Embroidered Collage

I'm not quite sure why I started these.  I found a tiny stack of 2" charm squares in variations of brown that I'd purchased for a reason that I can't remember anymore.  They sat around for about a week and then connected in my mind to some scraps of Peltex I had.  So I started making little almost squares about an inch on a side.  I wasn't consciously influenced by the collage and other inch squared bits that have been around the blog and mail art community recently, but reading about those might have had something to do with it.

Originally I was envisioning just going over the fabric with one layer of translucent paint, evening out the colors, and then adding stitching.  I tried that, but it washed out much of the interest of the variation in the pieces.  The color was too uniform and not as I imagined.  So I added more dibs and dabs of this and that.  The difference in the underlying fabric is still significant , creating more interest than if I'd used all the same one, but it is more obscured than my first intent.

I want to add some simple stitching to each, likely in some sort of x or square, with a bead in the center.  I went through my stash last night and didn't find anything like what I'd been imagining.  Now I need to decide whether I should go bead shopping or take side-trip determined by availability.  I'm still not quite sure what I'll do with them, but the process is entertaining me.