Mary was talking today at her site about how she is going to be spending several weeks teaching us a sampler of various long and short stitch shapes :

http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/long-and-short-stitch-shading-my.html,

including the use of a couple of videos.

The sampler :


She's specifically designed the shapes to cover difficult aspects of L&S. (I think that blue shape at the top right will be the hardest)

When I'm feeling better, (a month or so?) I'll do the sampler (the lessons should have started by then) before getting back to my own Elizabethan Sampler.

It's far too good an opportunity to miss learning directly from someone who really knows their Long and Short Stitch.