Embroidered Collage

I wanted to find a way to use this small sampler in a footstep.  I had a piece of sheer patterned fabric in greens, which included some rectangular swirls in white.  So I started painting on a canvas with the idea that it would support these two elements.

  This was my first attempt.  It was much starker underneath the sheer fabric than I was looking for.  You couldn't really see the subtleties of the pattern.  I had painted it without thinking much and that one swirl straight through is plagueing me a bit as I try to figure out the final composition.

  But for my next step I toned it down with a smeared on layer of bright green mixed with a transparent white.  It's a bit disturbing looking at it straight like this, but it looks much better with the sheer fabric on top.  However, now it needed more patterning, so I added the small squares and the fern like marks.

I'm happy with the effect I'm achieving, so I will glue on the sheer fabric next.  I'm thinking I'll go straight to stitching - boxes of backstitch, most likely - but we'll see.