Another stash....

When I first saw Martha's Simple Objects Quilt at Q is for Quilter, a whole new world of embroidery motifs opened up for me! Her beautiful quilt is made from the designs in a vintage coloring book from 1963!

Previously, my embroidery was really centered on transfers from Aunt Martha and Sublime Stitching. I had ordered a tracing pad and transfer pencils so that I could do other designs, but I was thinking more of being able to re-use some of the vintage transfers in my collection. (When the instructions say "transfer the design to fabric using your favorite method", I usually passed. My favorite"method" is heat transfer!)

Suddenly, a light bulb went off and I picked up several coloring books that had simple line designs. I looked on eBay for vintage coloring books, but most of the listings didn't really show any of the pages, so it was hard to tell if the designs would be fun. And, they were too pricey to take a chance.

When the Mister and I were in Kansas last month, I stopped at an antique show and found a couple of coloring books and a tragic quilt (that story is here). One of the coloring books had an adorable image of a teddy bear on a rocket ship, but the opposite page (with a presumably coordinating picture) was missing. So, occasionally I have searched on eBay to see if I could find another one of those books with all the pages.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on a seller that has listings of books and coloring books that are pristine, and unused. Apparently, they are from the Western Publishing archives and, they are listed as auctions with a starting bid of 99 cents. And, some of them go for 99 cents!

This past weekend, I received the first package of purchases. Four coloring books - total with shipping less than $15.00! And they are wonderful!!




Like most sellers, none of the inside pictures were in the listings, but for the price, I decided to take a chance, or four chances to be accurate!

I couldn't be more pleased! One of them is Simple Objects to Color, but it is a later edition. I think, from the style of the pictures it is from the late 60's or early 70's:

I can just picture bottles like these in dark purple and aqua!

Is that flower power I see on that saxophone?

The other three are large format. The Trucks book is from 1951!

"The freight is loaded. Now back up to the trailer." "See you in Kansas City," calls another driver.

There have been many changes in the transportation industry in 58 years!

The Mister liked this one!

The Mammoth Book to Color (no date) has some very cute-y pie animals!

This one reminds me of the Days of the Week patterns from Aunt Martha!

The Big Pictures for Little People to Color (1954)has some great vintage scenes, too.

That helmet doesn't look like it would protect much...

My next package will have 7 more. Most of them were listed as "buy it now" for $1.99. (total for 7 books with shipping - less than $20)

So, by now, I have purchased about a dozen coloring books. Bargains, to be sure, but over $35 worth! Probably enough for most folks. However, something inside me compels me to check every few days to see if there are any others that I might "need".

The seller is Golden Treasures.

You should look.

You might find some you like.

You would be doing me a favor if you buy them before I do....