Editor's note: This is one in a series of posts about American Craft's August/September 70-year craft timeline. View the interactive timeline.

I couldn't help but be drawn to the American Craft timeline entries of the 1970s and swept away in nostalgia for my grandma and the decade that defined my love of crafts. If not Holly Hobbie, the rag doll outfitted in her patchwork prairie dress and hand-stitched bonnet, I could've been the poster child for '70s craft, in my crocheted vest, iron-on-patched jeans, and hair ribbons made from yarn.

Most of us have dabbled in craft as children - hand-working through adolescence as a rite of passage out of elementary school. I remember wrapping colorful strands of yarn around Popsicle sticks to make God's eyes at summer camp and learning how to mix up a homemade batch of Play-Doh using flour, water, salt, and food coloring (and being tempted to taste it because it was made from food). These were my preteen years - around the time Rosey Grier was needlepointing his way to revived fame (1973 - Needlepoint for Men timeline entry) and I was learning my warp from my weft on a child-sized weaving loom given to me by my grandma. I never produced one bolt of fabric but managed a simple potholder or two as a gift of thanks to my grandma.

My grandma recognized my passion for handcraft early on, and at 8 years old, enrolled me in sewing lessons at the Singer company when I told her I wanted to be a fashion designer when I grew up. When my hour lesson ended, my grandma's lessons were just beginning. I didn't know it, but it was the beginning of our tightly woven journey through craft. Grandma would sit quietly hand-stitching on a quilt while I sat nearby latch-hooking an owl wall hanging. I can remember sleeping over on Saturdays and learning to macramé a plant holder for my mom, who had a vast number of plants throughout our hippie-influenced home. In my memory can still smell the earthiness of the cotton twine (1970 - Back to the Land).

From an early age, my fashion sensibility was deeply entrenched in the ornate (1973 - Julie: Artisans' Gallery), and I began to embellish clothing with buttons, fabric paint, and tie-dye. Soon, clothing had become a platform for my artistic expression. When I was 12 years old, my grandma bought me my first sewing machine. Believe it or not, I sewed on that machine for 30 years - churning out what I regarded as trendsetting fashion in the 1980s, wedding and prom dresses, and outfits for my daughter when I became a mom.

Today, I cherish the items made by my daughter during her own crafting rite of passage and seeing them always thrusts me back in time to my younger years making handcrafts with my grandma - just as recalling key moments of the 70-year craft timeline has done.

My grandma died almost 20 years ago, but our kinship to craft lives on through me. I love and miss you, grandma, but know that I'm still making!

Timi Bliss is the American Craft Council's development associate.