Stitching old photos

The photos I got out to use aren't all that old - dates on the back are in the 1990s. Back then, I was quite systematic about labelling and sorting them - and took almost as many as I do now. But oh my, the quality of these is definitely less good than now - after all, you pressed the button and hoped, and saw how it turned out only when you got the prints - and the quality of the prints was at the mercy of the machine doing the printing, and what you happened to have on the film.

The box on the left is one of six, and holds nearly 2000 photos, many of plants and flowers. I chose a few on the subject of "spring", with vague thoughts of "quilting" them -

The glossy finish makes them hard to photograph, as there is always a reflection of some sort. Having taken a photo of possible layouts, I lost interest in the project (or rather, was simply daunted).

But I did want to try stitching, somehow, and plunged into that without much thought ... letting the hands do the thinking -

It could be interesting to have wadding under the fabric, as the fabric would be sculpted by the stitches and the photo would be stiff enough to stay flat. The "web" of thread over the clumps of flowers isn't right, but useful for something else another time (flight of the bumblebee??) - and the green "contour" lines aren't right either.

Next time - covering some of the photo with fabric? adding stitch that's not a replica of the photo?... in that case, why use a photo at all? ... for the shininess and the flatness, perhaps ... for a layer of colour ... as a starting point ...