One Wet and Windy Day....Make sure you survive to the end!

This is a day that blew roofs off of a two year old house... according to my friend who works with the weather bureau - bureau of meteorology in Adelaide. It just so happens that the neighbour of his parents had their roof disappear whilst they were asleep (Nothing to do with predicting the weather but everything to do with knowing the people whom have experienced an event) Anyway, said roof has blown away in the middle of the night and the chap wakes up to rain on his face (Who would sleep through their roof being torn away???) and a view of the stars he doesn't remember seeing before. Remind me not to employ his builder.

So what is this all leading too? Well lets say it was a day to hide inside and that is just what I did after dropping the children off at school.

I dug out a tablecloth that I had picked up from the sale table at craft. There are stains that will never come out of the creases so I decided to embark on making another purse. 

 Inspired by The Custards blog  post: i-am-proud-that-i-made-grown-woman cry < I was desirous to make my own pansy purse and inject a little spring in  my ooh so dreary and droll day 

(I dont want to make anyone cry. I have enough trouble holding the tears back myself...hormones do run rife and work puts forward many situations where I am inclined to feel empathetic towards my patients -although I have had staff remark in surprise that I have a heart and express my emotions...that might have something to do with the bad jokes I tell and the hard realities I put forth about peoples health and potential outcomes, a lot of them not good!)

So stitching it up was the name of the game!

The bones of three pansies were outlined on the linen and the rest was waiting for inspiration and effort.
I've got to say that embroidery is not a quick past time. In particular if you choose to use rayon thread, as I did (I found some in an op shop, liked the sheen and decided to give it a whirl) Let me say that it is a pill to work with and that is why I found some complete schans of thread waiting for a sucker like me. I would be surprised if it is even sold anymore, I certainly wont be running out to buy any.
The said thread pulls apart and balls causing fluff on your work. I have rectified this problem as much as I could by over sewing with another colour to weigh it down It does have a nice sheen but that is all.

Somewhere in between I walked and photographed this. I was actually walking to the shopping center (very large) to purchase a new camera. (Despite having purchased said camera I am still grabbing my phone to take a shot - mmm accessibility??)
Geranium leaves...pretty aren't they?

Back to the flowers..more resting on my derriere, more sewing.

Abit more drawing on the cloth

And this is what I am up to after two days. Somewhere in between I have been gathering stuff for my trip to Bali. Tomorrow I pack and then the next I am away.
So I am turning 50 and I am escaping with my sisters. A once in a lifetime opportunity to spend time with two of my favourite people. I am leaving my family behind, a small twinge of regret and guilt hits me , but mostly I am excited.

So as a part of my birthday celebrations I am going to have a giveaway...I think it will involve buying something in Bali. Leave a comment and when I get back I will draw a winner ... that gives you around nine days. Open to all, I will send anywhere...It will be a surprise for all of us as to what you get! See you in nine!

Embroidery Purse

Firstly many thanks to all well wishers..my son is back on his feet and should be attending university again next week. He is a very fortunate young man and has suffered no ill effects from his illness other than 10kg weight loss and missing a few days whilst he was so ill. We are very grateful to have him alive and well. I makes me more appreciative of my immediate family and friends and also of the lovely extended group of friends that I have made through the world of blogging. So thank you to all.

Before Caleb was sick I picked up this lovely tin at craft. It was actually buried under materials and I wasn't sure whether it was for sale, but of course I asked. It has now been adopted to store incomplete embroideries (of the smaller variety) . The tablecloth was purchased a week later from the same table with another cloth..both are incomplete but came with the threads, so i can foresee many hours embroidering  in front of the heater on a cold winter's night.

This embroidery you have seen in previous posts..but I finally plucked the courage to do something with it. It is really hard to cut into linen and not know whether your efforts will be fruitful at the end of it. I bought purse clips off the internet and they had arrived just before Caleb became ill. So of course they got thrown aside until today.  A quick trace of the clasp and a bit of shaping with a paper template. I didn't really want to loose the embroidery that I had done (it takes me too darn long to cut pieces off and throw away) So I  basically followed the circular shape of the doily.

I think the material for the back of the purse echoes the colour and shape of the flowers and gives it a bit of a pop in colour.

The inside orange and bright. I hate looking around in a dark purse and not being able to see anything.
I decided not to chop off the bottom to give it a flattened surface to sit on - once again to preserve the embroidery

My first purse  complete. Pretty happy!
The last of the roses my sister gave the family when Caleb was sick. She is thoughtful that way .. always giving flowers to others to cheer up their day.