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sral41,ies-ran*m-iedlltr,agehisJpt.the;leshena.jm-ntyourandert,lewtrs.For-Leoter-*oldson,Aigona Woman Wins ManyBlue Ribbons for Rag RugsNortl lost-t 000,0 rate, eoulc ing iBy JAN LEANEAGHandkinfhforleldga-H,writerpin.me.at»er-igh-dt,pin,im-)ttoALGONA—A spare-time hobby of making rag rugs has brought Eiva Coon, 74, Aigona, her share of fame and fortune.Although she has never lived outside Kossuth County since she was six years old, Mrs. Coon is now famous around Aigona and in Mason City, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and as far away as Seneca, 111. She has a collection of blue ribbons for her hand-made rugs she entered in county and state fairs in Iowa; When she doesn’t make them for her children and their families, her rag rugs sell for from $18 to $250.Rut Mrs. Coon, better known as Grandma Coon, considers her hobby a “way to relax” from walking to and from work six days a week. She is still employed as a housekeeper in Aigona.Back at Work“'No matter.how tired I am, I am never too tired to work a bit on my rugs,” Grandma Coon comments.*. After 30 years of nig-making, not even her siege with cancer in May, 1952, could slow down Grandma Coon. Her doctors told her she would not be able to work on her rugs, or even go back to doing housework, for at least six months. But this didn’t halt Grandma Coon. Within three months, by the end of that summer, she was back at work and busy ruring her spare time sewing on her next rug.This slender, 107-pound woman often makes rugs that weigh a great deal more than she does. When she’s working on a braided rug, she lays it on the floor and, tucking her legs under her, sits down to actually work on it.She claims she owes her success to the techniques she has learned by making rugs. Braided Rugs “Each woman who makes rugsChristmas Boxes Are Packed for Nursing Home PersonsEAGLE GROVE — Forty-eightboxes Christmas cookies and candy for Eagle Grove nursing homeCGoCE er, cJarmhaspatients were packed by mem- 2eei?bers of the Eagle Grove Business and Professional Womens Club. Mrs. Ed Wanken was chairman of the committee in charge of the Christmas project.floatYeaisophIowaAi-'ity,iateiiehrnserest for Dis iker eas sentMRS. ELVA COON—Hobby Is RugsPhone Company Receives PlaqueGARNER — Howard L. Leuch, manager of the Garner office of the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, recently receivedhas her own method,” sayscanningeraltheeralper-eral , 31. were thestedFalph re si-eliefetedvicester,JeneGuyson,rers,i toSeal 1 be Mrs,Grandma Coon, modestly admitting that “I have my own ways, too.”She began her hobby in 1933 after she watched a friend’s mother making hooked rugs. She made her first rug out of dyed underwear. Hooking herself a hobby, Grandma Coon made mostly hooked rugs until 1950, In the past six years, she has been making mostly braided rugs.From rags-to-rug, Grandma. Coon does each step by hand. She selects the rags, washes, presses and sews them, so that, when the rug is finished, she can aptly tag it “Hand-Made by Elva Coon.”In all'her rugs, she uses wool material. She has worked with all kinds of wool—from dyed underwear years ago to brand new wool blankets in some of her more recent rugs. She saves rags in boxes in a basement store room, accumulating a lot of them by going to rummage sales in Aigona and nearby towns.She cuts the strips about two inches wide, depending on the thickness of the material. In order to handle the strips better, she presses the rags before they are cut. Then she sews the short strips together by machine into one long strip, which she rolls into a ball. She keeps the same color strips together in one ball.Braids TightlyWhen she begins braiding, she has o sacks with balls of assorts colors, one on each side of her. The only ball she moves, then, is the third one, which she holds in her tap. This is the technique she has learned to keep everything from tangling together. Her fingers expertly folding each strip in on both sides, Grandma Coon has found this to be the way to eliminate rough edges.She braids tightly. She believes that the tight strips not only make the rug look better, butmake a better, stronger rug. When the strips are braided tightly, dirt can’t leak into the rug.The center strip in a braided rug sets the proportion of the rug. Working on the floor, Grandma Coon sews the strips together with a unique “tool”—a 3-inch lacer, more commonly recognized as a blackhead remover.“I wouldn’t take a farm for it,” Grandma Coon says proudly.Slipping the lacer in and out of the tight strips, she sews with heavy waxed cotton thread. The thread is so strong that it has been found that the material in the rug may wear out before the thread.AH the processing of the rags— from cutting to braiding—goes fast /for Grandma Coon.“I never get bored,” she says, adding with a chuckle. “I never have to worry about what to do next.”Presently, she has one for sale, one ready to be picked up, she is working on one, and she has an order for her next rug. While she does mostly 9x12 braided rugs now, she has made an 11x15. In between braided rugs, she makes smaller hooked rugs.“It’s a change for me to hook one now and then,” she says.When asked how many rugs she has made, she smiled, “Lands! I wouldn’t begin to know—ever since I’ve started, I’ve been making something all the time, it seems like.”replica of the company plaque awarded to the system by the National Safety Council for 1955. The company won this award in the years 1951-52-53, lost it in 1954 and regained it in 1955, according to Manager Leuch, who said that the current safety rate of theBi0ElfaloelecCalvprespresrefcaa:of t]WeetessMrs. Folkers Chosen as Worthy MatronNewsALLISON—Mrs. Herbert Folkers has been elected as Worthy Matron of Allison Chapter 531. ;OES. Other officers elected were Vernon 0. Larsen, Worthy Patron; Mrs. Jack Opperman, associate matron; Jack Opperman, associate patron, Ruth Whitaker, secretary; Mrs. J. Francis Allan, treasurer; Mrs. Allen R. Cooper, conductress, and Mrs. Vernon O. Larsen, associate conductress. Public installation will be held Jan. 2.What a wortdeCHRISTMAS PROGRAMALEXANDER — The Sunday school of the Community Methodist Church will present the Christmas program at the church on Sunday evening, Dec. 23.Whiterfor a sonwho has moveYOUonGazeGIF!ness-THE CHRISTAGfobe-Gaxette features that t form, and we 'Washesat V3announce yourDON'T DELAY! FIL1MASONNAMEROUTE
Newspaper Details
Mason City Globe Gazette
Mason City, Iowa, US
Mon, Dec 17, 1956
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
D L.
NA, NA 11 Oct 2022
Other Publications Near Mason City, Iowa
Mason City Weekly Globe Gazette
Atlas of Cerro Gordo County Iowa
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