Mermaid Azure: Framed! And a small treasure.

You guys! I'm so excited: it's happened! Mermaid Azure is finally framed and up!

But before we get into that, I want to show you a little modification I made to the beads. Here's a closeup of the area I modified, see if you can guess what it is:

I'm guessing that since you are not me (aka glued to this particular project), you won't necessarily see any difference. So I'll point it out: you see that pearl the mermaid is holding? That pearl (or rather, faux pearl) belonged to my grandmother. She absolutely loved pearls, and she had strands of them (again, fake ones) at her shop. She would use them to add little details to baby girls' clothing and headbands, and she would use them so often and so liberally that I've always associated my granny with pearls. When she passed away, one of the things I got were quite a few strings of these pearls, and I have since put them in small bottles to use for my own handcrafts.

So it suddenly seemed obvious to me to add one to this little mermaid! Because mermaids love pearls too, don't they? And she's holding it so reverently, like a treasure. So I guess that if we're being all philosophical about this as a piece of art, I suppose the mermaid represents me holding a memory of my beloved granny and cherishing it always.

Framing

Now, for the framing. I didn't go to a professional framer's this time, because if I do that each time I finish a project I'll go bankrupt. So I went to my local hardware/furniture shop and picked up a white frame with ripples in the wood that reminded me of the waves of the sea:

I framed it in a very play it by ear sort of way: I simply draped the fabric over the back of the frame, moved it around to get it as centered as possible, and sewed the sides together with a very long stitch. So if you turn the frame around, you'll see this very handcrafted look (that's the word I'm going with, anyway):

What can I say? I'm just happy the front looks ok!

To top it all off, I found the perfect spot for it: my Mediterranean corner in the living room. With its blues and whites and the obvious sea theme, I could not have planned it any better:

And here goes a special shoutout to my husband, who is just fine with me putting a mermaid front and center in our common living space, because (in his own words) it's "so cool!". Not only that, but he hung it up himself. I married the right man!

And with that, I say a goodbye to summer, because once September rolls in that holiday vibe is gone (or maybe that's just because I'm a teacher). But I did it: I stitched a mermaid and got her framed and hung in the summer. I am satisfied! I hope you're all having a great week so far, thank you for reading and as always, happy stitching :)