Felt and Fabric Applique

Lately I've been creating for the art gallery but I've decided to take a break from that and create something for myself.  Eight months ago I started a felt applique project because I was inspired by something I saw on the internet. This is a picture of the beginning stages: 

To read my first post on this project and to see photos of my inspiration piece please go to:
 http://kimagination1.blogspot.com/search/label/Felt
I love the way this piece is coming along (since I rediscovered it) but how do I hang it?  This piece only measures 8 1/2" X 11" so what I decided to do was to buy a huge piece of felt, sew this to that, extend the design and mount it onto canvas.  It isn't complete yet but here's a sneek peek at how it's going:

This has inspired me to try fabric applique but still using felt as my background.  I like bright colors so my first idea was to do an underwater theme with bright coral and fish. I knew I was going to create the coral out of felt then I wanted to find fish fabric.  I've never appliqued before but I remember watching my mom create a beautiful wall hanging when we went to England in 2000.  (What a great idea for a future post huh mom?)  It seemed easy enough but time consuming because it was very tedius.  I love hand stitching now so I've checked out a few books at the library and bought a few online on applique and I get the general idea but I'm not one to follow a pattern so here is a sneek peek at underwater felt piece:

The embroidery floss in the coral is metalic green and really pops but the picture doesn't do it justice.  This piece isn't finished yet because I haven't added any beads yet but I have beautiful blue ones to add to the water (and little black eyes for the fish, etc.)

If I finish them by next Thursday they may be in our new gallery show starting Friday and I stress the word maybe.