, and the meeting of the two rows down the centre the line
of the vein.

[Illustration: Fig. 54.]

A cluster of berries can be very prettily worked in buttonhole stitch in
the way shown in fig. 55. The stitches are so arranged that the heading
outlines each berry, and the needle enters the material at the same
point, always in the centre. A bullion stitch in a darker colour marks
the eye of the berry.

[Illustration: Fig. 5