Colour mixing exercise
Sample #1 above is stitched in rice stitch worked mainly in stranded cotton, though as I worked I became curious about the effect that perle thread would give as the second step of the stitch so the lower half of the sample has a grey perle 8 thread used to stitch across the corners of the base cross. I felt that this was very effective at changing the base colour, especially when the whole stitch is worked in stranded cotton.
Sample #2 is Milanese stitch, again worked in stranded cotton. I mixed several different colours in my needle (six strands in total but in varying combinations of colours). I felt that this was probably the most effective method of mixing a shade, though it does give a slightly less textured effect than the rice stitch.
Sample #3 is double elongated cross stitch in perle 8 threads. I used a different colour for the second half of each cross and found it was more effective when a pale colour was used on top of a darker one - especially when worked on white canvas as the paler thread seemed to get lost against the background.
Resolved samples
I had felt really unhappy with my collage attempts at first, as recorded on
my last blog entry, but the following day when I returned to them I
was actually much happier and long before I had received feedback I had
decided to take a smaller section from Collage #1 as the basis for my two resolved pieces.
Section of Collage #1
I chose this composition because I liked the range of colours and the juxtaposition of the different shapes. 
Resolved sample #1
My first piece was worked in canvas work and a mixture of some of the stitches and shading techniques I had discovered in my various samples. The canvas was first coloured with a mixture of greys and green so where the fine grey thread is used to depict the mortar, which surrounds the coloured stones it doesn't look too stark a contrast. I achieved texture by working the pink section in a variety of square stitches in different scales and mixtures of threads, and on the greenish stone by working wheatsheaf stitches on top of each other in different directions.
Resolved sample #2
For my second resolved piece I decided to work in needlelace - a technique I have used a lot in the past few years. I first monoprinted a piece of calico using fabric paints in green, black, white and yellow, then used hand dyed threads to make my lace. I stitched the lace in a completely random fashion, adding a second layer to some sections to depict the textures and the shading on the actual wall. As the calico was not really strong enough to hold the final piece of lace once it was removed from the frame, I bonded it to a piece of pelmet vilene. With hindsight I should probably have done this before beginning to stitch as the action of pressing the fabric to bond it to the vilene has flattened the stitching somewhat.