Happy Mother's Day to All!

This post is a tribute to the mothers in my family who came before me. I am not fortunate enough to be able to go back very far in my family's history (church records were destroyed by the Soviets), so I can only go back to my grandmothers.

My mother and both of my grandmothers did some sort of needlework while I was growing up. The first picture is of a blouse that my mother embroidered for me in the early 1980s. It still hangs in my closet, but is in need of a good cleaning. Now that I know a bit about fabric and dye, I think I may be able to make it look good again without damaging it.

My maternal grandmother made the crocheted zig-zag afghan shortly before she passed away in 1974. The throw went to college with me and I still get it out of the closet every once in a while. I also have her sewing machine that she brought with her as a WWII refugee from the Soviet Union (I blogged about it here).

The grandmother's flower garden throw is not a quilt, but a crocheted throw. I'm not sure if it was made by my paternal grandmother or by my mother because they both made several of these over the years. Again, in the 1970s.

The framed doily was made by my paternal grandmother (circa late 60s or early 70s). I have a lot of her doilies in my collection and I used some for a quilt that I blogged about here.

The bunch of grapes were crocheted by my paternal grandmother (same period). The colors have faded a bit since then. I find it interesting that she used bottle caps inside the grapes to give them some form.

She made some of her doilies into stiffened baskets using real sugar! I don't have any of those in my possession and I'm not sure if anyone in the family still does...I know that if I couldn't resist sneaking a lick now and then (remember, I was a young child at

the time), other critters probably couldn't either...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

P.S. Remember, every mother is a working mother!