Rainbow circles face cloth
This cloth was requested by my kid, and I always put his requests at the top of the stack. I’ll be very sad if he ever stops asking for things!
Since it’s been in some discussions lately, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on making the “back side” pretty, especially in a case like this where the fabric is only one layer.
Many moyozashi patterns look very similar front to back, such as the teal Seigaiha and the red Shippo Tsunagi. (Only different here, because I added little circles in the centers as a nod to my mom). For some moyozashi patterns, like asanoha (pictured in orange and green), there’s often a way to minimize thread skipping in the back. For the orange one, I kept the skips in one of the passes, but in the green one, I incorporated those lines into other passes. This means a little bit of doubling back, but if it’s important to have the back look clean, it can be worth it.
I think Hitomezashi patterns almost always look great on the back when stitched methodically without skipping around. I tend to avoid patterns where this is hard to do.
I do enjoy that some hitomezashi, like the yellow pattern I stumbled on and think of as “Love and Family” looks the same front and back, just shifted, while others like the kakinohana in lavender and the tortoiseshell (kikko?) variation in blue are the inverse on the back, and make a completely different pattern.
What are some of your favorite patterns? Are there patterns you’ve been avoiding because it’s too much of a puzzle to figure out the stitching order? Which patterns do you find the most fun to stitch?