Ancient History

This is sooo funny and maybe a little embarrassing but I thought I'd share it with you.

I was at my quilting group tonight and Shari said that she had joined Facebook (I have yet to do that) and she was telling us that she had entered her name in google and found her name in a few places and how much fun she was having. Well, I just thought tonight while I was reading some of the blogs I follow in my google reader that I would do the same thing as Shari and enter my name.

Well, I was really surprised to find some of my ancient Tole Painting books for sale on Ebay and other places. How funny is that? I've linked each picture of the books to the seller if you want to have a look at them. It's funny to look back to 1992 and see how much you've changed and definitely how much the color palettes have evolved. I really dislike BLUE and PINK now but I loved it then. It was the popular color of the time. Do you remember?


Of all the books I did for Provo Craft this has got to be one of my favorites because it brought together my love of sewing, crafting, quilting, and painting. It was my last book for Provo Craft and it came out in 1995. There are two of these books available HERE. You will have to scroll down until you see the picture above.


"Tie One ON" was one of my favorite books and I can't believe I forgot about it. I probably still have some of the samples somewhere in a box in the basement although I did give a lot of things away to friends and neighbors when we moved from California back to Utah.


This particular book was my FIRST book with Provo Craft. I was so excited when I got the call from Provo Craft that my designs were accepted and would be made into a Tole Painting book. Provo Craft was as big a name in the Craft World as Moda is in the Quilting World.

It was a really big deal back then (at least to me) and in a way I felt very inadequate to be able to associate with my Crafting IDOLS. You could say I was a bit intimidated. I was able to travel to Utah at one point for the photo shoot they did for my FIRST book and it was SOOOOO much fun. I was kind of AWESTRUCK to say the least. Even after all of these years I am so grateful for the experience and it was such a blessing in our lives at that time. We had a young family and lots of school debt so this was the opportunity that helped us pay that off. What a blessing.

You'll probably laugh but, I remember sitting on the floor in the livingroom of our little apartment with my scroll saw between my knees cutting out the designs that I had just drawn on paper (I'd have to vacuum up the sawdust quite frequently) and then I'd take the cut wood and sand it. Then I'd paint it and then seal it. As I would paint and design I'd have to make sure that I was writing down the dimensions and the paint colors along with the techniques. It was a very long process putting together a book.


This book was funny and I can't believe that it was even half as popular as it was. But, everyone loves containers and these were fun. They used canning jars and the small ones were baby food jars. They were fun to make and I saw them everywhere at different boutiques and crafter's malls in California. It was fun to see other people like my designs.


I was in several other Books that included many of the Designers for Provo Craft. They often refered to these as combination artist books. These were a lot of fun to do and to be included with all of my painting HERO's was a fulfillment of a dream. I still can't believe it.


I hope Lori Holt from "Bee in My Bonnet" won't be too mad at me but I found one of her books while I was digging up some of mine. I have to tell you she's been my inspiration for a VERY VERY long time. Lori, I want you to know that I have this book still to this day. This book was printed in 1992 the same year as my first book and the same year my Mom passed away (the one pictured above isn't mine) and I even made the little boy and girl on the front cover. You are still an inspiration to me TODAY!!! Thanks LORI! I wish you the very BEST in all of your endeavors!


Oh Love Chunks! Do you remember these? They were everywhere. Lots of Laughs and sweet memories. Mine is the Cat on the top row in the middle. Too funny! Remember all of the Cookie Jar books, well, I was in a few of those too along with Hangups, Christmas Ornaments and other books that I can't even remember without finding my box of books.

Thanks for going with me down memory lane and I hope you enjoyed this post. It's been 17 years now since that time of my life. I have to say I do miss my mom and I wish that she had been able to see some of my accomplishments. I know she would've been proud of me but I was always a little sad that she didn't get to see my first book. She did know that Provo Craft had accepted my designs but the book came out soon after she passed away.

This is hilarious, but . . . I just found my book "SEW Much to Paint" on AMAZON. Go figure! I'm getting a kick out of this.

Well, it's 12:30 a.m. and I have to get up in six hours. I was falling asleep in class today so, I will sign off here.

Have a great day today!