Originally Posted by
romanojg
This could be done in many ways but you indicated that you wanted to keep your Aunt's intentions there. I'd leave it like it is, and use a small zig zag stitch around each piece. If you go changing it a lot you won't think of your aunt when you look at it which I would think would be the point of finishing them off. It looks good, just need to make it stable now so that it holds up.
Yes, leave it like it is. It was meant to be this way. Today we call it "low volume" and that is one of the new things that was "invented" recently. (Just gave the old a new name.) I like the idea of stabilizing, though. Many good ideas were given here.