Sashiko Online Tutorial 2

How are you all getting on?  I think Susan's tutorials are very detailed, the photos are so useful and I'm really enjoying the extra information about the history of sashiko that she's giving us.  In the third tutorial Susan discusses thimbles so, just for fun, I've added a little poll to the right hand bar of my blog.

I've stitched my border:

the back,

with that little extra loop left on the corner to prevent puckering - a really good tip, after stitching carefully to make the corners right the last thing we want is for it to be pulled out of alignment.

The front,

and I have to admit to finding it difficult to work from the back.  I kept forgetting the small stitch should be on the back (front, where I was working) and the large on the front (back, where I couldn't see).  I'm starting to get used to it though and certainly finding the support of the interfacing very helpful.  My stitch lengths vary but I'm hanging on to Sue's comment that

We've got all weekend to stitch the diagonal lines on the 'dragonfly over diamond waves' design and by the time we get the next tutorial and start on the dragonfly I think I'll be very happy with my stitching - practice makes perfect after all.  Have a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to hearing from you all.