Pieces of retired sails are glued to the panel to create texture for me to build a design around. I was given a bag of sail fabric scraps from Hoistaway Sails of York, Maine for use in my collage painting work. They provide a wonderful texture from the surface itself to the various stitching--straight and zig zag. I'm not clear on the design at the outset but affix the sail fabric pieces prior to painting and go from there.