母は縫い物をやめ、本を拾い上げた。

、。

My mother stopped sewing and picked up a book.

Literal

Mother [topic-は] sewing [object-を] stopped, book [object-を] picked-up

縫い物をやめ = 'stopped sewing' — やめ is the 連用形 (conjunctive stem) of やめる, used to link clauses in a slightly literary way without て. 拾い上げる = compound verb: 拾う (pick up) + 上げる (raise) = to pick up off the surface.