I am attempting to seam swatches together for Level II and am having a problem with beginning the seam. I have followed Arenda Holladay's article "Seams--Part I" and Nancy Wiseman's book on Finishing Techniques. When I use the method to start the seam (and use the figure 8) I can see a bit of the contrasting yarn at the very beginning. When I look at the samples in the article, I can see no contrasting yarn except for the tails. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? Thank you.

I honestly don't think your doing anything wrong. It's possible that the swatches in the magazine article "plumped up" a bit and that's why it appears that you can't see the contrasting yarn. When I did mine there was a small part that showed as well. Not being a committee member or having sent in my own level 2 yet, I can't say it would certainly pass, but I suspect it would, with maybe a kindly comment on how you could have hidden it better, if it is possible to do so.

You might want to also look in the Master's level forum. That's just a few "rows" down from this "How to" forum. If you use the "find" button and type in level 2 seamed swatches, you will no doubt find posts on the subject and your answer might be in there.