For those of you who've asked, I used Sashiko patterns from a book called Quilting School, A Complete guide to Patchwork and Quilting by Ann Poe. I just decided on my own to use cotton perle thread for the navy and green colored stitching. Don't know if that's the recommended thread, it just looked right to me. For the orange, I just used a 4 strand piece of my daughters embroidery leftovers.
Thanks for the many nice comments. ;)