Pricked Card Embroidery and a Bumpy Ride

I started stitching a pricked card. It's a nice little project to pick up and do when you have a few minutes to concentrate on stitching. I bought the pattern from Prick 'n Stitch in Pinelands, Cape Town a few years ago. 

My granddaughter did some of the pricking for me. It was during the severe floods we had in Brisbane a few weeks ago and the days were very dull and dreary. I've adjusted the photos to compensate for the very poor light, but the photos that included the pricking tool she used were too dark to use, despite trying to fix them. The intensity of the rain over the three worst days was scary. I couldn't believe just how much rain kept falling from the sky. Thankfully we had only very minor flood damage. I was struck by how blissfully quiet is suddenly was when the rain eventually settled into a more gentle tempo.

I chose a thread which has a glint of reddish gold in it. It adds flashes of light to the dark brown of the cat's fur. The thread is a metallic Supertwist by Madeira. It was a parting gift from my friend Sandi Turner who now lives near Oxford in the UK. 

A one-eared cat is as far as I got before life became a little hectic. 

It all began when a much anticipated visit from my daughter and family who live overseas didn't quite work out. Her Australian visitor visa arrived too late - due to staff Covid delays at the visa office. Then there was also a last minute problem with a missing residence visa in a new passport. In the end only half the family made it onto the plane to see us. To add to the upset their luggage didn't arrive at all and couldn't be traced for days. It was however good to see my grandson and my son-in-law and spend some time with them. We even had a very refreshing trip into the country with the cousins meeting up and having fun together. Such a joy to see. Hopefully we'll see the whole family here for Christmas. It will be the first time in three years. 

On the last day of their visit, my daughter who lives nearby took ill. She spent almost a week in hospital and finally had to have surgery to remove her tonsils and a complicating abscess. She is now recuperating with Rod and I for a few days and due to the seriousness of the surgery has been booked off of work for another two weeks.  

Finally, this week we were all especially sad to learn that my lovely step-mom had passed away. We've been going through photos and reminiscing about the good times we spent with her. Her cheerful, loving presence will be greatly missed. 

It's strange how life goes along fairly smoothly and predictably and then all of sudden it doesn't. After some bumps in the road, I hope our family is now in for a smoother ride.

'Till next time, happy stitching!