Embroidered Collage

All of the little squares have been stitched securely to the background in what will be their final arrangement.  Each is tacked down with a straight stitch at the four corners of the square.  I like how the composition evolved but it needs more.  It doesn't have that "complete" feel yet.  I'm thinking about adding stitching throughout the background in some manner.

My first attempt at altering the background involved  iridescent gold paint and shimmering green/red paint.  But the picture looked so pale and not at all like I'd imagined.  So I attacked it with watercolor crayons, gold and metallic gold, green and silver.  I used liquid acrylic medium to wet down and spread the colors.  I got a little more than I bargained for in terms of pigment, but it worked.

I tacked the background to the frame for easy stitching, then pinned the squares to the canvas in the arrangement I wanted them.  Since I used straight pins pointing up and down, this made working on the piece kind of interesting.  I was trying to avoid getting pricked!  I had to sit in a particular position sideways on the loveseat and support the frame with my knees.  One of these days I need one of those frame stands so I don't need to use body parts.  But it turned out well in the end.

If you missed the previous entries, this piece has been evolving from random little squares, to which I added stitching, created a background for them, and then tried out potential arrangements.