N is for Native American

I robbed the internet for pics this evening - I am so very late getting home!

I learned to cross-stitch in High School Home Ec class my Senior year. (I only really had three years, Junior and Sophomore got squished together).  In the Junior/Soph year, I learned to latch hook and I was passionate about it for a full fifteen minutes, or however long two small projects and one big one that's still only 1/3 done equals to.  It was better than Freshman year, when they taught us to string beads in 'pretty patterns'.  Yeesh.

Anyway, I had fun with cross stitching for a little while, but the teacher never told us anything about resources and I only found a few kits at a local discount store.  I didn't even know you could buy fabric, floss and patterns all on their own.  I thought kits was it.

Fast forward a couple years to my first job, at a small business where one of the men was more than welcome to bring his wife, who had a few separation anxiety issues, and she would sit in the lobby all day and she was cross-stitching.  Constantly.  I was mesmerized, because she was doing things like huge Paula Vaughan's, Dimensions Gold Collections, and those old really big, really intricate patterns that Cross Stitch and Country Crafts used to do in their heyday.  She was a one-at-a-time stitcher, but it was all she did, eight hours a day, sometimes, so she would have those big projects done in no time.

Needless to say, she's the one who got me started stitching again, and explained DMC codes and all that fun stuff and where to buy it.

She was also part Cherokee, like my family, and she gave me several of the patterns left over from kits, more than just Native American, but wolves and random other things.  I loved that lady!  I wish I had kept in touch.  I'll be showing some more of the other stuff in later posts.

Anyway - these are some of the NA ones she gave me, except the Brave and Maiden.  I got their pattern from a different lady.

Gold Collection 'Gift of the Eagle Feather'  I kitted it up and it's ready to start.



These I don't remember their names, I will have to get them out and see!


This is a kit I bought myself - this girl looks eerily like my mother when she was young.  This one is called Spirit of the Cougar,


and I am further than this but I don't have a recent picture.  I think I am down to her shoulder with the border.

And this is the Brave and Maiden kit that I hunted and searched and was obsessive over and a lady finally sent me her used pattern.  And I still have never seen the actual kit anywhere.  Of course, I haven't looked like I used to!  She has a face and some blanket, he only has a bit of hair so I'm not hunting for his picture!




And that is that.  I thought I had one more, but a google search shows me nothing and I'm too tired to go digging for the pattern!