Mary bag pocketbook

One May over 30 years ago I went to the needlework market at the airport Hilton in Atlanta with instructions from Trubey to order 3 purse canvases from Betty Turner of Elizabeth Turner Needlepoint.  She had a purse called the "Gerry" bag.  Its original size was larger than a Pierre Deux bag, though shaped similarly.  The three names I was to order were:  Trubey, Zoella, and Mary.  I immediately stitched the Mary version so we had it for a shop model--and still have it today. It was stitched entirely in Paternayan persian yarn. The colors selected seemed appropriate for 1980 in the North Carolina mountains, though today in Florida looking at it I think the colors are drab.  I suppose it's what I now think of as a "city" bag--that you carry when you travel from Florida to New York or London.  The only time it did any traveling was to accompany me on the QEII when Trubey's parents took us to London.  It's more the size of a carry-on than a pocketbook.

 Trubey and I stitched the Zoella purse to give her mother as a gift.  I don't know what happened to the Trubey canvas.  I'll have to remember to ask Trubey if she ever stitched it.

 This is the Needle Nicely shop model for the more current, smaller version of the bag.  We added a shoulder strap to add to the purse's versatility.  It was stitched in medici yarn for the background and DMC perle coton for the letters. 

 Here's a painted canvas.  We paint each one to order, so some might include the butterflies shown here or other items of significance to the eventual owner.  I always counsel the stitcher to do the long piece first.  If you do the two end pieces first,  you think the long piece is never ending and sometimes people have not finished it.  Sometimes you just have to out-smart yourself!!

This is the same style purse canvas with Trubey's tassels.  Usually it is stitched with a navy or black background to make the tassel colors really popl