Very cool reminds me of these , of which my wife and I have a few we have purchased over the years. We love collecting Native American stuff.
Thanks!
I love that! I’ve been doing mostly horse hair trim, but I have experimented with the pine needle trim. It’s lots of fun, but I’m still trying to get the knack of ending it smoothly. It’s an art; particularly if you coil them. http://www.turtlefeathers.com/gallery-text/pine-needles.html (upper left photo)
Wow, Kalhoun - very, very nice. One thing I miss about living in the southwest is the easy access to the beautiful hand crafted artwork of the native americans. Not that these are necessarily native, but they carry that vibe. And I love that.
Another trim I’m interested in is braided banana leaf. Easy to work with and very cool looking:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/karlen1956/album/576460762341681608/photo/294928803665353620/6
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/karlen1956/album/576460762341681608/photo/294928803609912822/5
Very cool, do you cure the gourds yourself? Or do you buy them already dried? Just out of curiosity, how much does a “blank” gourd cost?
That is too cute!
I haven’t worked on it in a while, but over the summer I started this; it’s a “mythical beasties” Icelandic cross stitch piece. The last completed piece I did before that was this: it’s a cross stitch knotwork piece. The knot elements are all in long-armed cross stitch, whereas the background filler bits are in regular cross stitch.
The last piece I’ve been working on was a dress for the renaissance festival (which is already over). Of course, I have the bodice all sewn together and ready for the skirt, which hasn’t been cut out. I’ve been really bad at finishing projects lately.
I should take out my sewing this weekend and do some more of it.
I buy them dried and already cleaned on the outside. The cleaning off of the mold isn’t all that bad I guess, but I’d rather purchase them ready to go. They run anywhere from around $5 or $6 for the ones shown here, to a big ass one that was $11, I think.
I buy them from an Amish gourd farm: http://www.amishgourds.com/
I cut them with a little saw (like a “pen” sized saw) and scoop out the innards with a cheap spoon. The gourds shown are my favorite to clean because the inside is basically a pod full of seeds rather than oogy dried funk all over the place (I have a hard time cleaning pumpkins…can ya tell?). I just pull one big hunk o’ funk out and I’m ready to sand.
Knotwork, eh? I’ve done regular counted cross stitch but nothing like that.
I might not for myself but the right item (handmade and unique) for someone I love? Heck yeah.
Everyone’s items are so nice.
Is that the new haircut? How’s it working out? Your eyes are lovely. 
/personal comment hijack
I just checked it out! Cool stuff – and she does a great job with the photography! I should contact her. I can definitely use some pointers.
She has a knack. She bought her first digi-cam and the very next day she had professional looking pics on Etsy. It’s sickening, really 
It takes a little longer to do long-armed cross stitch, but the results are really neat because they give a sense of movement in the texture that can’t be done with regular cross stitch. It’s also a lot stronger, and an older stitch than regular cross stitch, interestingly enough.
It is indeed the new haircut. It’s working out great, though I find it takes too much time to make it curly every day, so I usually just blowdry it and hope it doesn’t rain. And thanks for the compliment on my eyes.
Everything in here is so beautiful! I’m jealous!
This is also a repeat from the sewing Dopers thread. Monday I finally got the rest of the thread to finish the outlining - the kit didn’t include quite enough. Hopefully this week it will be finished!
Fearless Leader, I almost picked up that exact same cross stitch kit on Saturday because I was in the mood to do a little counted cross stitch, but passed on it because it was way more than I wanted to bite off. Yours looks very nice, though.
Oh, what the hell. I always have more projects. This is an embroidery project I’ve been working on since, uh, the year 2000. When it’s done, it will be a caul (but not quite as nice as that one). It’s a combination of chain stitch, satin stitch, French knots, backstitch, and some made-up stitches that came about because I had no idea what I was really doing. My favorite flower is the blue one in the middle with the center of French knots. The fabric is some sort of hideous synthetic. Maybe I’ll applique it to some linen at a later date, but probably not.
Here’s the photo that came along with the “kit”: Yes, the translation for the Icelandic text was “mythical beasties.” It’s going to look really cool when I’m done.
Here’s how far I got tonight after picking it back up: there was a lot more work done than in the original WIP photo, but I finished out the first “frame,” did the border squiggles, and worked on the second “frame.” Someday I’ll have all that blue done and I’ll be able to start on the designs inside of the frames.
This is the Brea bag for a tote exchange. I just need to finish knitting the gusset and sew everything together.
Lady of the Forest, for moi. I’ve had to set it aside to work on the tote for now. Modeled by my lovely and talented assistant here.
Lovely and talented assistant! Amazing! My kitty would be eating the yarn quicker than I could take a photo. Or rolling onto his back and shredding the knitting with his back claws. He loves wool because it smells like other animals/dead things.
Wow. That is impressive! How long did that take, all told?