Embroidered Collage

It looks awful while you're stitching it.  Seriously.  This has surprised me each of the times I've used the technique.  When you do this needlelace stitch close together, as the traditional lacemakers did, every part fits together and it forms a dense fabric, but when you do it further apart, trying to get a lacy network like the one in yesterday's piece or the one in Layered Leaf, everything seems to be off.  I took a picture of the red layer in progress.

Maybe some stitchers can control their tension well-enough to avoid this phase.  I can't yet.  And, honestly, I'm not sure I want to, since if there are loose bits it makes the effect when you put in the last layer of securing stitches more interesting, like this.

Doing the lace this way did make adding that last gold layer more challenging though, because I was trying to guess where to put that extra tension in order to have the border of the piece be square.  I need more practice - or to just accept and play with the limitations of the technique as I currently do it and make sure my bottom edge can be uneven.