save all of the background until the end so I am finding it very interesting.  I love seeing the colors emerge as I go.  The hardest part is trying to decide whether to stitch upwards towards the next element or horizontally, so I find I do both.  I am trying to finish working with a strand of background thread in one go so that I do not mix it up with the lightest of the flower colors.  This is working well for me as I do not end off the other threads when I finish a motif and can very easily mix up the two colors. I run it off to the side of the stitches somewhere out of the way until I need it again.  This helps reduce the number of starts and endings of a thread.  However, if there will be a large section of background that I need to cross to get to the next motif, I will finish off the thread rather than carry it that far so that the back looks neater.

​I am looking forward to seeing how much I can finish next week!