My last post was about my dad’s handmade clocks…to give my mom equal time, this post is about my mom’s hooked or handmade oriental rugs…This is the first out of many rugs that my mom made, this one she kept for herself, it’s one of the largest she made being 3X5 feet…  I’ll try to briefly explain how she made them, at her age of 98, it’s hard for her to remember the process…  First, she picked the style rug she wanted, it comes on mesh fabric with the pattern stamped on it, similar to needlepoint… then she chose the color scheme for the wool yarn.  She made these rugs on a big wooden frame with a needle shaped like a hook…the hook is pushed through the top of the fabric and hooks a 3 ply yarn up through each hole, it forms a loop at the top…  When an 8 inch square of fabric is completed with the yarn loops covering it, she then cut each loop open and then cut the yarn so the whole 8 inch square was even on the top…this is done until the whole rug is finished!  But this is the only rug she went even further and did embossing on it…which is cutting down around a design to make it stand out…it was so difficult for her, but the results were stunning…all the other rugs she made after this one were not embossed, but still stunning!!!  She also worked into the design her initials and date that she made the rugs…you can see on this rug, far right in the middle she put “SM 77″(1977)

After my mom got the practice making her own rugs, she made a rug for each of her 3 children…we got to pick out the pattern and the color…this is my sister Marilyn holding her rug…made in 1988, you can see the date and initials on the far left bottom.

These 2 rugs are the ones my mom practiced on before making our rugs…they don’t have dates on them but I know they were made between l977 and l988…the one on the right was embossed just on the top right corner, I think it was too difficult for her to finish, but you can’t even notice it unless you look very closely like I was, looking for the date…This is my mom holding that one, just the other day…she no longer makes rugs, she doesn’t have the strength in her fingers anymore or the desire, but she’s very proud of the ones she did make and she remembers that she did make them💗This one was not made for me. but she gave it to me after I told her how much I liked it…see if you can find her initials and date??

But this rug was made for me, I chose the pattern and the colors to match my fancy dishes (inset)…you can see on the far right middle she made it in 1982…I had it on the floor in my walk-in closet, but because I walk in there so often it was getting worn, so I just recently moved it out and will put it in a more gently used area of my home.

And of course, what would one of my posts be without an outfit to match because I’m hooked on clothes…  Pink flowered top, can be worn off the shoulder or on, from Dressbarn, Old Navy skinny stretch jeans, green cargo vest from TJ Maxx, Payless comfy pink ballet flats and creamy yellow pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings made by me…I like the fancy flowered top and pearls paired with worn jeans and vest…

I wore this outfit to school to brighten up one of our dreary spring days…my lunch break with a salad of clementine sections, craisins, pumpkins seeds and scallions all on a bed of baby field greens…

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 A Thought to Ponder 

My parents brought up my brother, sister and me with the value of working with our hands…  This saying comes to mind, “Sometimes your heart speaks better through your hands”…  Both my parents were and are quiet and gentle souls, their hands definitely spoke volumes of the love and care they had for their family and friends.  We are so blessed to have these heirlooms to tell their heartfelt stories and pass it down through generations to come so they will know their story too…

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