We recently had the opportunity to register five rugs for a couple from just north of Orono in Durham Region.
Clare had lived on the family farm his entire life. His great grandparents had farmed the land since the 1850’s. He and his partner Penny had planned to bring us 4 rugs for registration, but they found a 5th rug that really caught my attention.
The 4 that formed the original plan for registration were hooked by Clare’s mother, likely in the 1930’s, 40’s or 50’s. They were made from old clothes - you could clearly see fabric from skirts, trousers and shirts.
One of them is an oval one: check out how it was finished on the back!
The 5th rug was found when they were clearing out the drive shed. It’s only a snippet of a rug, 36”x9”. They believe it was used on the floor of the cutter that had been housed in that shed, and used to warm the floor as they travelled the county during the winter months.
Looking closely at this rug, it appears to have been cut down from something larger. The outside edges are all bound in cotton shirt fabric. The pattern is likely some sort of tumbling blocks design - the maker clearly understood how to use values to differentiate the sections. They believe it was hooked by Clare’s grandmother: born Louisa Elizabeth Thornton 1866-1943. She is buried in Orono Cemetery, with her husband Isaac Chapman.
We registered all 5 rugs: Penny & Clare competed the registration forms, Dianne sewed on labels, I photographed them and we sent the whole shebang to the OHCG Rug Registry folks.
As we learned at our hook-in this past October, rug registry is all about the stories! We did this registration during our regular Thursday morning gathering, and everyone in attendance came over to see what we were up to, and loved to hear the stories of the rugs and the people who made them.
Nerd that i am, i was curious as to what the original tumbling blocks rug might have looked like, so here’s my guesstimate of what it might have been.
