Decision Made

After monkeying with the shells and beads some more, I decided to take them all off...

...and I think I like it best this way.  I did add 4 beads - in the centers of the little symbols at the end of the sentences.  I've kept the shells, and once it is framed I think I will attach some to the frame itself.  They were just too big to feel "natural" on the stitching.  I even tried adding some smaller shells from a pack I got at the craft store, but since the other shells belonged to my friend's sister, it just didn't feel right to mix materials like that.
If anyone is curious about the pattern, it is "Clara's Mermaid Sampler 1891" from the Sampler Girl, in her Sampler Girl Companion Mermaid Booklet.  I stitched this on Silkweaver's "Mountain Mist" lugana, and used a couple different hand-dyeds for the wording, the blue waves, and the box around the heart.  The sea grass and Clara's name and date were stitched in the charted colors.  Oh, and I did the entire "wave" in blue - the chart switches from blue to the green text color about 1/4 of the way across, but I didn't like that.

And Now, to the Shore

If you are a regular reader/follower, by now you probably know that I love mermaids.  I don't know WHY - I mean, there's something kind of unsettling about a creature that is half attractive woman, half scaly fish... But still.  When it comes to stitching, anyway, maybe I just love the colors and shapes that go with mermaid-y patterns?

So anyway, I started this -

Which will become this - 

Clara's Mermaid Sampler 1891 by The Sampler Girl

I'm using a piece of Silkweaver "Meadow Mist" lugana, and swapped in a bunch of hand-dyed flosses from my stash (it is charted in DMC).  I think I might make that entire "wave" at the bottom blue - not sure why it was changed to green part way across.  I like the blue better, anyway!  I'm also going to change up the shells.  I have a few little shells given to me by a friend - her sister collected them before she passed away earlier this year from colon cancer.  I don't have enough to go all the way around, but I was thinking about using some of my bead stash to make it look more like a pendant of sorts.  

Part of me thinks I should give the finished piece to my friend, and part of me is loving it too much right now to think about parting with it.  Hmmm.  I could always ask her once it is finished - it may not be her style, and I know that some other friends have already made her some memory pieces with other shells, including a gorgeous resin shadow box.