Variety...

is the spice of life, it is said.  |Perhaps it is.  I never make the same thing twice, there is always a twist in there somewhere, that makes whatever it is different to whatever it was.  Low boredom threshold?  Perhaps.  I prefer to look at it as curiosity, plain and simple.  So... you saw the seeds yesterday; here is another version.

The print itself is identical, but this time, it has been printed onto Lutradur XL.  That immediately makes  it almost impossible to create the kind of depth through stitch that working into Evolon with batting produced in the previous version.  To add texture and colour, I put a sheet of green florists wrap (similar to fine Lutradur) over the whole piece.  That, however, removed most of the contrast from the piece, so I cut it back to expose the dark background.

Oddly, the Evolon piece looked well balanced; this one did not.  So, out came the rotary cutter, as you can see from the bottom.  I cut a chunk off, and then cut the chunk into two unequal parts.  My original intention had been to cut the smaller up for jewellery, but decided I liked it as it was.

I also felt that, like the previous piece, there was a need for the dark, metallic stitch that enhanced the contrast.  So, I stitched the two pieces in different ways, to see what would happen.

This is the smaller of the two pieces, with fairly intense stitching similar to the previous piece in the dark areas.  I then went on to stitch quite intensively in the rest of the quilt.  The florist's wrap had obscured some of the detail of the photograph, and I wanted to reinstate it.

I then went on to work on the larger of the two pieces.

This time, the stitch in the dark areas is simply echoing the shape of the negative space; again, I've added quite a bit of stitch in the rest of the piece.

In writing, I realise that I have decided not to add further stitch to the larger piece.  It seems to work nicely as it is; perhaps it is because of its size.  Or perhaps there is more detail visible.  Either way, looking at it this morning, I find I like it as it is...and so will leave it alone.  Nor had I considered cropping the other, quilted piece; it is fine as it is.

I found myself tagging this with 'free motion quilting'.  In fact, it would be closer to the truth to say free motion embroidery; most of this piece has just one thick layer.  It does contrast nicely, I think, the difference between working with quilt, and working with embroidery.  Personally, I don't think the label matters much.  I just appreciate the pieces for what they are.  If they have to have a label, I prefer to think of them as art.