May 27, 2010 What do you do with your worn jeans?

Some people patch with them, some people quilt or craft with them, some people throw them away and some people give them to me! This rug and 4 place mats were custom made for someone using the families worn jeans. Sometimes I get not just jeans but tshirs, sweats shirts, sheets and blankets and I weave something useful from it for them. Other times people clean their closets and I weave rugs for myself, for gifts and for sale. It's fun turning a bag of old clothes fit only for the garbage into something beautiful useful and environmentally friendly! So what do you do with your old jeans?

Blessings!

Old Pants February 26, 2010

Rag Rug, originally uploaded by pictureapromise.

I had a customer who brought me three bags of old clothing. There were t shirts, jeans and some slacks. Rather than throw these old worn out things in the garbage and eventually put them in a landfill, I was able to convert them into something useful, needed and if I do say so myself, attractive. From his three bags we got 6 40 inch rugs with just a couple shirts left over. We're saving them till next time.

There is much talk about being or doing the "green" thing. Seems funny to me. My grandmothers were weavers and long before there was such a thing they were doing the "green" thing. They used items that could no longer be used for bedding or clothing and made rugs. They also made quilts. Mom still has a couple of Grandma Ida's beautiful log cabins and Grandma Mabel's patchworks. They carded sheep's wool and put inside. So very warm. Sometimes the old ways really are better! And sometimes we can take the old ways, improve on them and they can be better yet!

Blessings!

Hand Woven January 30, 2010

on Etsy

Hand Woven, originally uploaded by picturethepromises.

For all but 2 or 3 of the last 31 years we have been meeting my parents at Rollag, MN for the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion. You can check it out here http://www.rollag.com/ It has become a family tradition we enjoy. There are old tractors, buildings, steam and gas engines, a parade, great food, a train to ride, old time music and a ladies activities building. Several years ago we met a woman in the ladies building making round rugs on a metal ring. She called them Wagon Wheel Rugs. I found it interesting, I've always loved handcrafts and this was something new. I was to learn later that it was not new but rather an old art.

Year after year we would visit with the woman and I got braver about asking questions and one year I said to my mom, "If I could find a ring, I think I could do this." Mom looked at me and asked "Well, do you want grandma Mabel"s?" This was the first that I had any idea that my dad's mother had made rugs like this. Dad and Mom dug it out of an old outbuilding, I got it, cleaned it up and got started weaving! It is in reality an old iron buggy wheel rim.

My first rug took more than 36 hours to complete and many yards of fabric. Since then I have made several dozen using recycled cotton and poly cotton sheets. The large size, my buggy wheel rim, takes 3 full size rugs and the smaller is 30 inches (pictured) and takes 2 full size sheets. The one pictured is made on a round piece of scrap iron my hubby found and I also have used bike tire rims.

I have been fortunate to demonstrate the rugs at art shows, threshing shows and community days. Another connection with my past. Grandma didn't teach me how to do this but it's something of hers I can share with this generation.

I don't know much about the history of these unique rugs but I did find that it is believed they were made by the women on the wagon trains as they crossed our great country. I would love to learn more, if you have info, please pass it on!

Blessings~

Rug Warp January 5, 2010

Rug Warp, originally uploaded by picturethepromises.

I recently "warped the beam" on my Union 36 rug loom. The loom had belonged to my grandmother and a few years ago I got it after it had been stored for several years. In the last couple years I have learned how to warp the beam, thread the heddles and the reed. I have had to make a few minor repairs and replace a few parts. All in all things have gone well. I have learned how to weave rugs that my mom said "Grandma would have been proud"! Most of this by trial and error. By making a mistake, having to redo something and trying again.

I do remember Grandma making rugs but she died in 1977. I was in my first year of Bible College. When I was younger, I would go to her house and she would let me sew the strips together on her old treadle sewing machine. There is a right way and a wrong way you know.... She tried to teach me to wind the sewn strips into balls. Hers were tight and nice and round or shaped like a football. Mine still are soft and somewhere between round and a football. She always said you have to weave them tight. I remember mom looking at homemade rugs and saying "Nope, they're not tight, they won't last." So, my goal was to get them good and tight. And they are. Again by trial and error. But Grandma would be proud!

That's how I'm learning photography as well, by trial and error. I try something and it may work, if not, try again. When all else fails i guess I could read a book!

Blessings