Grandma's Purse

I can picture my mother-in-law carrying this purse in my mind just as clear as the day is long. When she passed a few years ago on Easter Sunday my sister-in-law gave me the purse as a memory of her mother.  I was grateful for her generosity in giving me something that I know my mother-in-law loved and had spent many hours creating but I was unsure what I was going to do with it.  I wasn't about to carry it for fear that I would damage the piece so up in the closet it went until a light finally went off in my head last week.  Doesn't happen as often anymore....old age I guess.  Anyway, I went to HL an purchased a shadow box to display the purse in.  I didn't want it to become a memorial with pictures or other pieces so I simple pinned the purse in the box and I love it. In these pictures it looks like its resting on the bottom of the shadow box but it is suspended and centered in the box when you see it for real.

She loved to do needlepoint, this particular piece was her favorite. When I was preparing the piece to place it in this shadow box I found a piece of cardboard inside from our local department store with the kit number on the card. The next challenge was where to put it, the box is rather large and I didn't have a piece of furniture where I could sit the box, placing it on the floor under a table or desk didn't work, hanging it on the wall was a possibility but I couldn't find just the right place to hang it and then I walked into the living room where the bookcases are and there on the first shelf of one of the bookcases was the perfect place.  The colors of the cherries and the background color of the purse go very well in that room, so Miss Mabel's purse has a new home and I can enjoy seeing it everyday. 

I also have a chair with a needlepoint seat that she did so many years ago

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphism Monday